Harwick, PA – With an upcoming project requiring variable data print turnaround in a very tight time window, technology managers at a multi-site printing company needed a way to determine which digital color print system would best meet their needs. They were already familiar with print quality and machine specifications, but had no way to compare the variable data performance of one machine vs. another. The company turned to Think121, a Variable Data solutions provider and workflow integrator they had worked with on previous projects. The solution was a single benchmark test that could be run in each machine’s native variable data language to verify the performance of the RIP and caching system. The benchmark job is a four-page marketing brochure with versioned and personalized variable content on each page, including photos, text, illustrations and charts. The test suite scales from a hundred records with modest variability to the full run, with 20,000 pages and up to 1.6 million image combinations. There’s a combination that will show off the production “sweet spot” of any variable data print system. “The benchmark gave us an apples-to-apples comparison,” says George Stubbs, Vice President of Manufacturing for Standard Register in Dayton, OH. “We can now make a straightforward business decision on which machine will fit our needs.” For more information about the Variable Data Benchmark contact Bill Marchiony at (610) 658-2454 or Todd Kueny at (724) 275-1230. The full benchmark will be available for use on a wide variety of installed and proposed print systems. An annotated sample of the benchmark is available on the Think121 web site at www.think121.com/new/Brochure_sample.pdf