uStore Preview Error

[Ken Carlsen]

Hi.

I have a template in uStore, It is 28 pages 13 of them with uImage on. It`s quite heavy job and the pictures are not 1:1, but bigger than needed.

After inserting the data Firstname, lastname and company I press Update Preview. After some seconds i get the message Preview failed. If i then press next and Select proof the file generates fine. If i go back and try to update the preview again its works. Is there a function that gives the error message after some seconds if the preview is not generated in a specific time?

In uProduce the production time for JPG preview is about 1 minute and 11 seconds,

Regards

Ken Carlsen

[couch]

uStore checks for the proof jpg n times with a pause in between each check. If the proof is not ready it assumes there has been a production problem. You need to make sure your proof can be returned in a reasonable time.

The reason why the proof works the second time is because uImage has already created images with the relevant name, so there is no delay for creating the images and the proof is returned faster.

Solutions to your problem include:

1) optimize the uImage product:

* Reduce them to be 1:1 size that is required for your design

* Reduce the resolution to be the minimum necessary to print with adequate quality

* Ensure that you have optimized any actions. - (test the action and use alternatives to find the fastest process - eg a radial blur is very slow and 2 or 3 gaussian blurs over different selections can be used to replicate the effect and is much faster)

2) use the uImage optimization 

* By creating a path in the psd to encompass the variable area in the image, and setting manual optimization of regular font effects means that Photoshop has to render less image per recipient, the output file is smaller and print production will occur faster.

3) consider pre-generating images

* get a database of common firstnames (assuming that your uImage template uses first name only) 

* In uProduce dashboard go to the plan and click generate.

* generate a proofset of the plan using the common firstnames database.

This will pre-generate the most common names so that the proof does not wait unnecessarily for images to be created of common names.

4) reconsider the template design

* if you are using multiple fields in the uImage template (eg firstname and lastname, or firstname and company) consider redesigning the template to use only firstname.

Multiple fields mean there is less reusability of images already created.

5) consider creating two uImage document packages for every image - one for proof and one for high-resolution printing... 

* For the proofing document, reduce the photoshop file size and resolution down further 72 dpi should be enough for the customer to preview the document on screen.

* change your plan to call the high res or low res images like this:

if (GetEnv("JobType") = "PROOF")

{

Call uImage.uImage(

"LowResFile.dpkg", // 1 - Photoshop package file (if no path - use default templates directory)

"", // 2 - output folder (leave empty for default)

"", // 3 - output file name (leave empty for auto name, prepend with OPT: for optimization)

"JPG", // 4 - output format (see user guide)

"Firstname", |->[First] // 5,6... - list of key, value pairs for uImage dynamic content

)

}

else

{

Call uImage.uImage(

"HighResFile.dpkg", // 1 - Photoshop package file (if no path - use default templates directory)

"", // 2 - output folder (leave empty for default)

"", // 3 - output file name (leave empty for auto name, prepend with OPT: for optimization)

"JPG", // 4 - output format (see user guide)

"Firstname", |->[First] // 5,6... - list of key, value pairs for uImage dynamic content

)

}

[Ken Carlsen]

Thanks for your feedback Couch. 

It seems that Preview waits about 40 to 60 seconds, before it fails. So the ideal solutions for products with uImage in uStore is the proof example you gave.

Ken