After several years of extensive development with key industry players, Hybrid Software has announced the commercial release of Variable Data Printing (VDP) for its PackZ PDF editor and CLOUDFLOW workflow suite. These products are being demonstrated concurrently at three major international tradeshows: Labelexpo Americas (Chicago, Illinois), CorrExpo (Indianapolis, Indiana), and Fachpack (Nuremberg, Germany), and are available for immediate delivery.

Guido Van der Schueren, chairman of Hybrid Software, says, “With the rapid adoption of digital presses for labels, cartons, and corrugated boxes, our customers needed a better solution for VDP preparation and output than existing offerings. Our development team stepped up to deliver a solution that is truly revolutionary by leveraging Hybrid’s native PDF technology and our ‘Live Objects’ controls for adding customized content to a PDF file. Our VDP products are applied at the prepress stage, not in the pressroom, and eliminate the up-front template creation that slows down the other VDP solutions available today.”

The VDP Prepare option can be used to turn any PDF package or label design into a VDP design by simply indicating which elements (text, barcodes, images, colors, etc.) are dynamic and linking them to a data source. VDP Prepare displays all iterations of the design and features special tools for quality assurance.  It is included at no charge for all users of PackZ 5.0 and higher. Once the graphics are VDP-ready, the VDP Execute module is used to prepare an optimized PDF file that is ready for digital output. VDP Execute is available for both PackZ and CLOUDFLOW, with different price points based on a customer’s throughput requirements.

Adds Schueren, “Hybrid Software’s VDP tools produce an optimized PDF file that is ready for digital printing, which keeps our customers’ expensive digital presses running and making money, not waiting for VDP files that are generated at the press. This optimized PDF output is device independent and has been extensively tested with the most common digital presses available today. We’re ready to fill the need for a VDP solution for labels and packaging that is both powerful and easy to use.”