ROCHESTER, NY (February 11, 2008) – A newly released research monograph from the Printing Industry Center at RIT (http://print.rit.edu) investigates the application of database and digital asset management tools, techniques, and skills as they are used to prepare content for variable data printing jobs. Titled “Upstream Database and Digital Asset Management in Variable Data Printing” (PICRM-2008-01), the monograph is co-authored by Franziska Frey, Ph.D., McGhee Distinguished Professor of the School of Print Media at RIT, and Nicholas Barzelay, Adjunct Professor of the School of Print Media at RIT. The report details the theories and models behind database management, DAM (digital asset management), and VDP (variable data printing), looks at hands-on research trials conducted at RIT, and concludes with a preliminary list of skills needed to successfully implement VDP.

Other key findings include :

• VDP is very complex, requires sophisticated tools and professional skills, and is expensive and time-consuming to successfully establish and operate in order to produce effective quality communications with a production process that is documented, repeatable, predictable, measurable, traceable, and that results in outcomes that are reusable.
• A VDP solution requires the interplay of topical knowledge about business and marketing, information content (data and images), and printing applications across the entire print production workflow from inception to delivery.
• Most tools employed in VDP have some overlapping functionality. Therefore, it is important to choose the right tool for the given job. The decision to select one tool over another does not rest solely on the type of job to be performed, but also on the intent and functionality of each tool being considered.

The report is available for download as a PDF from http://print.rit.edu/research/index.php?page=item&id=112.