Web2print applications are often associated with the simple online ordering of print orders (where the user supplies a PDF file to be printed). In more and more cases printing companies are including variable data templates in this process. End users go online and create their own business cards, flyers, brochures and so on. But more and more, this output is also used to feed direct mailing campaigns.
Basic (background) artwork
In some cases, the background for the mailing is an existing PDF file. This can be uploaded to the digital asset management system by administrators (and selected by the user in the web2print solution as a template), or it can be uploaded by the user. In the latter case, PDF preflighting with callas pdfToolbox is almost invariably included.
But the background might also be the result of a first personalization step. A branch owner can create his own brochure based on an InDesign Server template, adding introduction texts, uploading images, and so on. The result of his is a PDF file which is used in the next steps of the application.
Customer databases
After the selection or the creation of a background PDF, the web2print application usually requires the selection of a database. A lot of variations exist on this theme as well. Pre-defined databases might be set up for the user, where only a selection of the right group is required. Or maybe the user enters search criteria to select customers from a database (which might be present in the web2print solution, but might just as well come from an external solution). An often used variation is the simple upload of a structured file (xls, txt, csv, xml, ...).
The structure of the database may be known in advance, or it could be unknown. In that case, the user will need to match fields between the selected database and the expected output.
Most solutions will then also allow the end user to get a preview of a number of the selected records. This can be a simple preview of the first X records, but usually it goes a bit further. The end user might for example ask for the records with the longest street name, or customers without an email address.
Types of variable data
In a lot of cases, the variable data of the uploaded database will be restricted to address information of the end customers. But if the data is available, it's not difficult to go further than this. The content of the brochure or newsletter that's being created can be personalized further. This might mean that a couple of texts and images are made variable inside the normal content of the brochure, but it might also reflect on the used articles and inserted pages of the output.
An often used example of this is a newsletter for professional organizations or corporates with many offices. Members (or branch owners) log in, and create the background of their newsletter. They write introduction texts, have logos appear automatically depending on their user data, upload images, and so on. That way, they create the background for the brochure. In the next step, they upload a customer database which includes some marketing information on the individual customers. The interests, history, preferences or whathever data may be available. Based on this information, some ads are filled into the brochure.
Mixing offset and digital
The output of the entire web2print wizard might be simple PDF files, which are handled by the prepress department. But more often, the output contains all relevant information for the automated handling of the direct mailing. This includes the choice of output to offset or digital, with the possibility for digitally overprinted variable content. Parts of the mailing might be pre-printed on offset and be completely final. Other parts might be overprinted with variable content (even images, which can be automatically rendered to grayscale).
Cross Media Publishing
These were just a few of the possibilities, mostly oriented on the use of direct mailing in web2print applications. A lot of them can also be part of complete cross media publishing workflows, where many different functionalities and features can be added as well.