HELP!! Very Large Spooling / File Size after Data Merge

Ahem... I also just happened to find this tidbit in the Help system, and it works swimmingly.

About data field placeholders on master pages

If you insert data field placeholders on master pages, you have advantages that are not available when you insert placeholders on document pages:

The resulting merged document contains the original placeholders on its master pages and includes the merged results on document pages as overridden master page items.

The merged document maintains a connection to the data source, so if records in the data source are modified, you can update the merged document contents by choosing Update Content in Data Fields. This option is especially helpful if you change the layout in the merged document and then need to add new data from the data source.

The settings in the Create Merged Document dialog box are the same as those used in the target document, so you can quickly re-create the current document with the same appearance. You can also use these shared settings to create an identical document with a different data source, or create a new document with a slightly modified layout.

You cannot place data fields on both master pages and document pages.

In order to merge, you must apply a master containing data fields to the first page of the document.

I wish I had seen this message sooner, sorry!

A good trick I've been using involves merging without the common artwork in place, then putting it onto the merged document's master page.

1. Save a copy of your full layout as, say, "Art-master.indd"
2. Using another copy of the file (as a precaution), perhaps named "Merge-master.indd", delete all objects that are not part of the data merge. e.g. your postcard background image, any other static items placed as part of the layout.
3. Perform the data merge on this pared-down document. It should run faster, too, than with the other objects in place.
4. In your merged document, switch to the master page and, from your Art-master document, copy then paste-in-place those static objects. The art should now appear on all merged pages in the document, and linked once!

This is one of the biggest reasons why ID's built-in Data Merge utility isn't the best tool for large runs of graphic-intensive documents. Specialized VDP output formats such as PPML and VIPP cache static page elements so they don't have to be sent for every record. They then stream the variable data to the RIP, which reassembles the static and dynamic elements on the fly. Unfortunately, there's no way to output to those formats via ID's Data Merge. You may find some useful information in this thread.

The size of the EMF spool file may become very large when you print a document that contains lots of raster data
View products that this article applies to.
Article ID : 919543
Last Review : June 7, 2006
Revision : 2.0
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SYMPTOMS

CAUSE

RESOLUTION

STATUS

MORE INFORMATION

Steps to reproduce the problem
SYMPTOMS
When you print a document that contains lots of raster data, the size of the Enhanced Metafile (EMF) spool file may become very large. Files such as Adobe .pdf files or Microsoft Word .doc documents may contain lots of raster data. Adobe .pdf files and Word .doc documents that contain gradients are even more likely to contain lots of raster data.
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CAUSE
This problem occurs because Graphics Device Interface (GDI) does not compress raster data when the GDI processes EMF spool files and generates EMF spool files.

This problem is very prominent with printers that support higher resolutions. The size of the raster data increases by four times if the dots-per-inch (dpi) in the file increases by two times. For example, a .pdf file of 1 megabyte (MB) may generate an EMF spool file of 500 MB. Therefore, you may notice that the printing process decreases in performance.
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RESOLUTION
To resolve this problem, bypass EMF spooling. To do this, follow these steps:1. Open the properties dialog box for the printer.
2. Click the Advanced tab.
3. Click the Print directly to the printer option.
Note This will disable all print processor-based features such as the following features: N-up
Watermark
Booklet printing
Driver collation
Scale-to-fit

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STATUS
Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section.
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MORE INFORMATION
Steps to reproduce the problem
1. Open the properties dialog box for any inbox printer.
2. Click the Advanced tab.
3. Make sure that the Print directly to the printer option is not selected.
4. Click to select the Keep printed documents check box.
5. Print an Adobe .pdf document that contains many groups of raster data.
6. Check the size of the EMF spool file.

Have you tried exporting it to PDF and then printing from there?

The export to PDF process might take a little while; but I believe only a PDF is capable of optimizing "repeated data" when viewing/printing.

Or there are hardware solutions that printers use that separate the variable data from the repeated data. With InDesign though, each page is unique.

Or you can print out 120 so copies of the same single ID file with your postcard background 4-up, then load those printouts back into the paper tray and print out just the variable data from ID. (Close to what the hardware solution does.) Use non-printing layers or keep the postcards on the master but set them to non-printing from Window > Attributes or something.

AM