Discussion new printers, but which RIP?

[Clem]

Hi all,
my work is about to purchase 2x new HP's (560 or 570 TBC) and I would love to get some feedback from people who have used either or (preferably) both Colourgate & Onyx RIP software.

Background info is we've been using Ergosoft PosterPrint RIP to run our 2x L260's over the past 4 years with 95% success I'd say.

Our main issues have been that when we moved from .eps to .pdf for our production files we noticed that it really struggled with transparencies/ gradients in some of the more complex artworks (though some art as low as 2mb with a single gradient) to the point of failing to rip them at all.
The immediate issue is the slight colour difference between .eps & .pdf files, which are a firm no-no from our corporate clients perspective;
The downstream issue is having to re-save the file as .eps to enable printing; and then having to keep track of jobs with production files saved as something outside the norm.

The reason we moved to .pdf in the first place was to accommodate the nesting software that came with the Zund we recently bought.
We were happy to go this route as (among other benefits) the production files are smaller, and saw the opportunity to avoid the above issues by making the informed choice of RIP software this time around.

Any experience/ opinions & advice in regards to these RIPs, specifically in relation to .pdf production file formats would be much appreciated.

 

[FrankW]

Most likely the reason of color deviation between EPS and PDF isn‘t a bug of the RIP, but a problem of file handling. Could be for example that the embedded input ICC in the PDF is different to the default input ICC‘s set in the RIP and are applied to the EPS-file (as far as I remember no ICC‘s can be embedded in EPS). Or other issues with the ICC-workflow. Changing RIP-Software only will probably not help with that issue, but an analysis of the color management workflow.

Problems with gradients and transparencies could be no problem of the RIP itself, but of the version of the RIP. Problems of the kind you describe are typical problems of postscript.based RIP-engines which are not in use anymore in current RIP-versions as Posterprint 15 too.

We are dealers and sell latex printers with Flexi, Posterprint, Onyx or Caldera, depending on what the customer requests. You could test most of the RIP‘s before buying a new printer, together with your old ones, to check if they fit your needs. If you are common with Posterprint, I would give Posterprint 15 a try. But every software have it‘s own pros and cons.

 

[jimdtg]

I prefer FlexiPRINT.

 

[papabud]

i have tried and used many rips over the years. i currently have 3 i can use. i only have onyx installed. its what works best for me.
with onyx i use both eps and pdf files. i still have issues with AI transparencies. so i wouldnt expect to get away from problems all together.
and yes i agree color variations usually comes from changing working space color icc. its best to build a custom icc and always load that in the design computer and the rip station. customer provided files will need to be converted to that icc or you might be stuck using what ever one they had loaded when they created the file.

 

[Pauly]

Onyx has a 30day fully operational trial. Try it before you buy it.

 

[particleman]

The new version of Onyx that was released last month uses the Adobe Rip engine now across all of their RIPs (previously was only in Thrive). You'll likely see better results for the sorts of issues you are having especially if you are using PDF exclusively. I'm running my 560 with it.

 

[StarSign]

We run both Onyx and ColorGate. I prefer Onyx, however when printing white ColorGate is our go to.

 

[AF]

Colorgate simply works, interface is clean, workflow is highly automated. Can’t recommend it enough.