Digital printers already have the equipment needed to produce VDP campaigns, so there’s no great expenditure required to begin offering VDP to their clients; all that they need to understand is the software requirements and the workflow digital signature.

From the hardware perspective, a variable data print set-up looks like a lot like any other digital printing installation, with a digital press, a RIP or digital front-end (DFE) to drive it and whatever inline or offline finishing equipment is needed to turn printed sheets into a sellable product. The differences from normal static print are mostly at the file creation and pre-press stages: the two main software components are the database and the authoring software, though VDP also puts some extra demands on the RIP or DFE.

As discussed elsewhere in this series, the printer doesn’t necessarily have to own a database application, as long as the data needed … Read the rest