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Need Help Artwork Help

Centro Graphics

New Member
Hi Guys

we have a bunch of labels we need help with. We have been given a excel spreadsheet of 900 individual coded non sequantial numbers that we need one of each of, and need to get them into illustrator. Any ideas, or would someone like to provide a service and do the art for us?

Thanks
 

papabud

Lone Wolf
do you need to use illustrator. in design has a built in mail merge feature that you can set up one document and it will change the numbers automatically.
 

GaSouthpaw

Profane and profane accessories.
Are the sizes different on each one?
You should be able to paste them, resize them as a group, and put space between them in three steps.
 
C

ColoPrinthead

Guest
It shouldn't take long if you go the InD route, and most of the time will be reading up on how to do it and setting up a template.
 

burgmurk

New Member
it's worth doing the research and figuring this out yourself. it's not that hard, and next time you get a job like this it'll only take a few minutes.
 

Signs 'n' Stuff

New Member
What software are you using?
AI, Flexi, Signlab and versa works all have functions to take directly from the list, just look through your help menu. they all have various ways to handle the long name or other oversize field. You can use serial numbers or a custom list.
 

Phenex

New Member
I use Versaworks. I would use the variable data feature, after putting the data from Excel in the right format.I haven't done it for 900 hundred items, but have done it for over 100. As mentioned earlier, the hardest part was reading up on how to use the variable data, real easy after that.
 

tulsagraphics

New Member
Hi Guys

we have a bunch of labels we need help with. We have been given a excel spreadsheet of 900 individual coded non sequantial numbers that we need one of each of, and need to get them into illustrator. Any ideas, or would someone like to provide a service and do the art for us?

Thanks

Definitely check out Adobe's XML Variable Data feature. It doesn't cost anything to set up (plenty of free online CSV to Adobe XML converters), and with a little bit of research via Google, you can perform this task very easily, and export each layout as it's own PDF and much more.

A few years ago I created a job with 230,000 decals which included a customer's live inventory (Vapor Store / Liquid supplier) consisting of 1" x 2" labels, with 150 different kinds of flavors (titles) ingredients (description) different strengths (0mg,3mg,6mg,12mg,18mg,24mg,30mg,) and different quantities of each and every label. It was a huge range of dynamic data, and thanks to Adobe's XML data, I was able to generate dynamically created PDFs starting with nothing more than an Excel spreadsheet, (exported from client's inventory software), then setting up of a single label design in Illustrator (assigning a unique ID to each element, such as title, description, strength, etc.), and then mapped those IDs to the fields in the Excel and exported to CSV (or you can copy and paste the Excel spreadsheet directly into the online converter tool). Save that XML file your computer, and import it into the XML data importer built into Illustrator (into the layout file you just created). Don't forget to set up your contour cut lines! Then you can export that data using Adobe's batch tool, and effectively generate every layout in PDF (or other formats) in a matter of minutes --- It's pretty awesome watching all of that data be created automatically in minutes. Then just import those files into your RIP and you're ready to print. Take it a few steps further and run your decals in batches so the plotter can contour cut a batch of say, 300 decals, cut of the sheet, and go on to the next batch. Basically, I used Adobe Illustrator, an online XML conversion tool, Caldera for the RIP and a Summa S2T160 to print, contour cut, and sheet cut 230,000 labels. Approximately 4.5 rolls of 54" vinyl. Took about 4 or 5 days to complete, start to finish. I have pictures and videos of the production process if you want to see it in action.

Perform a Google search on Adobe XML Variable Data tutorials for more info, and integrate that into your workflow. Very powerful!
 
Last edited:

tulsagraphics

New Member
Definitely check out Adobe's XML Variable Data feature. It doesn't cost anything to set up (plenty of free online CSV to Adobe XML converters), and with a little bit of research via Google, you can perform this task very easily, and export each layout as it's own PDF and much more.

A few years ago I created a job with 230,000 decals which included a customer's live inventory (Vapor Store / Liquid supplier) consisting of 1" x 2" labels, with 150 different kinds of flavors (titles) ingredients (description) different strengths (0mg,3mg,6mg,12mg,18mg,24mg,30mg,) and different quantities of each and every label. It was a huge range of dynamic data, and thanks to Adobe's XML data, I was able to generate dynamically created PDFs starting with nothing more than an Excel spreadsheet, (exported from client's inventory software), then setting up of a single label design in Illustrator (assigning a unique ID to each element, such as title, description, strength, etc.), and then mapped those IDs to the fields in the Excel and exported to CSV (or you can copy and paste the Excel spreadsheet directly into the online converter tool). Save that XML file your computer, and import it into the XML data importer built into Illustrator (into the layout file you just created). Don't forget to set up your contour cut lines! Then you can export that data using Adobe's batch tool, and effectively generate every layout in PDF (or other formats) in a matter of minutes --- It's pretty awesome watching all of that data be created automatically in minutes. Then just import those files into your RIP and you're ready to print. Take it a few steps further and run your decals in batches so the plotter can contour cut a batch of say, 300 decals, cut of the sheet, and go on to the next batch. Basically, I used Adobe Illustrator, an online XML conversion tool, Caldera for the RIP and a Summa S2T160 to print, contour cut, and sheet cut 230,000 labels. Approximately 4.5 rolls of 54" vinyl. Took about 4 or 5 days to complete, start to finish. I have pictures and videos of the production process if you want to see it in action.

Perform a Google search on Adobe XML Variable Data tutorials for more info, and integrate that into your workflow. Very powerful!

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Well, I say easy -- I am rather savvy when it comes to Illustrator and writing or modifying scripts to streamline the production workflow -- not that custom coding is necessary -- it just means I was able to navigate and set things up faster than most because I've worked with these types of automation scenarios many times. It's busy season for me right now -- my head is spinning from all the work -- but the fact that you only need 1 of each decal makes your job way easier than my crazy 230,000 decal job. I'd be happy to help if I could find the time.
 

tulsagraphics

New Member
-------------

Well, I say easy -- I am rather savvy when it comes to Illustrator and writing or modifying scripts to streamline the production workflow -- not that custom coding is necessary -- it just means I was able to navigate and set things up faster than most because I've worked with these types of automation scenarios many times. It's busy season for me right now -- my head is spinning from all the work -- but the fact that you only need 1 of each decal makes your job way easier than my crazy 230,000 decal job. I'd be happy to help if I could find the time.

Here's a photo of the decals after the first day of production. (There were many, many more stacks just like these) -- and 1 more photo showing what the spreadsheet format looked like.
 

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