The Journal

This is part sixteen of a series called One a Day in May, where we will review one wedding stationery term every day in May!

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For my wedding, I sent out our save the dates with clear address labels because I wanted them to look like they were printed right on the envelope. I had not yet discovered the world of variable printing, at least in terms of wedding stationery.

I used to have this job where I created certificates for people who completed a course. I’d have to create 100+ of these, and I honestly didn’t want to type that many names. So I used a CSV (comma-separated values) file and imported the various names into my design software. That information then generated unique files for each person. This is basically variable printing!

Variable printing is essentially a formatting tool for assigning different data to each piece you’re printing. You have a template, like for addressing envelopes, which obviously would require different/variable information printed on each piece. The data can be anything, but we use it primarily for addressing envelopes. We send you a spreadsheet that has a column for each bit of information (name, street1, street2, city, state, zip) and then we export that data into a CSV file. We create a template, telling InDesign where each item is supposed to go, and then we import the data and create the files. I won’t be providing a tutorial on how to do that here (maybe at a later date), but all you need to know is that as long as the information in your spreadsheet is correct – it will populate into the files correctly. It’s basically magic.

We also use this technique to create place cards we are sending out to our printers, postcards we are getting printed, personalized menu cards, and anything else where we want the design to stay consistent, but with certain variable options.