Personalized Print Markup Language suffers growing pains as different 'standards' compete.PPML (Personalized Print Markup Language) was developed by the digital-printing industry group PODi to create an industry standard language for high-speed production of reusable page content. Early into its conception, PPML was billed as a 'lingua franca' for VDP (variable-data printing) jobs.
"PPML is a vendor-neutral, royalty free page definition language for delivery of content to a digital printing device," Carolyn Valiquette, general manager of PODi, the Digital Printing Initiative, wrote in an e-mail interview. "It was created in order to foster the adoption and use of digital-printing technology."
So far, PPML has fostered the adoption of digital-printing technology, especially the practice of VDP. VDP, which is known as one-to-one marketing, personalization and database marketing, uses a digital press to pull together content (graphics, text and layouts) stored in a database and in a template to create personalized documents. Like a supercharged mail-merge feature found in word processing applications, it is widely used for transactional printing such as utility bills and credit-card statements. Business publishers create personalized direct mail that can generate response rates many times that over static pieces because they are more relevant to the consumer.
But like all new standards, PPML—and consequently VDP—is experiencing growing pains. And some critics, such as Frank Romano, professor emeritus at RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology) argue that PPML could have been a much better standard had there been user feedback and participation.
What does JDF mean for your business? Click here to read more.
"VDP still represents less than 10 percent of all digital printing and digital printing is 10 percent of all reproduction," Romano wrote in an e-mail interview.
"The objective in a variable data printing standard was to have users save a file with the database or template in one file so it could be communicated to any digital printer," Romano wrote in an e-mail interview. This is important because digital printers all have unique front ends and most variable data printing programs are linked to that front end.
But, because PPML was developed by a group of vendors with "no real participation by users or others," the result is a group of loose XML, and the output can't be proofed easily.
"We spoke of VDP in 1993 and it has been held back because there was no standard," Romano wrote.
Next Page: Multiple VDP languages vie for the spotlight
VDP languages
Publishers may have first heard of PPML last spring, when Quark Inc. announced new database-publishing features in the upcoming release of QuarkXPress 7. The addition of database-publishing features to the popular page-layout application will expose VDP to a much wider audience, and garner PPML more attention.
Printing technology makes personalized magazine covers possible. Click here to read more.
As more publishers explore variable data printing and realize the benefits of personalized print communications, they will seek out tools and technologies that will make these sophisticated documents output better, faster and cheaper.
To accomplish this digital sleight-of-hand, graphic arts vendors have created a number of variable data-printing languages so VDP software can communicate with their digital-production devices including:
- Fiery FreeForm from EFI.
- IPDS (Intelligent Printer Data Streams) from IBM Corp.
- VIPP (Variable data Intelligent PostScript Printware) from Xerox Corp.
- VPS (Variable Print Specification) from Creo Inc.
Typically, these proprietary VDP languages can only be understood by the company's digital-production devices. To get around this problem, variable data publishing software manufacturers offer to output in a number of different languages. For example, variable data-publishing software PersonalEffect by XMPie outputs multiple formats including PDF, VPS, PPML, VIPP, PPML/VDX and PostScript.
PPML, based on XML, could be the unifying specification that prevents publishers from having to jump through hoops and match their software to a printers' hardware. Using PPML could prevent interoperability problems and perhaps save resources by focusing on supporting and developing one standard.
Growing pains
Unfortunately, all is not well with PPML.
"PPML started out as a good idea," Romano wrote, "but it was done badly." Some components of PPML, however, are doing very well.
PPML/VDX (Variable Data Exchange) is based on a subset of PPML and is a competing standard. Created by the CGATS (Committee for Graphic Arts Technologies Standards), it is described as a page-content format.
Romano e-mailed that CGATS, a standards committee accredited by the ANSI (American National Standards Institute), a committee that was representative of the industry. They put PPML inside PDF and created PPML/VDX. It is now an international standard—approved by people from all over the world."
"VDX is efficient and can be proofed. Like PDF/X-1a, it restricts certain actions and thus works very well," Romano wrote.
While there may be some issues with variable data printing languages to quell, Romano e-mailed that publishers shouldn't worry. "In most cases the publisher may never deal with such programs—their printers will."
