PrintShop Mail

Once you have imported PrintShop Mail documents to your PlanetPress Workflow workstation (see Importing PrintShop Mail documents), you can use PrintShop Mail action tasks to output the job file with a selected PrintShop Mail document. PrintShop Mail action tasks let you print as well as generate PostScript or PDF files. The PrintShop Mail and PrintShop Mail 7 action tasks are essentially the same. The only differences are:

  • The version supported: PrintShop Mail only supports 6.1 documents, while PrintShop Mail 7 supports 7.0, 7.1 and 7.2 documents.
  • PrintShop Mail 7 can output PDF/VT and PPML/VDX.
Limitations

In order for the PrintShop Mail tasks to be functional, some pre-requisites must be met:

  • PrintShop Mail version 6.1 or higher must be installed on the same system, and an activated PrintShop Mail production dongle must be plugged in to the system.
  • You must have at least one printer using a PostScript driver on your system in order to produce PDF output. It is highly recommended that a PostScript printer be set as the default system printer in order to act as a fallback if the selected printer is unreachable.
  • PlanetPress Workflow Service must be configured with a user name and password that have access to the required printer(s). The Local System Account setting will not work.

Input

A data file compatible with a PrintShop Mail Document. Metadata is ignored by this task.

Processing

The data file is merged with the selected PrintShop Mail Design document, producing the number of records selected in the task properties. This merging uses the PrintShop Mail engine (PSMail.exe) to generate the output.

Output

The output produced by this task is dependent on the options selected: it can be PDF, a Windows EMF print job, a PostScript print job or a JPG file. PrintShop Mail 7 can also output PDF/VT and PPML/VDX.
Note that the Preflight output type doesn't actually produce printable or viewable output. The Preflight option does a cursory verification of the job and will generate an XML file that contains a list of all warnings and errors.

Task properties

PSMail Tab
  • File name: Select a specific PrintShop Mail document if you want all the jobs to be printed with that document.
  • Output type group
    • Output type: Select the type of output you want the task to generate.
      • Select PDF to generate a PDF file.
      • Select Windows PostScript driver (PrintShop Mail)/Direct to printer (PrintShop Mail 7) to send the output to a printer that is available via Windows.
      • Select Preflight to check if the merging of the data file and document would generate warnings or errors. This does not actually produce output, only an XML file containing a list of warnings and errors, including on which record and layout the warning or error occurred, and a description.
      • Select Produce PostScript (PrintShop Mail 7 task: PostScript) to generate a standard PostScript file that can then be sent to any PostScript printer.
      • Select JPG to generate a JPG image file.
    • Data file type: Select the data file type that is sent to this task, and used as a database for the PrintShop Mail document.
    • Distilling options file: Enter the name and path of a distilling options file (or "joboptions" file) or use the Browse button to navigate to that file. This option is only available when PDF is selected in the Output type box.
    • PDF Type: Select Preview or Print to select which type of PDF should be generated. This option is only available when PDF is selected in the Output type box.
    • PostScript Driver: Select which driver to use to generate the job. This should be the same as the printer selected in your PrintShop Mail document when designing it. This option only appears in the PDF and Produce PostScript output types.
    • Windows Printer: Select the print driver of the printer to which you want the print job to be sent. This option is only available when Direct to Printer/Windows PostScript driver is selected in the Output type box.
    • Print Technology (PrintShop Mail 7 task): Select the PrintShop Mail print technology to use when generating the output. For a list of available job technologies, consult the PrintShop Mail User Guide. This option is only available when Direct to printer is selected in the Output type box.
    • Layout: Select which layout to use to produce the JPG file (output is limited to a single image). This option is only available when JPG is selected in the Output type box.
    • User generated file as output: The output from the plugin will be the file generated by the merging (depending on the output type selected). This option is not available in the Direct to printer/Windows PostScript Driver output type.
    • User original data as output: The output from the plugin will be original data file. When this option is selected, a box is enabled under the option, letting you specify a full path where the output should be saved. This option is not available in the Windows Direct to printer/PostScript Driver output type.
  • Record Range group
    • All records: Select if you want to print all the records included in the job file.
    • Use Record Range: Select if you want to print only some of the range included in the job file. Use the From and To boxes to indicate the record range.
On Error Tab

For a description of the options on the On Error tab see Using the On Error tab.

Miscellaneous Tab

The Miscellaneous tab is common to all tasks.

It contains a text area (Task comments) that lets you write comments about the task. These comments are saved when the dialog is closed with the OK button and are displayed in the Task Comments Pane.

Check the option Use as step description to display the text next to the icon of the plugin in the Process area.

The tab also provides an option to highlight the task in The Process area with the default color, set in the Preferences (see General appearance preferences), or the color selected or defined under Highlight color on this tab.
To revert the selected highlight color to the default color, open this tab, turn the Highlight option off and close the dialog with the OK button; then turn highlighting back on.
Highlighting can also be turned on and off via the task's contextual menu and with the Highlight button on the View ribbon.