Frequently Asked Questions
FAQ Categories:
Speeding Up DesignMerge
1) Faster Computer: The faster the computer, the faster DesignMerge will process. Additionally, a faster hard disk drive (such as a 7200rpm model) can make a tremendous difference in overall performance.
2) Don't Store Files on Your Network: Storing the variable elements and documents on a file server kills performance. Move all documents and required variable elements to a local folder before starting a merge session.
3) Use Variable EPS Files: For variable graphics, EPS files merge much faster than TIFF or JPEG. Converting your variable images into EPS format is sure to improve performance dramatically.
4) Reduce Your Boxes and Frames: DesignMerge performance is relative to the number of QuarkXPress boxes or InDesign frames that are in a document. Reducing the number of boxes in your document (such as boxes on the clipboard, or unnecessary or non-printing boxes) will improve performance.
5) Bring All Pictures to the Front, or Send Them to the Back: In your document layout, bringing all pictures (variable or not) to the front of the document, or sending them all to the back of the document, will improve performance. This is very easy to do in both QuarkXPress and InDesign, and can really improve performance. Note that because of layout constraints, it may not always be possible to modify the Z ordering of the pictures, but if your layout permits it, we highly recommend it.
6) Enable Optimizations: For InDesign users, turn on the "Print Optimization" and "Enable VDP Optimizer" checkbox options that appear on the Options tab of the print driver dialog window. With VDP Optimizer enabled, there will be a slight delay at the start of the session, but the overall performance should be dramatically improved. For QuarkXPress, enable "Image and Form Caching" in the PostScript driver window.
7) "Chunk" Your Job: Use the "Pages per job" or "Page Sets per Job" features on the print driver window to specify a "chunk size" for your output. As an example, setting 250 as the value (for a single page document, in this example) will result in 250 pages of variable data being created. When it is ready, it will be sent to your printer, after which DesignMerge resumes the merge process. This permit parallel processing - the printer gets started, while DesignMerge continues to merge the remaining records.
8) Impose the output on the RIP: by allowing the RIP to handle the imposition of the output from Designmerge, better print processing and merge times will be achieved. If your RIP does not provide imposition tools, then you may of course use the DesignMerge "sequencing" option to create multi-up layouts in the document. To find out whether your RIP unit provides imposition software, please contact the service representative for your printer.
9) Minimize Usage of GroupPictures: Importing GroupPictures involves more processing time. If you are using GroupPictures to swap out entire pages, you may wish to consider using a Page Rule to Apply a Master Page instead.
10) Minimize Usage of XPress and Adobe Tags: In the Variable Link dialog window, there is a checkbox option to run Variable Text through the "XPress Tags" or "InDesign Tags" filter. This allows you to control styling of text as it is being merged, however, this feature may slow performance.
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