ColorRip 2.0 vs Windows Print Driver

[noregrets]

Using my SP300...

After a lot of vinyl and ink being wasted I have come to the conclusion that printing directly out of illustrator using the windows driver and a profile created with an Eye One produces a far superior result to the same print done through ColorRip.

Up until now I have only been printing straight simple colors on vector based images using ColorRip so have not noticed any problems. But then yesterday when I tried to print a photo and a logo with a sunset gradient the proverbial hit the fan.

Here are my problems identified with ColorRip 2.0
- very difficult to profile with Eye One
- gradient from yellow to red is about as bandy as it could get
- photos did not reproduce very well at all.

None of these problems exist using the windows printer driver (using colourmangment).

This makes me wonder, am I doing something wrong with the RIP or has anyone else experienced similar results to me.

Thanks
NR
:

 

[Ken]

Have you tried the upgrade to colorip 2.2?
Also what resolution are you printing at? 320 will create severe banding, 720 not too bad and 1440 should not be noticeable at all. When exporting files with a gradient, how many steps are you allowing in the fountain fill dialogue? I use minimum 200.
I get acceptable photo results at 720.

Cheers!
Ken

 

[noregrets]

Thanks Ken,

No I havent tried the upgrade, is there much difference?

I tried it at all resolutions 1440 did darken the prints a lot, but the gradient was still crap. I will double check the fountain fill though, although if this was a problem would it not be bad through the driver as well?

Thanks again
Rob

 

[Techman]

are you using the postscript driver with winders?