Onyx vs. Caldera

[HulkSmash]

Caldera actually provides you with a linux boot disc, or download. It has it themed and setup for caldera fresh off the install. Their support is top notch too.. Ernst there knows how to do everything, and always returns our calls.

 

[animenick65]

My company was just recently forced to switch from Fiery 4.5 over to Onyx 10.1. So far I've been less than impressed. We just did a time trial compairing both and Fiery just blew it out of the water on RIP speed as well as ease of use/ability to manipulate files easily.

So far, Onyx is slow and cumbersome compared to RIPs like Fiery and Versaworks. We are running Onyx on dual quad core Xeon CPUs with 8gb of ram and 3 15k SAS drives and the performance is still sub par. Rotation and sizing needs to be done in pre-flight and requires re-rendering each time. I'm able to rotate and size in Fiery on the fly without re-rendering previews. I'm also able to move objects around when nesting in Fiery and that's not possible in Onyx. We have about 1.5 million sq. ft. of graphics to print this year and I'm extremely worried about Onyx being able to handle it. Right now I can print faster than I can rip, and that's a big problem. I'm not impressed.

I've heard nothing but great things about Caldera.

 

[dsmskyline]

First off, all I have used is Onyx. 7, 10 and 10.1.

I learned that the different file type makes a huge difference on how long it takes to load and to rip a file. We used to use PDFs and they took forever, we switched to running everything as tiff files and they open and rip much faster.

Tiff files are MUCH larger than their PDF counterparts though so you need a much larger HDD. We had to switch in a 3tb HDD.

 

[Suz]

dsmskyline ,

Great to hear that you are ripping files much faster with tiff files on the Onyx. I will have to try that! So far we've tried only .jpg and some .pdf files. Been too busy with all the other issues to try much else, but now I can look at experimenting with different file types. Geesh!

My Onyx Trial is about to expire. Hope they can extend it again for me.

 

[Bly]

My company was just recently forced to switch from Fiery 4.5 over to Onyx 10.1. So far I've been less than impressed. We just did a time trial compairing both and Fiery just blew it out of the water on RIP speed as well as ease of use/ability to manipulate files easily.

So far, Onyx is slow and cumbersome compared to RIPs like Fiery and Versaworks. We are running Onyx on dual quad core Xeon CPUs with 8gb of ram and 3 15k SAS drives and the performance is still sub par. Rotation and sizing needs to be done in pre-flight and requires re-rendering each time. I'm able to rotate and size in Fiery on the fly without re-rendering previews. I'm also able to move objects around when nesting in Fiery and that's not possible in Onyx. We have about 1.5 million sq. ft. of graphics to print this year and I'm extremely worried about Onyx being able to handle it. Right now I can print faster than I can rip, and that's a big problem. I'm not impressed.

I've heard nothing but great things about Caldera.

Try a Quickset which auto rotates a job when opening.
Have you used the Layout tool?
That gives you all sorts of manual nesting options too.

 

[Suz]

Onyx extended my trial!

dsmskyline ,

Great to hear that you are ripping files much faster with tiff files on the Onyx. I will have to try that! So far we've tried only .jpg and some .pdf files. Been too busy with all the other issues to try much else, but now I can look at experimenting with different file types. Geesh!

My Onyx Trial is about to expire. Hope they can extend it again for me.

Yesterday the kind folks at Onyx extended my trial (2nd extension), yay! So glad they did that for me, so generous of them. I did tell them I had issues (including machine stuff) couldn't get a good start at first. I'm in a position now where I'm able to print for my Customers with predictable results. I hung a banner to let people know I can print banners in house now. So, I'm going to try to get a trial of Caldera set up too on another computer, then do comparisons. Hopefully Caldera won't be too bad of a learning curve. I'll post results here if I can get it all going.

 

[Dave Rowland]

caldera can be downloaded from demonet on the website... its huge DVD to make

worth the experiment

i have a dongle from them and trialing it.


interesting comments about it all, i may give it another shot

With regards ripping TIFF, I was thinking about this a few months back as previews in Wasatch was doing my head in, much higher quality from bitmaps. But the problem I have is using Photoshop/Export filters from design software, I rather not! the purpose of the RIP needs to be used.

The JAWs engine is what runs under the cover of Onyx, this is also an engine used in Shiraz RIP. The speeds are the same, i can feel that when using it.

The interface is not perfect, but the program seems to be more flexible for my needs.

With regards the Fiery operator, well my experience with Xerox Fiery was that it was amazing RIP, very fast indeed on an old Docucolor, so doesn't surprise me in the slightest. I think you will need to trial Caldera and make a judegment call yourself if it is fast enough, the interface might be better suited to your environment tho.

 

[Drum]

Pardon my ignorance

My company was just recently forced to switch from Fiery 4.5 over to Onyx 10.1. So far I've been less than impressed. We just did a time trial compairing both and Fiery just blew it out of the water on RIP speed as well as ease of use/ability to manipulate files easily.

So far, Onyx is slow and cumbersome compared to RIPs like Fiery and Versaworks. We are running Onyx on dual quad core Xeon CPUs with 8gb of ram and 3 15k SAS drives and the performance is still sub par. Rotation and sizing needs to be done in pre-flight and requires re-rendering each time. I'm able to rotate and size in Fiery on the fly without re-rendering previews. I'm also able to move objects around when nesting in Fiery and that's not possible in Onyx. We have about 1.5 million sq. ft. of graphics to print this year and I'm extremely worried about Onyx being able to handle it. Right now I can print faster than I can rip, and that's a big problem. I'm not impressed.

I've heard nothing but great things about Caldera.

I have a feeling this is a very dumb question but. . .We have Fiery RIPs for our digital printers. I have assumed that those RIPs are not workable for our wide format work. We are running an old UV flatbed (with equally antiquated RIP) and plan to upgrade soon, and assumed we needed a new RIP, Onyx or Caldera, but I'm not crazy about the learning curve. Is there a possibility that our existing RIP(s) can be used instead?
Thanks.

 

[Dave Rowland]

EFI owns Fiery i think, so they introduced it to large-format and EFI bought Vutek

 

[WYLDGFI]

You're right Dave....EFI owns fiery and bought Vutek a few years back. They were using Colorburst for a while which I still use and find quite suitable to my needs. I recently got a copy of Fiery XF from EFI and am not sure how it works quite yet. Am going to attempt to install and see how that goes for my flatbed printing specifically.
I am looking at what everyone is saying here about the rip software as in the next year I may need to look into one or the other...or even into another brand myself.

 

[signswi]

I have a feeling this is a very dumb question but. . .We have Fiery RIPs for our digital printers. I have assumed that those RIPs are not workable for our wide format work. We are running an old UV flatbed (with equally antiquated RIP) and plan to upgrade soon, and assumed we needed a new RIP, Onyx or Caldera, but I'm not crazy about the learning curve. Is there a possibility that our existing RIP(s) can be used instead?
Thanks.

Learning curve is pretty small on both RIPs, if you can use a computer you can learn them pretty quickly. How deep you'll get into it depends on your level of technical color management knowledge and your experience with various workflows but both can be run very simply. The first software RIP I used was EFI Micropress for high speed digital copiers, learning Onyx years later (after being out of print for a while) was no big deal.

 

[HulkSmash]

Learning curve is pretty small on both RIPs, if you can use a computer you can learn them pretty quickly. How deep you'll get into it depends on your level of technical color management knowledge and your experience with various workflows but both can be run very simply. The first software RIP I used was EFI Micropress for high speed digital copiers, learning Onyx years later (after being out of print for a while) was no big deal.

we taught ourselves how to use caldera in 4 hrs. Literally drag and drop.. but.. you have to have some common sense to run the system..