RESOURCES
In his original White Paper, Jacob Aizikowitz, a founder of XMPie and its leader until retiring in mid-2019, discussed Modern VDP (Variable Data Print), the vision behind it, the innovations and developments that materialized it, and its impact on making print-media a viable channel for modern communications and customer experiences.
In this updated edition, Jacob clarifies some technological innovations and helps make the text accessible to a broader audience, including those without a technical background.
Making the White Paper accessible
A key objective for publishing my White Paper – Modern VDP – What, Why, How, and What’s Next –was to help print professionals and their customers understand Modern VDP, including distinguishing it from Legacy VDP, which supports Transactional or Form printing.
I believed – and still do – that such an understanding would help them see new opportunities, transform their businesses, and grow. I felt that any explanation or analysis of Modern VDP must include a deep dive into the technology behind it. Yet, while readers’ feedback supported my view on the value of understanding Modern VDP, it was pointed out to me that sections of the paper were overly technical in places.
Therefore, to make the paper more accessible while not abandoning my vision of providing a comprehensive technological history, I have added an abstract to introduce some of the technology-heavy sections in this updated edition. In this way, the ideas in the paper can reach a wider audience. Those without a technical background can skip the technology-heavy sections while not losing track of the paper’s flow and development of ideas. In addition, while making the paper more accessible, I added a few missing items to the Glossary and augmented the descriptions with cross-references to the figure in the paper’s central section.
Is it a Survey, or is it Introducing Something New?
Another frequent question was whether the article presented something new or was a survey on the history of VDP. I could relate to this confusion because, on the one hand, the paper was a survey describing innovations and developments that emerged and evolved since the mid to late 1990s. However, on the other hand, during that time, no one – including my teams at Scitex and later at XMPie — explained the unique ways these new VDP technologies were different from Legacy VDP, which was the only VDP known at that time.
Therefore, to help the reader, I have introduced a prolog section identifying the late 1990s as the point when these innovations and developments emerged. This section also sets the stage for the paper’s discussions of their breakthrough and novel nature.
