Referencing a uImage Document Package

Referencing a uImage document package (DPKG file) greatly simplifies the uImage workflow in uCreate Print. A uImage DPKG contains all the template information defined by the uImage designer in Photoshop (such as the template type; the action or script to be used to complete the effect; the Copy Fitting settings, etc.). These settings are read from the package automatically when you select it.

The package defines one of the following template types:

• Regular: a generic type of application. Any uImage template can be defined as a Regular template.

• Image Font: creates a personalized image that shows text using images. The alphabet is a set of images and each character is represented by a specific image.

• Separated Letters: creates a personalized image in which the personalized text is created using regular fonts. Each letter is placed in a separate text layer, so it can have a different design (a different location, size and color).

You reference the package in the rule of a graphic content object, in the uCreate Print Rule Editor.

To reference a uImage document package:

1. In the Dynamic Content panel, right-click and select New Content Object. Enter a name, set Type to Graphic, select Edit Rule, and click OK.

   The Rule Editor opens in Rule Builder mode.

2. Right-click in the rule area and select Personalized Image.

   The Rule Editor switches to Rule Designer mode and displays the uImage settings.

3. Select the package:

   • Local document: click Browse next to Package and select the uImage document package (*.dpkg). Browse stores the full path. To use a path relative to the default uImage templates folder instead (see Setting uImage Defaults), edit the package path in the rule in Rule Builder or Code Editor.

     Browse also accepts a standalone Photoshop (*.psd) template. The Rule Editor then switches to Rule Builder with a rule based on that file, and the remaining steps do not apply.

   • Document connected to uProduce: select a package from the Package dropdown, which lists the uImage document packages in the campaign. To add one that is not there yet, click New and select the package file. The package is uploaded to the campaign immediately and selected. If a package with the same name exists, you are asked whether to replace it.

4. Define the rules for calculating the recipient-specific values, in the Tag Mappings tree:

   • Regular templates: the tree lists one row per uImage tag defined in the template. Define a rule for each tag. A tag without a matching rule is not personalized during production.

   • Image Font and Separated Letters templates: the tree lists the tags the package defines for the personalized text. Define their rules the same way (see Defining Personalized Text).

   For details, see Defining uImage Tag Rules in the uCreate online Help.

5. Set the File Name of the uImage output files and their Format (see Output Format Properties for Document Packages).

   With an automatic file name, uImage names each output file using a sequence of incremented numbers, and identical images that share the same values receive the same file name. You can instead build the file name from uImage tags and other values, for example the recipient’s name in uppercase.

6. For a Regular template, click Advanced to set the output folder, the Skip duplicates option, the optimization and the format options. The Advanced button is not available for Image Font and Separated Letters templates.

   • Output Folder: the folder in which the personalized images are stored. Click Browse to locate a full path, or enter a relative path to be appended to the default uImage output folder (see Setting uImage Defaults). When the document is connected to uProduce or Circle, this field is not available.

   • Skip duplicates: reuses a single image for all recipients who share the same data, instead of generating an identical image per recipient. Selected by default. For this to work, the file name must reflect the values used in all uImage tags, so that two recipients whose data create the same image get the same file name. Clear it to force uImage to generate every image even when a matching file already exists in the output folder.

   Note: Skip duplicates optimizes production by reusing the whole personalized image for different recipients. There are additional optimizations, which reuse variable sections of the personalized image. When using the document package workflow, these optimizations are supported for the JPG, EPS and PNG output formats.

7. Click OK.

   If the rule would fail in production, for example because no tag is passed to uImage, OK is refused and the reason appears in the status line at the bottom of the Rule Editor.

8. Select a graphic frame in your document.

9. In the Dynamic Content panel of uCreate Print, double-click the uImage graphic content object.
   The personalized image generated for the current recipient (using the Photoshop template) is displayed in the document.

10. Scroll through the data source records, to see how the uImage output file changes dynamically per-recipient.

    If the uImage output files have not been created in advance, but are created on-the-fly, browsing between the records may take some time.

Output Format Properties for Document Packages

The following table lists the available output formats and their options for Photoshop document packages.

Note: For Photoshop, the JPG, EPS and PNG output formats have an Optimization option that reuses variable sections of the image. This optimization can be used in addition to the "Skip Duplicates" optimization, which reuses the whole personalized image for all recipients who share the same data.

Photoshop Output Format	Option	Description
JPEG (*.JPG)	Optimization	Defines how to optimize the personalized image: Default: the default optimization of this template type: Regular: None Image font or separated letters: Automatic None: no optimization is applied. Custom: the personalized image is a specific area of the template, containing all the variable data. To use this setting, mark the variable area in the Photoshop template by drawing a rectangular path. Automatic: uImage automatically detects all variable areas in the template for each recipient, and these areas are used to create the personalized image. This option saves the most disk space. Note that this option cannot be used with templates that require one of the following scripts: Scripts that change the layer structure Scripts that use the uImage tag names and values to personalize the template. For a detailed description of the Optimize feature and for instructions on the required procedures in Photoshop and InDesign, see Optimizing uImage Performance.
	Quality	Sets the quality of the JPG file. Possible values: 1 -12 (the higher the value, the higher the quality). Default is 12.
Photoshop EPS (*.EPS)	Save vector data	If the image contains vector data, check this box to save these data. Default is checked.
	Optimization	Defines how to optimize the personalized image: Default: the default optimization of this template type: Regular: None Image font or separated letters: Automatic None: no optimization is applied. Custom: the personalized image is a specific area of the template, containing all the variable data. To use this setting, mark the variable area in the Photoshop template by drawing a rectangular path. Automatic: uImage automatically detects all variable areas in the template for each recipient, and these areas are used to create the personalized image. This option saves the most disk space. Note that this option cannot be used with templates that require one of the following scripts: Scripts that change the layer structure Scripts that use the uImage tag names and values to personalize the template.
	Encoding	Select the format in which the image data are saved. Possible values: BINARY ASCII JPEGLOW JPEGMEDIUM JPEGHIGH JPEGMAXIMUM Default is BINARY
PNG (*.PNG)	Optimization	Defines how to optimize the personalized image: Default: the default optimization of this template type: Regular: None Image font or separated letters: Automatic None: no optimization is applied. Custom: the personalized image is a specific area of the template, containing all the variable data. To use this setting, mark the variable area in the Photoshop template by drawing a rectangular path. Automatic - uImage automatically detects all variable areas in the template for each recipient, and these areas are used to create the personalized image. This option saves the most disk space. This option cannot be used with templates that require one of the following scripts: Scripts that change the layer structure Scripts that use the uImage tag names and values to personalize the template.
Photoshop PSD (*.PSD)	None

Defining Personalized Text

For templates whose type is Image Font or Separated Letters, you do not define a rule per uImage tag, but rather the Personalized Text: the text that the template shows using its images or letter layers.

The Personalized Text property is set in Photoshop (in the uImage Settings section of the Export XMPie uImage Document Package dialog) to one of the following:

• First and Last Name: this is the most commonly personalized text, whose default rule is to use the values of the First Name and Last Name data source fields. If there are enough uImage tags to display all characters, the recipient’s first name and last name are both displayed. Otherwise, only the first name is shown. If there are not enough uImage tags to display the first name, only initials are displayed.

• Custom: this option is used to create personalized text based on any of the data source fields, such as the recipient’s title, city, club name etc.

The rule for calculating the Personalized Text value must be defined, otherwise the uImage tags that serve as placeholders for this text will not be personalized during production.

Define the Personalized Text rule in the Tag Mappings tree of the Rule Editor, the same way as a uImage tag rule. A rule may include multiple data source fields and use data manipulation functions, for example to change the text to uppercase or lowercase. To preview the value per recipient, scroll through the records in the Dynamic Content panel.

Continue your design work, using the uImage content object to tag the relevant graphic(s) in your document. When proofing or producing the document, the Personalized Text values will be calculated according to the rule.