From directly inside InDesign CS3 and CS4 XMPie’s uDirect plugin has the ability of generating and placing a barcode within the design. I blogged about this a while ago. However this is limited to using those barcodes within the printed piece. I was thinking about how you could use them online, or in an email communication, or even creating them on-mass to use in another process.

Most people seem to be content in creating single QRCodes that are then used. But what about if you want a QRCode to contain a personalised URL, or a unique piece of information linked to that the recipient?

Well, here’s one idea to create barcodes on mass by using XMPie:

• Fire up InDesign with the XMPie plugin activated. (you can always get the 30-day free trial from www.xmpie.com)
• Create a new document of say 50mm by 50mm
• Connect to your database of recipients, or simple create a Counter and use that
• Create a new image ‘Content Object’, call it QRCode, and set the expression to use the fields of your choosing.
• Place the QRCode content object on the page and change the Dynamic Graphic Properties to ‘Fill proportionally and Centered’
• Save the document
• Select ‘Dynamic Print’ in the XMPie Palette and choose, JPG (or PDF) as the output format.
• Select your output destination and records, and hit ‘OK’
• Job done. You should have individual JPG/PDF files in the output destination folder named {filename}_r{record number}_p001.jpg

The only real drawback here is that the files are not named in a fashion that relates to their contents. It would be great if you could produce them based on an element in the database, like you can with personalised images through uImage. Having said that, you can still work productive in this manner, it just needs more careful thought.

Another reason to use XMPie I think!

Recently I heard about Microsoft Tag, Microsoft’s own 2D Barcode technology. At first sight it would seem that Microsoft has simply reinvented the wheel and created another style of 2D Barcode; however looking closely things seem slightly different.

For starters a Microsoft tag actually uses less space to encode a single byte of information; using different coloured triangles opposed to black/white squares.

Secondly it produces smaller sized codes as you can see below:

What’s more interesting is that Microsoft Tags do not actually encode the data (URL or other text) inside the mark. What they actually do is contain a unique reference which needs to be decoded my a Microsoft Server; which in turn points to the actual URL or reference point.

Using a server in this way effectively allows you to track the usage of a code within the field – by analysing the server you can see how many people have used the mark etc.

So in essence Microsoft have not reinvented the wheel; this is a new technology.

 But wait; hold the boat one second. Microsoft Tags are unique effectively because they allow a managed and traceable service. However refer back to my original posting and you will see that my using standard QR-Code and a Cross Media Marketing tool; such as XMPie PersonalEffect you can easily create personalised QR-Code, that contain a unique URL (personalised or response URL).

Thus you can create unique codes, and then include then within your campaign. Add to the mix XMPie’s Marketing Dashboard; you can then track how successful the QR-Code has been within a campaign – not just one element to a campaign. The power of integration wins again!

So, in conclusion …. it is better (in my opinion) to stick with QR-Code as they allow you to encode a greater variety of information (URL, SMS, VCARD etc) and track their use within an integrated campaign tool.

I’ve spoken to various creatives, service providers and marketers about this technology over the past few months; admittedly because XMPie now supports the technology directly inside uDirect. Whilst they all seem excited about the prospect of this technology very few that I can see are actually using it creatively or at all. There’s a very useful site at http://2d-code.co.uk which covers alot of the technology, as well as many of the examples of where 2D barcodes have been used. 

Now that XMPie supports the use of PDF417, AztecCode, DataMatrix, MaxiCode, MicroPDF and QRCodes directly within the uDirect InDesign CS plugin it is easy to insert personalised data into a 2D barcode and place it on a printed piece. This obviously means that any data (from a datasource) can be used to create a 2D barcode. Want to create a 2D barcode that contains someone’s RURL or personalised URL so you negate the need to have them type it in? What about embedded personalised information about a recipient within a voucher code, presented as a 2D barcode?

I agree with Eliot that one of the biggest factors holding back the adoption of this technology is the support for barcode readers already installed on the mobile devices – so the initial campaigns need to provide enough of an incentive to get people to spend the time and install one.

Hopefully those creatives that would like to implement some form of support with a DM piece or personalised campaign should be able to do so alot easier now, as all the various commercial printers and service providers that already have XMPie now have this ability. ” Ta Dah”.  All it needs now is a forward-thinking creative team to come up with some good campaign material.

Any takers?