Variable Power Sequence

How did Xerox and XMPie, (now a standalone software unit within Xerox) manage to get this complex, variable-imaging project off the launching pad and into your mailbox before the end of December? The static rocket graphic is brought to life by way of several software applications. Far from merely personalizing names on address labels, this is variable imaging with a high level of complexity, so-called “fourth-tier” customization.

The uImage add-on to XMPie’s PersonalEffect software was used to produce and integrate image-personalization effects on the rocket and in the stars. Although they may seem like text, these are actually art elements tied to the imagery. uImage uses templates from Adobe CS2 Photoshop and/or Illustrator to produce personalized images and graphics that are tagged to the subscriber database, then merged and integrated via PersonalEffect.

Alien Skin’s Splat software, a Photoshop plug-in, was used to develop filters to make the star lettering appear more realistic. (XMPie’s flexibility permits the integration of off-the-shelf programs, such as Splat.) Personal Effect v.3.0, released earlier this year, is the latest InDesign Server version featuring integrated functionality within the uProduce production server.

Together with uProduce, the suite’s two other components integrated the business rules, data and design of the printed piece: uPlan established the business rules, while uCreate applied the logic—in the form of variable fields within the native InDesign environment—to the address block section and the response URL layout near the bottom.

Xerox’s FreeFlow Variable-data Intelligent PostScript Printware (VIPP) was used to RIP the job. The open language can cache and reuse common image elements, avoiding re-RIPping to save considerable time on a complex job like this one, with over 80 gigabytes in variable assets and 1,500 record “chunks” required to manage the print stream, according to Michael Riebesehl, iGen3 project manager for Xerox. To truly customize the cover for each of GAM’s 74,000 recipients, required about 50 hours of RIP time—and another 50 hours of press time.

The covers were digitally produced one-up on 12×18´´ sheets of Xerox Digital Color Elite Gloss 80-lb. Cover, a paper that features 94 brightness. The iGen3 Digital Production Press builds one image on top of another using a common photo receptor. Riebesehl attributes the vibrant color and saturated black background to this third-generation imaging technology. “We were very pleased with the cover and the greater-than-SWOP black density,” he says, adding that Xerox “even received great feedback from Heidelberg on the back cover [ad].”

This issue of GAM was mailed in a polybag with a custom-published supplement, so no UV coating was needed to protect the piece through the bindery and mailstream. Inline coating is available, as Xerox partnered with Epic Products International in mid-2005 to attach its CTi-635 system to iGen3 110 and 90 models. Similar to systems used on offset presses, Epic’s proprietary CoatTech Anilox Coating Technology is available in glossy and matte finishes.