Media Centre

Speaking In Tongues: Sorting Out Variable Data Printing Languages

15 October 2007

As the digital color print market continues to grow, adoption of variable data printing is increasing rapidly. Personalization has become commonplace. In this overview, we look at the proliferation of digital file formats devised to cope with the practical side of variable print communication.

• Optimized Portable Document Format (PDF)
• Optimized PostScript
• Printer Command Language (PCL)
• Variable-data Intelligent PostScript Printware (VIPP)
• Variable Print Specification (VPS)
• Personalized Print Markup Language (PPML)
• Personalized Print Markup Language/Variable Data Exchange (PPML/VDX)
• FreeForm
• FreeForm 2
• Job Layout (JLT)
• Variable Data File (VDF)
• Intelligent Printer Data Streams (IPDS)
• Inkjet Printer Data Stream (IJPDS)
• Line Conditioned Data Stream (LCDS)
• Metacode

Read more of Eliot Harper's article "Speaking In Tongues: Sorting Out Variable Data Printing Languages"

Published in The Seybold Report, September 2007. Reproduced with permission of RISI, Inc.