All you want for Christmas is Xerox FreeFlow Variable Information Suite V17?! If so, Father Christmas has delivered early!
Variable Data Printing (VDP) can be challenging, but even the most complex jobs can be completed more quickly with this software. Add security features – and value – for your customers without wasting precious time.
Print personalisation is something the industry is seeing more of as brands demand high quality, colourful and graphics-rich prints with personalised information, offers and branded content. At the same time, the market requires that data be held securely, and brands are fighting back against fraudsters.
Opportunities for VDP providers
Brands love to augment their transactional documents – think invoices and receipts – with messaging. If a customer’s bought one product, they want to market another in the box with the first. VDP no longer means just names, addresses, transactions; it means:
variable graphics
barcodes and QR codes
security features
personalised packaging
coupons and offers
high-end direct mail
Security and Variable Print
While we often think of names and addresses as sensitive personal data, there are other things to think about: barcodes for gigs, tracking for pharmaceuticals and authenticity for money-off vouchers, for instance. Variable security techniques that come with VI Suite v17 include:
adding security in a single print process, reducing costs; no need for special media, pre-printed stocks and second runs
adding security features within the design, meaning more space for creative design
the ability to add tracking, inventory, serialisation so that customers now prints are genuine
PDF password protection and digital signatures for digital documentation
What is Xerox Specialty Imaging?
Unique to Xerox and FreeFlow VI Suite software is the ability to combine multiple security techniques into a single piece with no special toners or inks and no special stocks (although please check validated stocks for your device).
Combine two or more of the following:
Between them, these can add visual interest as well as security. Some offer hidden text or images visible in certain conditions, e.g. under UV light or when copied. Read on to learn more about each…
What are MicroText Marks?
MicroText Marks are smaller than 1 point. They look like dots to the naked eye but are revealed under a loupe or magnifying glass. When copied, they appear as a line. MicroText Marks are great for security on tickets and fraud-sensitive documents. You can use MicroText Marks on colour, monochrome and highlight colour devices.
What is Pantograph Technology?
Pantograph Technology is used to create hidden words that you can’t see with a naked eye but appear when a document is copied. Every page can be different to make tampering more difficult. Suitable for all kinds of applications, from prescriptions to contractual documents. Again, this works with colour, monochrome and highlight colour devices.
What is a Xerox Fluorescent Mark?
A Xerox Fluorescent Mark is almost impossible to see under normal light and instead appears as a speckled, coloured box. Under a UV or black light, content beneath the box becomes visible. To achieve this effect, you need a colour device.
What is a Xerox InfraRed Mark?
A Xerox InfraRed Mark appears to the naked eye as a speckled, coloured box or strip, a little like the Mark above. The content becomes visible in the dark under an InfraRed camera. A colour device is necessary to create this effect.
What is a Xerox Correlation Mark with Vector Pattern Technology?
A Xerox Correlation Mark with Vector Pattern Technology needs a transparent ‘key’ superimposed over the top (as an overlay) to ‘unlock’ it. It appears to the naked eye as a box with a coloured pattern but when viewed using a unique transparent ‘key,’ additional information is revealed. You can replicate this technique differently on each ticket or document for even greater levels of security. What’s more, you can add two-layer patterns to reveal different messages with different validation keys. You can achieve this with colour, monochrome or highlight colour devices.
How to make robust Variable Design simpler
With an Adobe Creative Suite Plug-In, you can work smoothly between Adobe InDesign and FreeFlow VI Suite, safe in the knowledge that FreeFlow is tailor-made for your Xerox digital press. With a streamlined workflow with drag-and-drop simplicity, you can individualise your designs in a secure but cost-effective and automated manner.
How FreeFlow VI Suite improves efficiency and profitability
FreeFlow VI Suite helps you simplify complex and time-consuming tasks, increasing your production speed and therefore increasing your profitability. It does this by integrating with your design software (Adobe InDesign) and automating composition, print preparation and job processing. Effectively, it’s an all-in-one variable print workflow.
Furthermore, your printed documents can be replicated as PDF files for digital accessibility and routing using eCompose for a hybrid solution: one file, two destinations (print and PDF). Accelerate complex jobs even further with VIPP power through FreeFlow VI Compose on your RIP, which offers an interactive design environment and processing of variable jobs at speeds that keep your device printing at rated speed.
How can Xerox FreeFlow VI Suite be configured?
Xerox FreeFlow VI Suite is a powerful set of tools, but it’s available as a modular product. This means that it’s scalable; you can start smaller and grow your capabilities as you increase complexity, volume or add new applications. Choose from:
VI Design Express
VI Compose
FreeFlow Core
VI Design Pro
VI eCompose
All of the modules benefit from being partnered with Xerox FreeFlow Core. Take, for example, Design Express as a good fit for printers needing ready-to-print PDF/VT files for submission to any printer – manage it all from your desktop. Work right the way up to VI Compose on a RIP or print server for ultra high speed right at the printer.
