Lytrod Software is known for powerful template based variable design software. Our customers have been asking for not just design, but composition as well.  After extensive development, Lytrod Software announces a PDF composition engine like no other. Over 25 years in the forms and variable document design industry come together with the announcement of…VisionDP!

VisionDP is a standalone variable document design tool and composition engine for all of your Variable Data Printing (VDP) applications – from personalized to transactional. VisionDP creates optimized PDF in record time, without the need for a third party composition engine. VisionDP is based on Lytrod Software’s award winning Designer platform, which supports the most extensive VI composition language in the industry, but it doesn’t end there.  In addition to design and composition, VisionDP includes document workflow features from data driven “lights out” composition, to PDF splitting and job deployment (archive, email, print).  

Let’s Get Started! To get you going, Lytrod is offering VisionDP QuickStart50 for $995. You can create as many design projects and pre-flight (watermarked) PDFs as you like.  When you’re ready for production, QuickStart50 provides output for up to 50,000 records. Or purchase a full license with unlimited record processing for $3,330.

For more information on how VisionDP can improve and simplify your PDF workflow, contact sales@lytrod.com

To recieve your very own personalized VDP idea cards each month, sign up here! http://lytrod.com/publications/backtobasics/onlineorder/

Barcodes are everywhere.  Used in product packaging, transportation documents, medical forms, document management, etc., their usage has come a long way since the first barcode was developed over 60 years ago.  A typical usage of them is placing a PostNet barcode containing the postal zip-code below the mailing address on a business letter. When using Lytrod Software, there is no need to purchase extra software to produce Barcodes, saving on additional costs and processing time.  

Two easy steps are used to define and implement a barcode into the design of your form using Lytrod Designer software:

1. Define a Variable Field that contains the data that is to be printed as a barcode and choose the appropriate barcode transform type (2of5, Code39, Code128, PostNet, UPCA, EAN8, etc.).
2. Place the variable onto the page and choose the appropriate barcode font and size.

It’s that simple!

For Example: If a field in your data is called ZipCode, define a new variable using this ZipCode field and apply the PostNet transform to it.  Place this new variable at the desired location on the form; choose a PostNet font (Designer provides the WASP POSTNET font) and a size of 10 points.

Follow the same steps to apply a Code39, Code128, EAN, 2 of 5 or UPC-A barcode.  The only difference is choosing the appropriate transform from the drop down menu.

Are you effectively using ALL of the capabilities in your Lytrod Software Designer?  Make sure your print shop is getting more of the VDP pie!  Often our customer’s purchase our products with a specific application in mind, for example personalized letters. What about your transactional print? How are your company reports and invoicing being created?  How are you handling the changing postal requirements such as variable Intelligent Mail barcodes? What about e-Fulfillment?  You need business graphs? QR Codes?  Did you know you can do all of this and more without altering your data workflow!

Whether you need variable information put on a business letter, variable graphs based on customer information placed on billing documents, variable QR codes embedded with event saving information on your Event announcements, to anything else you could possibly think of that has VARIABLE information, Lytrod Software is the right tool for you.

Learn how to grow your business with Lytrod Software’s VDP Application Kit. You can download the Application Overview Booklet −− chock full of VDP ideas, tips and tricks, design hints and video links. Contact us at sales@lytrod.com to schedule a webinar workshop and receive your own application kit so you can get your piece of the VDP pie!

After installing Lytrod Software’s Designer onto your Windows7/Vista PC, Windows’ User Account Controls (UAC) must be disabled before Designer can run. UAC is Microsoft’s security mechanism which limits a program from doing certain actions that may be harmful to the PC. For example, Designer is prevented from: changing the System registry (which stores program history, user preferences, etc.), file renaming, file deleting, etc. any of which effectively prevents Designer from functioning properly.  

To disable UAC:
  

• Open the Windows Control Panel.
  
• From the Control Panel screen, click on User Accounts.
  
• In the column which is titled: Make changes to your user account, click on: Change User Account Control settings.

Move the slider on the left to its bottom-most position, at the level: Never Notify.
  

Click OK and you will now be able to start up your Designer software.  

Enabling LPR on Windows7 64 bit version
  

The Windows LPR tool, which copies files to printers, is not enabled to be run with some software in the 64 bit version of Windows7.
  

LPR is used by the Designer software for two purposes:
  

• By clicking on the LPR… button on the job tree, Designer uses LPR to download a data file to a VIPP queue on the FreeFlow Server.
  
• Submitting a VIPP application to FreeFlow VI PDF Originator (now called FreeFlow VI eCompose) is done through the use of LPR.
  

While LPR can always be run from a DOS prompt, to use this tool from within 32 bit software, like Designer, requires some changes to Windows7. The Lytrod Software Support team found that by copying a few files to a different location within the Windows folder, the LPR tool seemed to function properly. While this method worked for our Support team, it is not something that is endorsed by MicroSoft, and may not work in the future. It consists of copying the lpr.exe, lprhelp.dll and lprmonui.dll files from C:\Windows\System32 to C:\Windows\SysWOW64. Another solution would be to exchange your 64 bit Windows7 for the 32 bit version.  

Feel free to contact us if you have any questions: support@lytrod.com.
 

AARP was looking for a way to replace a time consuming process of printing address labels using Microsoft Word and manually placing these labels on preprinted shells. They found Lytrod Software’s Variable Data Print (VDP) solution that allowed them to personalize their entire campaign.

AARP’s solution consisted of:

• Lytrod Software Proform Designer
• FreeFlow VI Interpreter (VIPP)
• FreeFlow Print Server
• Xerox iGen3

The initial expectation was to place address blocks onto static image backgrounds to meet short print windows and postal standards. With Lytrod Software’s Proform Designer and Xerox’s FreeFlow VI Interpreter, AARP was able to change their campaign to be significantly more personalized resulting in adding conditional images based on targeted ethnic groups and variable messages dependent on the “readiness” of retirees.

After an initial campaign of over 1 million pieces, AARP’s new solution was proven to be so successful that AARP created two follow-up campaign mailers that not only included variable text and images, but also included a scannable account number to expedite in-house processing.

AARP’s In-Plant has seen a substantial cost savings and turn-around time for jobs has decreased significantly. In one case, what used to take 4 days to print now prints in less than 7 hours! AARP’s print volumes grew so much in 2010 that they purchased two additional Xerox iGen4s.

Afraid of getting started with variable data?

Lytrod Software Desktop Designer, with an entry cost of under $5,000, supports all entry production and production printers. With the Xerox announcement of FreeFlow VI Compose Open Edition, Desktop Designer enables VDP printing throughout your enterprise!

Prefer a PDF workflow? Lytrod Software Proform Designer and FreeFlow VI eCompose will bring a single workflow to both print and PDF, including PDF automation such as archival, storage and customized email – all in a “lights out” operation.

Lytrod Software’s 25 years of VDP experience can help you eliminate complex and expensive graphic arts workflows, freeing your staff to get to the work of printing, not prepress.

All it takes is three easy steps:

Since it’s been a few years since the last name change for Xerox’s XGF/VIPP/FreeFlow VI products, it’s about time for a new set of names!!! Find the old and new names below: 

Free Fonts 

Nothing is better than FREE, right? Xerox is now providing – at no cost – Specialty Imaging and Barcode fonts, tuned for usage in FreeFlow VI Compose, that you can download at the link: http://www.support.xerox.com/support/variable-information-suite/software/enus.html. Specialty Imaging is a Xerox technology for adding security to documents. Of the five technologies available, three are font based:

• MicroText is a set of fonts so small that magnification is needed to view the text
• GlossMark prints text that appears glossy under inclined illumination
• Correlation Mark prints text that only appears when superimposed by a “decoder” transparency

Each set of fonts is provided as a zipped file, with the Correlation fonts in separate zip files organized by their styles (Regular, Italic, Bold and Bold-Italic). Various size fonts are provided, giving you flexibility in their usage.    

The other two technologies are also available at no cost when using FreeFlow v10.0, and they include:    

• Fluorescent Effect requires a UV light to view the hidden text
• Infrared Effect requires an infrared light to view the hidden text

The barcode fonts include:    

• MB010 – UPC-A Condensed
• MB015 – Code39
• MB021 – Code128
• MB027 – Interleaved 2 of 5
• MB028 – Interleaved 2 of 5 Condensed Tall
• MB031 – MSI
• MB034 – UPC-A
• MB038 – UPC-E Captioned
• MB039 – Codabar
• MB040 – EAN Captioned
• MB041 – PostNet (with Business Reply Mail logo)
• MB042 – FIM (Facing Identification Mark) Postal Marks
• MB043 – PostNet
• MB045 – PostNet (bold)
• MB046 – Interleaved 2 of 5 Condensed

 For more information on how Lytrod Software enables you to easily design your documents with Specialty Imaging security features, visit our solutions page.

QR Code 2D barcodes are most commonly used for quickly accessing URLs, however, these barcodes have the ability to launch a wide variety of mobile applications that are not limited to an Internet browser. For instance, data containing the variable Event Name, Date, and Time information can be formatted into a Calendar QR Code. When scanned, the QR Code launches the calendar application within your phone, saving the event’s information. With the easy to use QR Code template menus, you simply choose the predefined data fields that you would like to be contained within the QR Code and click “OK”.  

QR Code Calendar Start/End Date Field Metrics

The Designer software QR Code Calendar template supports Start & End Date/Time, either predefined or variable. Designer automatically generates static dates in the QR Code 16 character format. If the date and times are variable, the date layout must conform to the following:  

Positioning Column Numbers:

These data fields (Date Start and Date End) must be 16 digits in length, so every sub-field must be preceded with zero digits where appropriate. For example: Year must be in a 4 digit format, Month must have value of 01 – 12, and Day must have value of 01 – 31. Time is defined in a 24 hour clock based on Universal Time Coordinated (UTC), so Hour has values in range 00 – 23, Minutes and Seconds with values of 00 – 59.  

Example of Variable Date/Time Field for May 18^th, 2012 3:00 PM.   

Date_Start:
20120518T150000Z

When using the 16 digit positioning, the 9^th position must contain the letter T and the 16^th position must contain the letter Z.  

Concatenated Field Option:

Another option is to define a Concatenated Field in the Designer Software, using Text Variables for each of the sub-fields, as shown below.  

Assuming the data contains the following fields: Year, Month, Day, Hour and Minute. Define the following Text Variables:  

• TYear referencing field Year of length 4.
• TMonth referencing field Month of length 2.
• TDay referencing field Day of length 2.
• THour referencing field Hour of length 2.
• TMinute referencing field Minute of length 2.

Define Concatenated variable StartDate as follows:  

$$TYear.$$TMonth.$$TDay.T$$THour.$$TMinute.00Z  

This variable StartDate can now be used as the Starting Date in the Calendar QR Code template.  

What type of forms can benefit from Calendar QR Codes?

Calendar QR Codes are beneficial on any Event Specific form and for ANY industry, for example:

In addition to the new enhancements added to Build 77 for all Designer products, a few capabilities that were previously exclusive to Proform Designer have been added to DeskTop Designer.  With Xerox’s release of version 10 of FreeFlow VI, which provides Specialty Imaging fonts for no charge to anybody with a VIPP license, it made sense for Lytrod Software to provide Specialty Imaging capabilities to our DeskTop Designer customers as well.  Support for Clear Dry Ink on Xerox’s 800/1000 Color Presses was also added to DeskTop Designer.

What is Specialty Imaging?

Specialty Imaging (SI) is offered through five technologies that can be printed on a document without using any special inks or post processing equipment, each providing a different aspect of security.  The five technologies are:

• MicroText: Deter fraud on security-sensitive documents by using virtually invisible text.  The text is so small it can only be read under magnification and blurs when copied.  Make your documents even more secure by adding variable information in the MicroText.
• GlossMark Text: Enhance document text such that the content is not visible in a straight-on view, but becomes visible as gloss under inclined illumination.  For added security, Glossmark® Text cannot be reproduced with even the best copiers or scanners.
• Correlation Text: Protect sensitive variable text in a way that the content is not visible unless it is superimposed by a “decoder” transparency.  Perfect for legal documents and educational exams to assure authenticity and to embed “hidden” information.  An optional 2^nd layer with additional text/data may be defined which is exposed when the decoder transparency is rotated 90 degrees.
• Fluorescent Effect: Print text/variables so that the content is virtually invisible under normal light but becomes visible under UV light.  Perfect for tickets, identification cards and other security sensitive documents.
• Infrared Effect:  To the naked eye, Infrared Text looks like a text box with a dotted background, Text becomes visible under Infrared light.  An optional 2^nd text layer can be enabled that shows text but which disappears under infrared light, showing the hidden text/data.

High value documents should have one or more of these technologies placed on them to prevent forgeries and modifications from being made.

What is Clear Dry Ink?

Clear Dry Ink (CDI) is an optional 5^th toner housing for the Xerox 800/1000 Color Press.  This provides a gloss effect that can be applied to the entire page, over an image, or to individual form elements (lines, boxes, fills, circles, paths, text) on the page.  Placing a spot of CDI over an image that should be shiny adds incredible depth to the image.  Adding a simple concept to the background of your document, like a checkerboard pattern in CDI, produces a nice effect to your documents never before possible.  If security is required on your page, CDI effects prevents photocopying of your high value documents.

Every month or so Lytrod Software comes out with a software update in the form of a new Build that enables you, the customer, to have access to new features, bug fixes, and updates. You can review the list of everything that has been updated/added since the last release in the familiar little box that pops up when a new Build Release becomes available. Be sure to review the list as it may quite possibly contain a new or upgraded feature that you didn’t even realize you needed but that will bring added value to your application and workflow!

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With the Designer Software constantly being updated and improved, we want to ensure our customers are getting the full benefit of everything that is available to them… even the features they didn’t know they had! To that end our User Guide has always been downloadable from our website, but to make it easier for you, it is now available in PDF format right from your Help Menu!

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We update the User Guide as new features are released. It is a great tool that defines Designer features in depth and will assist you if you want to understand a features full purpose, how to access them, or even how they exactly work.

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• Select Help from your Menu bar
• Click on User’s Guide…
• A PDF of the current User Guide will open