DesignMerge® Pro BundleProduct Overview

About Meadows Publishing Solutions

Meadows is a software development company, specializing in “extensible” technologies Develop exclusively for Adobe InDesign and QuarkXPress

Founded in 1991, located near Chicago, Illinois Members of the Print On Demand Initiative (PODi) Development focus is on data publishing, workflow

automation and variable data printing Flagship product is DesignMerge® Pro

What is DesignMerge®

DesignMerge is a suite of “plug-in” software modules for QuarkXPress® & Adobe® InDesign®

Adds VDP features to QuarkXPress & InDesign DesignMerge works directly with existing documents

Just take any document and “Make it Variable™” Any element of the document can be variable

Text, Images, Articles Layouts & Master Pages

The product is ideal for existing QuarkXPress orAdobe InDesign users that want to createprofessional VDP documents No new software to learn! Users are immediately comfortable with

the interface!

Advantages of Plug-In’s for VDP

No Conversion of Documents Many other VDP programs require conversion to XML or other formats before the VDP output

can be generated

Printed Output Looks Perfect! Overall “color” of fixed and variable matches perfectly Standalone applications do not match fixed and variable portion

Edits and modifications are easy to manage Make a change directly in the document. No need to re-import Alignment of Variables is easy and exact

Learning Curve and Comfort Level No need to learn a new page layout app. Looks like it is a part of QuarkXPress or InDesign

Styling and Typographical Features All styling and typographical features are fully supported Other products must mimic the features of Quark & InDesign Example: just try doing variable type-on-a-curve, or a

variable drop-cap, with any other VDP application!

www.designmerge.com/aboutplugins

DesignMerge Differentiators

Works directly in the QuarkXPress or InDesign application No re-design or conversion required

Intuitive, menu-driven user interface Supports variable Text, Images, Articles, and Layouts Multiple output driver support (PS, VPS, PPML, etc) Automatic Copy-Fitting included Advanced conditional processing features (Rules) Multiple-up Layout and Imposition support Translation Tables Bar Coding, Scripting and Data-Driven Graphic

(pie charts, etc.) support available Quark 6/7 or InDesign CS2/CS3; Mac & Windows 200+ page printed manual,

box and CD included

Typical Applications

Traditional VDP – Anything that must be personalized Direct Mail Letters Postcards Newsletters Invitations

Short Run & “Document Assembly” Applications Business Cards Name Badges Coupons Tags & Labels Raffle Tickets Consecutive Numbering Financial Statements & Prospectus

(Data-Driven Graphics)

Supported Output Formats

PPML & VPS Emerging as an industry standard for VDP output Compatible with all EFI-based devices

PostScript Works with all PostScript-based systems Driver can separate Fixed & Variable data to work with EFI FreeForm™

technology

Other Formats QuarkXPress or InDesign Documents EPS PDF (with Acrobat Distiller;

native support later this year)

Major Feature Set

Database Setup and Document Preparation

Menu-driven setup with“wizard” interface

Simple tagging palette – take any document and“Make it Variable™”

Any element can be variable Text, Images, Articles, Groups Variable Layouts & Master Pages

Includes pre-flight and datapreview features

No re-design of pages or exporting to XML or other formats required

Multiple-Up Layouts & Sequencing Support

Create multiple-up layouts at the workstation

Data “sequences”created usingstep-and-repeat

Publish data in “cut & stack” order(zip code sorts, etc)

Visually check file priorto printing

No programming

MPS Rules Module (Conditional Logic)

Prepare If/Then statements within DesignMerge

Menu driven - No manual programming required

Create Rules from the simple (insert a Salutation) to the complex (specifying a Master Page based on the city and age of a recipient)

Unique debugging and testing features

MPS CopyFit™ Module

Auto-fitting of text overflow, underflow, or both

Applied while merging User-definable copy fitting

parameters Eliminate text wrapping

issues and “lost text” on print runs

Each box can be assigneddifferent settings

Standalone versionalso available

Bar Code, DDG, and Scripting Modules

PostNet bar coding is built into the DesignMerge product. The MPS Bar Code module provides support for a number of other popular bar code formats (Code 128, UPC, Code 39, etc.)

Data-driven graphics (pie charts, bar charts, etc) can be created on-the-fly using DesignMerge and third-party DDG module

The MPS Scripting module provides a robust set of AppleScript and JavaScript events for controlling DesignMerge Pro and creating custom “Actions”

Output Drivers

Exclusive optimization features provide fastest VDP output available

Built-in data “chunking” feature ensures parallel processing and fast throughput

Support for all leading VI languages, including Optimized PostScript, FreeForm™ and PPML

Vendor Information

Positioning & Target Audience

Focused on the Graphic Arts marketplace

Customers already using QuarkXPress or InDesign are a natural fit for the product No new layout software to learn!

For Print Service Providers & Commercial Printers, the QuarkXPress & InDesign combination is key You never know which files a customer will provide Need to support both applications

DesignMerge Differentiators in aGraphic Arts Environment

Easy to implement Capitalize on existing InDesign or QuarkXPress skill set

Fits seamlessly into existing workflow Non-proprietary — does not alter the QuarkXPress or InDesign

document format Documents can be opened with or without DesignMerge

Flexible — Supports PPML and Optimized PostScript for Color or B&W VDP output

Cross-platform — Macintosh or Windows US-based development, sales, and technical support

Benefits of DesignMerge: Customer

Easy to visualize VDP production Confidence that VDP can be delivered

Supports both QuarkXPress & InDesign Customer can accept either file format Cross platform, Mac & Windows

Short learning curve Start selling and delivering VDP jobs faster

Archived documents can be “made variable” Ready stock of jobs to reference

Affordable Starter packages are now available

Benefits of DesignMerge: Reseller

Solution easily aligns with Graphic Arts accounts QuarkXPress & InDesign workflow - no new software required Most of industry uses QuarkXPress or InDesign software

Easier VI production = faster increased run rates = increased capacity needs

Customer installed and trained On-site and web-based training available

Minimal support issues Provides competitive edge

Minimize client resistance to VDP

Thank You!