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VIPP Pro Publisher
This week, Xerox announced the release of VIPP Pro Publisher at OnDemand. Originally announced last September at GraphExpo, VIPP Pro Publisher is now available. This VDP software product plugs-in to Adobe InDesign, but before you roll your eyes and say "oh no, not another VDP InDesign plug-in!", it's important to understand how this plug-in works in comparison to other VDP software products that also use InDesign, such as uDirect, Darwin, DesignMerge, InData and several others.
But first, you need to understand what VIPP is all about. Developed by Xerox, VIPP, or Variable Information Production Printware (formerly 'Variable Information PostScript Printware') is a PostScript-based variable information language designed to take advantage of the powerful programming features of PostScript, as well as address the limitations of PostScript in VDP applications.
With VIPP commands, VDP applications can remain independent of PostScript, since VIPP can use higher level PostScript operators. They provide support for common VDP application requirements, including data-driven graphics and text commands for text highlighting and reflow across multiple frames, including pages. VIPP can also process native data streams from legacy (line data) to XML, enabling independent data production and VDP application design. As a result, VIPP application resource files can be packaged as VIPP project container (VPC) files and loaded on the RIP, where the raw data file can be sent to the RIP to trigger document composition and production.
Although many VDP software products offer support for VIPP, including uDirect, Darwin, PrintShop Mail and others, only a few products take advantage of VIPP's interpreter-level composition model and "just send the data" workflow. Other VDP software products use their own composition engine or page layout software to compose the document and only use a handful of VIPP commands (such as form object caching). Xerox refer to this pre-composition and object caching workflow as 'VIPP SE', while in-RIP composition workflows are referred to as 'VIPP PRO'.
Until now, the only products that have provided support for VIPP PRO are Lytrod Designer, Xerox FreeFlow VI Designer and Elixir Vitesse. While all these products are very powerful and support the majority, if not all VIPP commands, they vary in complexity, price and all use their own proprietary design environment. Xerox realised that in order to enable VIPP PRO in a graphic arts environment, they needed to build a VIPP PRO emitter on top of an industry-standard page layout software. Hence the birth of VIPP Pro Publisher.
From a feature perspective, Xerox appear to have used uDirect as a feature benchmark, as VIPP Pro Publisher includes many popular uDirect features including support for styles, visibility, effects (e.g. drop shadows), along with data source formats .txt, .csv, .xls and .mdb.
Similar to uDirect, VIPP Pro Publisher is available for both Mac and Windows, and Xerox will also offer a trial version on their Web site (available from tomorrow). Pricing is also identical to uDirect Standard, at US$2,500.
So, which do I choose? uDirect or VIPP Pro Publisher? With so many similarities between these two Xerox products (XMPie is a Xerox Business Unit), I suspect many Xerox customers will be asking this very question. The key thing to remember is that while the products may offer a similar feature set, they cater for very different VDP workflows. uDirect uses InDesign for page composition, therefore every object on your InDesign document page will appear exactly as you see on-screen. VIPP Pro Publisher, however, creates a template file representing page objects, then the RIP dynamically composes each record using the tempate. The RIP isn't using the same paragraph composer as InDesign, so paragraphs may flow differently and there may be a few other subtle differences between what you see on screen versus what's printed.
That said, a VIPP PRO workflow is better suited for applications where the same jobs are constantly reprinted using different data. As the VIPP project is already loaded on the RIP, all the user needs to do is "just send the data" file to the RIP, triggering document composition. In turn, this enables page composition at very high speeds, typically several thousand records in just a few minutes. In addition, VIPP Pro Publisher can take advantage of other VIPP commands, such as the ability to support Specialty Imaging.
I apologise for my thesis, but it's really important to understand that VIPP Pro Publisher isn't just another InDesign plug-in. When investing in VDP software, you need to first look at your intended VDP applications and workflow, then pick the right tool for the job. Purchasing VDP software is like buying a pair of shoes—one size does not fit all.
Posted on Friday, 7 March 2008 at 12:43 AM | TrackBack: http://www.veedeepee.com/cgi-bin/mt-tb.cgi/96