Xerox Wide Format IJP 2000 User Manual

Xerox® Wide Format IJP 2000

Xerox® Wide Format Variable Information with Xerox® FreeFlow® Design Express

Solution Guide

Table of Contents!

! !

Creating Large Format Signage .......................................................................................................................... 3!

Quick Print Instructions .......................................................................................................................................... 4

The Productivity Pack ..............................................................................................................................................5

Wide Format Signage Application Description ............................................................................................. 6

Variable Data Needs a Data File ........................................................................................................................ 7

How the Application Was Built ............................................................................................................................ 9

Exporting Your Wide Format Signage Application ...................................................................................20

VI on the Fly – Creating Large Format Signage!

Wide format signage conveys information about products, events, organizations, and more. The application can be as simple as

displaying an event name over an image or, as in the application below, can contain variable information such as sale discounts, dates, product images, and related messaging. In a single print run, a delimited data file drives the variable data, meaning that no two signs contain the same dates, sales percentages, messaging, imagery, or QR codes.

This application shows an example in the form of a wide format (30" wide x 40" high) sign.

This document describes how this application was created using Xerox® FreeFlow® Design Express and how you can customize it for your own use.

Quick Print Instructions

To print the application as is to the Xerox® Wide Format IJP 2000, follow the quick print instructions below.

The PDF file for this application is included in the productivity pack and can be printed to the IJP 2000. It contains fliers with dimensions of 30" wide by 40" high (providing you don’t scale or alter proportions with your print driver.) To modify the application, refer to the “How the Application Was Built” section of this document on page 9.

To print the application:

Simply submit the

Otohime_VI_Retail_Cleverlands.pdf

file to the Xerox® Wide Format IJP 2000.

The Productivity Pack

This productivity pack includes a compressed file that contains all the assets necessary to edit and print this application – VIontheflyWideFormatRSign.zip. Keep in mind that the Xerox®

Wide Format IJP 2000 printer must be configured to print 30" by 40" PDF applications in order to output this job correctly.

Pre-requisites:

The productivity packs were designed using the Xerox® FreeFlow® VI Design Express plug-in to Adobe InDesign CS5. To edit the .indd files, you will need access to Adobe InDesign CS5 or above.

You also need the FreeFlow VI Design Express 11.0 (or above) plug-in to Adobe InDesign. If you have an earlier version of FreeFlow VI Design Express, you must upgrade. To upgrade, go to www.xerox.com.

Productivity pack file description:

The EasyStart productivity pack for the VI on the Fly Wide Format Signage application contains the following files:

File Name

Description

Otohime_VI_Data.txt

Delimited data file; four records with variable data

VIontheFly_Wide_Format_Sign.docx

This document

Otohime_VI_Retail_Cleverlands.indd

Adobe® InDesign CS5 file for Wide Format Signage Application

Otohime_VI_Retail_Cleverlands_Start.indd

This Adobe® InDesign file contains just the background elements

Otohime_VI_Retail_Cleverlands.pdf

PDF file for Wide Format Signage Application

Links Folder

Folder containing image* resources used in application

*Note: Images included in this package are licensed for Xerox use only.

Be sure to extract

VIontheflyWideFormatRFlier.zip

to your desktop to a folder called

EasyStart\VIontheFly_WideFormatFlier

Wide Format Signage Application Description

The VI on the Fly Wide Format signage application is designed to print to the Xerox® Wide Format IJP 2000 using a 30" x 40" sheet size. A delimited data file is used to drive the variable elements on each sheet with each record in the delimited data file producing one sign.

The sign was designed using three layers:

• The background layer contains the static elements such as the Xerox tagline. These elements can be in any format Adobe InDesign supports. This particular application uses an EPS and JPG image as well as static circles and text strings.

• The image layer contains the variable images that are placed in the document based on variable conditions referred to as rules. Variable images must use any of the following formats: EPS, JPG, TIFF, or PDF. The variable images displayed in the example above include the images and the static QR code image, which can contain variable content using VI Design Express.

• The text layer contains the fixed or variable text strings, driven by fields in the data file or by rules or transforms created in Xerox® FreeFlow® VI Design Express, which are evaluated during the export of the document. In this application, the sales percentage, the sale date, and the messaging are based on the evaluation of rules and transforms during the export of the document.

Variable Data Needs a Data File

What would a variable data application be without a data file?

The productivity pack includes a demonstration data file called Otohime_VI_Data.txt. Xerox® FreeFlow® VI Design Express supports most types of delimited data formats, including CVS, DAT, and TXT files. (XML support will be introduced in the FreeFlow VI Design Express

12.0 release in 4th Qtr 2013).

FreeFlow VI Design Express cannot extract or query database files to build a delimited data file; you must do your

own database query to produce a flat data file, which can be in any standard format using any standard delimiter character.

During the design of the application, it is suggested that you extract a sample data file of between 5 and 30 records that should be able to exercise all the variable and conditional logic you want to apply to your application. This smaller data file avoids slowing down the design tool, as it has to process through each record when changes are made.

When you are ready to create the production output, select the VI Design PDF Export option. During the export phase, you can point to a larger production data file or continue to use the sample data file. If you select a larger production data file, the field names and the order of those field names must match the sample data file used for the design.

This application uses a text file generated using a text editor. As discussed above, you can use other delimited data formats. Below is a sample of the first few records from the Otohime_VI_Data.txt data file used in the Wide

Format Signage application.

Note: When generating your own delimited file for future applications, it is always best to use field names that mix upper -and lower-case characters. Avoid using one- or two-character field names. Use the underscore character instead of a space character. While those rules apply to naming, data contained in the fields are not restricted by these rules.

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