Variable data printing on HP Indigo?

Started by wonderings, February 13, 2020, 11:02:54 AM

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wonderings

At the new company I am with we have an HP Indigo. Prints really nice but seems to be missing features I am used to on the smaller digital presses. Ran a Versant 2100 before.

Now I have a variable job, about 5,000 records. I am imposing the merged files and sending it to the printer where it takes a long time. On our Versant I would make a Master page with all static info and then bring in a variable document which would be just the imprinted addresses. Would RIP super quick and be printing in no time. I tried searching for Indigo variable and only came up with an Indesign plugin which does not mimic what I would do simply on the Xerox. Are there any tools to do what I could do before on the Indigo? Or do they not have this functionality in the HP RIP?

pspdfppdfxhd

Maybe you don't have that functionality.

If it doesn't have to go to the rip for any purpose, you might have to do what we do and print the pdf direct to the printer. That saved us a lot of time but we could do it because all the impo, etc. is done before it gets ripped.

We had all the full functionality on our old machine and the newer one we purchased had nothing. What a pain in the ass for prepress prep. I must tell you.



David

If you are running Smartstream Designer, it has variable data function built in. You use it in a similar fashion as InDesign, it has text fields, image fields, etc.
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born2print

We also make imposed pdfs which are then sent to the Indigo
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DPSprint

We do the same on our indigo, there doesnt seem to be a way around it that I have found yet, and yes it can take hours to rip. We will often send it off before we leave for the day and it will be ripped in the morning.
We have done data up to 30,000 sheets, and at times i have just split the files to get it ripped quicker.

so if anyone comes up with ideas, that dont involve buying extra software as its not something we do a lot of these days.
Most our variable data is less than 1000 at present since we stopped doing the biggies.

DigiCorn

Not familiar with the Indigo frontend. We had one at Dome, but at the time I was working there the Indigo was physically at a different location so I never interacted directly with it. CWS has the master/imprint option.
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