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Is Flexi the only RIP for HP Printers?

GoodPeopleFlags

GoodPeopleFlags

New Member
I'm considering buying an HP latex printer. The only RIP I can seem to find that goes with it is Flexi RIP. Is that correct? If so, would jobs have to be created in Flexisign design? I used Flexi many years ago and can't stand it.
 
S

signman315

Signmaker
I've never used Flexi, but I love ONYX. I've ran HP Scitex and HP latex machines (among other brands as well) using ONYX. It's has a lot of great features and is compatible with a ton of equipment. I especially like the color management features it offers. But anyway HP and ONYX do play very nicely together.
 
J

Joe House

Sign Equipment Technician
Flexi comes with some of the models included in the price. If you decide to use the Flexi RIP, you don't have to use the design side of it. You can just open up most common file types in Production Manager and print from there.
 
A

AKwrapguy

New Member
BlueFishDesigns said:
I'm considering buying an HP latex printer. The only RIP I can seem to find that goes with it is Flexi RIP. Is that correct? If so, would jobs have to be created in Flexisign design? I used Flexi many years ago and can't stand it.
Click to expand...

So to answer you first question, no Flexi is not the only rip that you can use. It's just a corporate synergy thing. You should be able to use any rip you want. If you did decide to go with Flexi you would not have to design in it. I often design in Composer, Illustrator, Photoshop and Corel. You would just need to save your files in a format that Flexi Production manager can read the safest bet would be .pdf. Flexi Design is capable reading .eps, .ai, .psd, .png, .jepg, .pdf, .tiff and more so if you wanted to create the bulk of the art in another software but put the finishing touches in Flexi you can do that as well.
 
FrankW

FrankW

New Member
There are several certified RIP's, Signlab isn't one of them.

And there are some available special HP Editions of Flexi-Software with additional functionality. The HP FlexiPRINT Basic Edition for example (delivered with print-only 115, 315, 335, no contour cutting, no design) can't do contour cutting, but this functionality can be added (with banner tools and much more included) for little money.

With the Print and Cut-Bundles comes a FlexiSIGN & PRINT-RIP which costs around 3'000 $ if buying separately. This RIP even have the ICC-Profiler included. No bad choice to drive a HP Latex.
 
MelloImagingTechnologies

MelloImagingTechnologies

Many years in the Production Business
BlueFishDesigns said:
I'm considering buying an HP latex printer. The only RIP I can seem to find that goes with it is Flexi RIP. Is that correct? If so, would jobs have to be created in Flexisign design? I used Flexi many years ago and can't stand it.
Click to expand...
Onyx is the easiest to use and also extremely advanced.
Reach out to me if you need any help.
Bruce 631.520.3074
 
d fleming

d fleming

Premium Subscriber
"There are several certified RIP's, Signlab isn't one of them. "
Sounds like a great reason not to buy an HP printer. Among others.
 
eahicks

eahicks

Magna Cum Laude - School of Hard Knocks
AKwrapguy said:
So to answer you first question, no Flexi is not the only rip that you can use. It's just a corporate synergy thing. You should be able to use any rip you want. If you did decide to go with Flexi you would not have to design in it. I often design in Composer, Illustrator, Photoshop and Corel. You would just need to save your files in a format that Flexi Production manager can read the safest bet would be .pdf. Flexi Design is capable reading .eps, .ai, .psd, .png, .jepg, .pdf, .tiff and more so if you wanted to create the bulk of the art in another software but put the finishing touches in Flexi you can do that as well.
Click to expand...

Not totally true. You can add any PSD, EPS, PDF, TIF, JPG....etc....straight to RIP without running through Flexi. Only jobs you HAVE to run through Flexi would be print and cut stuff.
 
A

AKwrapguy

New Member
eahicks said:
Not totally true. You can add any PSD, EPS, PDF, TIF, JPG....etc....straight to RIP without running through Flexi. Only jobs you HAVE to run through Flexi would be print and cut stuff.
Click to expand...

Yes that's what I said.... "You would just need to save your files in a format that Flexi Production manager can read the safest bet would be .pdf. "
 
FrankW

FrankW

New Member
eahicks said:
Only jobs you HAVE to run through Flexi would be print and cut stuff.
Click to expand...

Not true. It is possible to prepare jobs too in Illustrator, CorelDraw and so on to be processed in the Flexi-RIP as Print and Cut without processing them through Flexi Editor. It is the same like doing it for Onyx: preparing paths with a spot colour named "CutContour", "CutContour1" and so on.

But of course the Flexi-Editor have nice functionality to create contour paths easily.
 
FrankW

FrankW

New Member
d fleming said:
"There are several certified RIP's, Signlab isn't one of them. "
Sounds like a great reason not to buy an HP printer. Among others.
Click to expand...

Every RIP Vendor could let HP certify their RIP-Products for HP-printers ... of course if their drivers match the HP specifications. It looks like that Cadlink don't have working drivers for that printers.
 
eahicks

eahicks

Magna Cum Laude - School of Hard Knocks
FrankW said:
Not true. It is possible to prepare jobs too in Illustrator, CorelDraw and so on to be processed in the Flexi-RIP as Print and Cut without processing them through Flexi Editor. It is the same like doing it for Onyx: preparing paths with a spot colour named "CutContour", "CutContour1" and so on.

But of course the Flexi-Editor have nice functionality to create contour paths easily.
Click to expand...
Interesting...I'd love to see how you do that. Adding an AI or EPS with CutContour, for me, yields nothing in the Plotter RIP. There's no way that I can see that adding the job separates the 2 like Flexi does when you send to print/cut.
 
FrankW

FrankW

New Member
eahicks said:
Interesting...I'd love to see how you do that. Adding an AI or EPS with CutContour, for me, yields nothing in the Plotter RIP. There's no way that I can see that adding the job separates the 2 like Flexi does when you send to print/cut.
Click to expand...

I do Flexi support and user training for more than 20 years.

There is a file with the name „cut contour test“ in the postscript sample folder in the Flexi application folder, try it. As soon as adding a job like this with a valid cutting path to a queue in production manager, you will have the possibility to select a cutting device in the workflow tab of the job-properties, and an additional tab is shown to set the cutting properties (sometimes it needs closing the job properties and open it again after selecting the cutter). A cutting device can be pre-selected too in the default job properties.

The separate cutting file is generated as soon as the job is ripped.

The only thing what‘s not so nice: while other RIPs like Versaworks have an animated preview (ant army), Flexi havent.
 
d fleming

d fleming

Premium Subscriber
FrankW said:
Every RIP Vendor could let HP certify their RIP-Products for HP-printers ... of course if their drivers match the HP specifications. It looks like that Cadlink don't have working drivers for that printers.
Click to expand...
What a shame. Their software is my favorite and my go to daily design program. That alone would make me scratch HP off my list if I were in the market for printers.
 
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