Choosing a RIP

[Kemble]

Recently been hired as the Department Manager of Mammoth Graphics mammothgraphics.com, a print shop that primarily does fleet decals & specialty vehicle wraps (custom box trucks & RV's). We currently have multiple printers & cutters, all of them are running on separate systems and were having a magnitude of problems, from various color differences to messed up cut lines not importing properly. We are having a hell of a time color matching anything we send to our printers right now. I'm looking to get everything networked and combine everything into 1 RIP (I think that will solve a lot of our major issues were having). In theory, I want to be able to take the same print file from our graphic artists and sent it to all our printers and have the output look the same (or very close to it). My personal experience only comes from just cut vinyl I have only used FlexiSign in the past. We currently are running multiple RIPs (ONYX Thrive 22, ONYX Rip Center 12, i-cut production console 2.5.1, Go Produce 1.11.4, Cutting Master 4). All of our designers are primarily using Photoshop & Illustrator on Windows machines. Our production team has less than 4 months of experience and was taught by someone who no longer works for the company and did not care to share any knowledge when they were here so we've all been learning by trial/error experience. We have a very big shop with high volume with very little experience. From browsing these forums, it looks like PrintFactory might be best suited for our shop. But before I pull the trigger I'd like to get your opinions to see if ONYX is what we should stick with and just get an ONYX rep out here to actually get us set up properly.

Our machines are as follows:
Printers:
(2) HP Latex 800's
(1) HP Latex R2000
(1) OKI ColorPainter M-64s
(1) Summa DC5sx

Cuttters:
(1) Graphtec 54"
(1) Summa F1612
(1) ESKO Kongsberg X24

 

[netsol]

start building profiles, take one, experienced, meticulous person and let them do more than one round of calibration.
different machine WITH DIFFERENT INKS may not hit perfectly, but you can certainly "tighten it up"

colorcrest can certainly tell you much more than i can about the capabilities of those machines

 

[Pauly]

Well there's nothing wrong with Onyx Thrive X22. So i'd purchase another printer licence for it and move all the printers from other RIPs to that.

As for the cutters. You can use the Graphtec and it can be ran by onyx.
The F1612 and the kongsberg still need their own software to run so there's no avoiding that. (gets processed by onyx then send to their software)

 

[Andre@Beith]

Have a look at Printfactory. You can run all your printers and cutters on one rip.

 

[Pauly]

Have a look at Printfactory. You can run all your printers and cutters on one rip.

They've already got the latest onyx - its a great rip. why would you spend more on a brand new RIP when you can add a few licences to their current licence?

 

[jfiscus]

I would recommend sticking with Onyx, getting some training and getting a couple GOOD profiles set up for each machine.
FWIW, if you didn't know this already, color consistency out of the HP machines is always going to be a hassle.

 

[White Haus]

I would recommend sticking with Onyx, getting some training and getting a couple GOOD profiles set up for each machine.
FWIW, if you didn't know this already, color consistency out of the HP machines is always going to be a hassle.

Agreed. We brought in tech to help create some basic profiles for all our printers and it was well worth the money.

We're using Onyx Thrive to run all our equipment, and for the most part it works pretty good.

Roland XR-640
Mimaki UCJV
Oce Arizona 318gl

Summa S140T
Summa F1612

 

[Kemble]

Agreed. We brought in tech to help create some basic profiles for all our printers and it was well worth the money.

We're using Onyx Thrive to run all our equipment, and for the most part it works pretty good.

Roland XR-640
Mimaki UCJV
Oce Arizona 318gl

Summa S140T
Summa F1612

Could you please DM me the contact info for ONYX that got you all set up. I would appreciate it very much.

 

[greysquirrel]

lets start here...you are using onyx. Make sure it's up to date and all print drivers are up to date. Make sure firmware is up to date on all printers. HP provides profiles for free that cover almost every media manufacturer. You do have to re-linearize each media either through media manager in onyx or direct on the printer. The summa dc5 is a foil printer? Good luck there. The color painter should have solid canned profiles. For this amount of hardware you should own an iOne device. If not, get one. When you buy it from a reseller have them also train you how to use it when they set it up. That's the approach I would take. Your rip is not the problem, its experience and knowledge of the rip. You can purchase the iOne from Onyx and have them come onsite to provide training.

 

[Kemble]

lets start here...you are using onyx. Make sure it's up to date and all print drivers are up to date. Make sure firmware is up to date on all printers. HP provides profiles for free that cover almost every media manufacturer. You do have to re-linearize each media either through media manager in onyx or direct on the printer. The summa dc5 is a foil printer? Good luck there. The color painter should have solid canned profiles. For this amount of hardware you should own an iOne device. If not, get one. When you buy it from a reseller have them also train you how to use it when they set it up. That's the approach I would take. Your rip is not the problem, its experience and knowledge of the rip. You can purchase the iOne from Onyx and have them come onsite to provide training.

I did find a i1 Pro, no one knows what it is or how to use it. Time to visit youtube

 

[Humble PM]

I did find a i1 Pro, no one knows what it is or how to use it. Time to visit youtube

If it has a licence for i1Publisher, then you're on the right track, but it's a slightly steep learning curve. If it predates i1Publisher, I'd follow Grey Squirrel's advice and buy from Onyx with training and support.
youtube - Expert training may be a better use of your time.

 

[White Haus]

Could you please DM me the contact info for ONYX that got you all set up. I would appreciate it very much.

We bought Onyx and hired a tech from a Canadian company, so unfortunately that won't be much help.

As greysquirrel mentioned, see if you can find someone that you can have come out and train you/your staff on how to create profiles and use the equipment/RIP.

I would think at a minimum you would want them on site for 3-4 days to properly cover all the bases.

 

[Pauly]

I did find a i1 Pro, no one knows what it is or how to use it. Time to visit youtube

media profiles though onyx. they have video tutorials on how to use it on onyx youtube channel.

If it has a licence for i1Publisher, then you're on the right track, but it's a slightly steep learning curve. If it predates i1Publisher, I'd follow Grey Squirrel's advice and buy from Onyx with training and support.
youtube - Expert training may be a better use of your time.

they have onyx, doesn't need i1 publisher.