Marlborough, MA - Pageflex, a division of Bitstream Inc. and a leading developer of enterprise variable data publishing and web-to-print solutions, announced today Studio ID 2.0, a desktop variable data publishing (VDP) plug-in for Adobe InDesign.  This new release includes support for Adobe Creative Suite 5 (CS5) on both the Macintosh and Windows platforms, and the patented flex technology that for the past decade has distinguished Pageflex products from all other variable data publishing (VDP) software solutions on the market. Bitstream will be demonstrating Pageflex Studio ID 2.0 at booth #451 during the Graph Expo Conference, being held in Chicago, Illinois October 3 – 6, 2010.

The Power of Flex
"For more than ten years companies have relied on the flex technology we built into our composition engine to enable them to communicate more relevant content with fewer templates by applying flex settings to their VDP layouts. We have been asked frequently to enable customers to use flex within Adobe InDesign documents as well. I am very excited to now provide that ability," comments Anna Magliocco-Chagnon, President and CEO, Bitstream Inc. "I am particularly excited to bring flex to the Macintosh design community that uses Adobe InDesign."

The patented flex technology allows design layout containers (text boxes, shapes, groups, etc.) to dynamically stretch, shrink, and reposition themselves in reaction to the quantity and size of the variable text or images poured into them. The template designer defines layout rules that govern how the containers can flex individually and in relationship to each other so that a pleasing page design is maintained even as the layout changes.

Typically with VDP projects a substantial amount of time is spent by the graphic designer and/or content developers ensuring that no text overflows, gaping holes, or excessive white space will result from customizing documents with variable data. The graphic designer often spends time creating a range of template versions, each tailored to look good with a different amount of content. Then someone writes a computer program to ensure that the appropriate template is selected for each data record based on the amount of content associated with that record.  In contrast, replacing multiple versioned templates with a single flex-enabled template drives significant, measurable productivity savings by tremendously simplifying the logistics of building and managing lots of incrementally different template files.

"We have some customers who come to us with 100 VDP templates, which they then cut down to a handful once they begin using flex," explains Jeff Perk, Pageflex Director of Product Management. "Not only do they eliminate a document management headache, but they also supercharge their ability to deliver sophisticated new VDP products to their clients."

Creators of VDP projects often make tradeoffs to create the best variable-driven marcom pieces by either writing content to a specific word count or selecting graphics based on whether they fit specific image frames. Flex technology from Pageflex can eliminate the need for these tradeoffs, freeing content developers from the rigidity of static page layouts.

Bringing VDP to World Language Communications
Users of both Adobe InDesign CS4 and CS5 can take advantage of the new features available with Studio ID 2.0. Similarly, when customers use Pageflex Studio ID they benefit from having access to all of the sophisticated graphic design tools available with InDesign.

"One of the exciting opportunities that Studio ID 2.0 opens up is the ability for Pageflex Storefront customers who license the InDesign Server to include documents with bi-directional languages, such as Arabic or Hebrew, in their web-to-print site. Since InDesign CS5 supports world languages, templates for Pageflex Storefront created using Studio ID 2.0 can take advantage of this capability," says Chagnon.