Bridge tower construction of the hottest digital p

Bridge tower of the digital printing market

podi - what are the uses of famous hardware and software vendors in 19? The alliance formed in 1996 aims to promote and develop digital printing. After several years of research on the promotion of digital short print, it is found that traditional commercial printers are also willing to break the boundaries of their printing services and join the short print market. With the advent of the digital printing era, Podi alliance has focused its work on new market needs

what is the real obstacle of digital printing? What obstacles can Podi overcome to promote the development of digital printing industry? The survey found that various software and hardware businesses have their own standards for variable data printing. Once the user selects a set of variable data printing system, it can only be limited to this set of system standards. Customers of variable printing can only choose from the solutions of Xeikon, Scitex and Xerox. It is very difficult to make changes between digital printers or software providers. Each company's own specialized solutions hinder its recognition in the market. Podi decided to devote its efforts to variable data printing and devote itself to building a standard for variable data printing

Podi proposes to establish standards that can be applied to digital printing data. For example, in the past year, if variable data printing customers need to print a batch of personalized emails, first of all, the printing customers should not be faced with the problem of which system to choose to work. The work required is to design personalized emails, and then they can be printed on various variable data printing systems

what is PPML

ppml is the abbreviation of personalized print markup language, that is, personalized print markup language. PPML is considered to be Podi's biggest contribution to digital printing so far

before PPML, variable data documents before printing tend to have bottlenecks at Rip (raster image processor), because the speed of the printing engine lags behind the speed of rip processing jobs. Hardware and software vendors' own special solutions may solve this problem, but such solutions are incompatible. Variable data printing jobs can only be printed and output on a specific printing engine. PPML provides an open and generalized standard. Once the objects and data are processed by rip, the standard will store them, so the objects and data after Rip can be reused, so the work speed can be greatly accelerated

PPML has created a standard for all digital printing solution providers. PPML works like a cache on a web browser. The cache can store reusable objects, so the web browser does not have to return to the server to download every time the end user needs it. In the same way, PPML makes digital printing software work like a browser. You can reuse the images previously processed by RIP without repeatedly downloading images. PPML supporting applications provide many functions, including storing reusable background images, trademarks, photos, images and other elements, which are stored in the hard disk. PPML supporting documents, as the heart file of the host, become cross platform documents, which can be processed on different application software and printing engine, which greatly facilitates printing customers who need variable data printing

postscript plays little role in variable data because it is a page description language (even if PPML files can reference postscript objects, PDF, tiff, etc.). Languages not used in printing, such as PCL and AFP, cannot define or reuse high-quality images, especially color images. PPML defines the page content in the object, which makes it unnecessary to send the whole page content to rip. For software that supports PPML, objects after Rip can be stored and reused at any time. PPML provides a way to describe variable data documents, so that printers can better use the elements processed by rip in their production process; The connection between PPML supported software and variable data printing customers occurs in the following aspects:

1) digital printers can repeat printing without affecting the printing speed by storing the entire directory of images at one time

2) four color documents and documents containing many images can be assembled and printed at full speed

3) now, some variable data printing systems are slow in printing the background image of each page, because the background image must be downloaded again for each page. PPML can send the background image to the printing place at one time

4) the trademark and product image database can be stored on a web printer and can be printed immediately in any software that supports PPML

support from members

Podi has 550 engineers in 35 countries, and 275 companies need PPML standard specifications. By opening up the field of standards, we can obtain broader R & D support

EFI's rip has fully supported PPML. Furthermore, PPML will not be limited to rip of high-speed printing press. Last year, EFI first supported PPML on rip of color printing machines with printing speed of 12 ~ 60ppm, enabling more printing machines to print large variable data printing live parts. Because PPML is based on XML (Extensible Markup Language) language, and XML has been used to generate variable pages on the web, printing personalization will develop rapidly, because network advertising and network marketers already know how to use personalized printed matter to advertise, and also realize the advantages of personalized printing. However, PPML has only a short history after all, and it will take some time for it to be widely adopted by the whole industry

ibm printing systems believes that PPML will have a huge impact on the color printing market. PPML will be supported in the AFP software of IBM printing systems, which is used for variable data printing such as printing books, equipment manuals and insurance manuals. In the past few years, color postsript variable data printing has become possible. Input and output bottlenecks hindered the first generation of digital printers, especially when there are a large number of variable content images in printing activities

in the short print market, although digital printing has a good start, the printing volume of the first generation of variable data printers is about 500, so it is very important to develop variable data printers such as IBM infoprint 130 plus. Infoprint 130 plus will add PPML format to the front-end postscript rip. Now, we can see many successful variable data printing applications, and the future of variable data printing is very optimistic

Xeikon is another company that supports PPML and is also one of the major companies that adopt the new standards. The company's Xeikon CSP 320-d sheet fed printer uses emerge full support for PPML input. Xeikon is also the first company to support PPML with rip, providing private-i solution, which is a bundled product from Atlas software company; Xeikon also supports MPOWER and persona of pageflex and design merge of meadows information systems, which is a quark plug-in. These software tools all support PPML. The upcoming printshop mail4.2 will also include private-i and printshop mail, and will also support PPML

Xeikon has also developed a browser to enable PPML software developers to ensure that the developed PPML effectively supports Xeikon's engine and front end. With the entry of PPML into advertising companies, printing companies and prepress companies, these companies can make variable data jobs. The task of printers is just to input the prepared documents and then press the button. In the past, many tasks belonged to the printing staff, but now the printing customer can give the printing staff a CD with documents, and then it is as simple as printing a PDF file

nexpress digital printer also integrates PPML into its functions. The nExpress 2100 digital prodsolution color press printer supports PPML, which appears on print 2001. However, their respective solutions limit the development of variable data printing. The company is looking forward to the further development of variable data printing standards and an open solution for variable data printing, including file exchange. In addition to cooperating with Podi in formulating standards, nExpress also cooperates with CGATS (CGATS is a standard organization of NPES, which is developing a variable data exchange format to make it easier for variable data to exchange produced documents in various production systems, so that variable data can be independent of the platform and interoperable, just like today's traditional printing operations)

now, some variable data printing solutions are very open, and can integrate some tools that could not be integrated in the past, such as ICC Color Management, PDF for logo, JDF worksheet organized by CIP4, and PPML of Podi now. The constantly improving tools have put traditional and digital printing in an open environment

response of software companies

atlas software company supports PPML output in its software printshop mail, becoming the first software development company to support PPML output. Printshop software has sold 6000 sets of products worldwide. At first, only the Mac version supporting PPML was available, and the Windows version was launched in June 2001. The biggest advantages of printshop mail software are: ① easy to use drag and drop function; ② Both Mac and PC versions are available; ③ It can interface with many databases and typesetting software; ④ One time rip processing of common objects. Now this software is bound to the fiery velocity design and nExpress digital printing machines of EFI company, which will cause wear and scratches on the surface of some parts. The powerful function of PPML enables our driver software to support 6 or more devices

pageflex initially cooperated with digital printer manufacturers to support some popular output formats, including postscript, indigo jlyt, Agfa intellicache and Scitex VPS. The developers of pageflex have advocated to promote the development of PPML since the emergence of PPML, and showed their cooperative products with adobe, Agfa, EFI and Xeikon on drupa

adobe showed PPML supporting products on drupa, but Adobe cautiously believes that the success of PPML depends on the emergence of more tools and the participation of software vendors in the formulation of PPML standards. Because variable data is very complex, complex financial investment data documents are generated from simple equipment list data. It is difficult for PPML to work effectively in all software

although PPML has been highly valued by Podi and its member companies, Podi also pays great attention to market development. As a major advantage of digital printing, Podi, which initially focused on short version digital printing, has changed a lot. With the increasing complexity of digital printing, the market share of digital printing is becoming more and more difficult to measure. The market share of variable data printing is also changing, including direct mail printing, marketing information, bills and invoices, personalized poker and wall calendar, etc