Onyx VS Flexi

[SignCorp Inc.]

Just purchased an HP 560 but did not buy the RIP software yet as I am not familiar and do not know which is best...Onyx or Flexi...I have never used RIP software so I do not have any preferences. Looking for ease of use and stable. The computers are running Windows 7 but will soon be running Windows 10. Lots of Ram and speed. Any help in this regard would be great. Looking for feedback.
Thanks

 

[SignCorp Inc.]

Forgive the typos....on my phone!

 

[iPrintStuff]

Not used flexi but we recently went from rasterlink to onyx and it’s night and day, onyx is miles ahead in ease of use, functionality and just generally doing the things it’s supposed to do quickly and easily.

Hot folders are quick and easy to set up and it’s got a whole load more options and things it can do compared to RL. Especially like the ability to add bleed based on the last pixel, mirror or select a colour. (Customer artworks *sigh*)

All in all I thoroughly recommend onyx but I can’t compare it to flexi!

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

Onyx is easy and as advanced as you want it to be. Cost of entry is significantly higher, but it will take you further depending on what your companies goals are.

 

[SignCorp Inc.]

Thanks for the feedback. From your comments Onyx seems to be a professional well written program. I purchased from Grimco and they indicated that HP seems to be pushing Flexi. I generally do not go against the grain but the Grimco rep said I should look at Onyx. We are a high volume electrical sign shop and do not try to compete with the 50 plus “Printers” who now consider themselves “Sign Companies” so we have stayed away from printing. We do have a heavy vinyl background....just not digital printing hence the lack of knowledge. We purchased a printer for banners, site signs and such so that we can keep it in house instead of ordering from 365 and other print houses. If anyone had any feedback on Flexi and more on Onyx that would be great. Thanks in advance

 

[greysquirrel]

HP uses flexi as a bundle for 115, 315 and 335 along with print and cut....helps them compete against roland. the 365 and 560 do not ship with a rip...premium printers require a premium rip....

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

HP uses flexi as a bundle for 115, 315 and 335 along with print and cut....helps them compete against roland. the 365 and 560 do not ship with a rip...premium printers require a premium rip....

The 365 does ship with flexi now, just not the 500 series.

To answer the OPs question. Inevitably, you as a successful company will grow all areas you invest in, so why not buy for the long term and invest in Onyx which will allow you to expand and grow as needed when needed.

 

[FrankW]

There is a Flexi available as a hybrid software for vinyl cutting and printing, including lot of designing tools (it is like an Illustrator with direct plotting and lfp-printing). If you want to test it, you can subscribe for a month or two:

https://saisubscriptions.com/en/

Onyx is a RIP-only, you can download a demo from www.onyxgfx.com. This demo works for 30 days.

I work with both of them as a supporter, and for my opinion Flexi is much easier to use as Onyx. But, for my opinion too, Onyx is more stable.

 

[SignCorp Inc.]

Stability is important. Your response brought up another question in my mind. We use Gerber omega 6.5 as our primary plotting and vinyl cutting software. We have the Summa tangential 64 inch plotter. Will we be able to print and then load it into the Summa plotter to cut? How would we get registration? If we are using a rip only software then how will we be able to plot the vinyl? Obviously still ignorant on how this works. I would rather get feedback from people that have no skin in the game then from a sales person

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

Stability is important. Your response brought up another question in my mind. We use Gerber omega 6.5 as our primary plotting and vinyl cutting software. We have the Summa tangential 64 inch plotter. Will we be able to print and then load it into the Summa plotter to cut? How would we get registration? If we are using a rip only software then how will we be able to plot the vinyl? Obviously still ignorant on how this works. I would rather get feedback from people that have no skin in the game then from a sales person

Yes for both, and onyx most certainly can cut only... If you save your cut files as SVG you can open them in cut server and cut.

 

[ikarasu]

Put it this way. I got flexi for free with my printer...however I used onyx at work. I like playing with new software so I was open to it.. But flexI couldn't do a bunch of stuff onyx does. I went out and paid $3000 for onyx 6 months after I got my printer because I despised flexi so much.

If all you're going to be doing is opening a pdf/eps and hitting print flexi will work for you. If you plan on editing files, doing, adding mirror bleeds /etc. Go with onyx.

We just got a 365 to do digital traffic... Now we're forced to use flexi for traffic signage. I only ever open flexi if it's a traffic sign... Otherwise onyx runs all of our printers.

I don't know why hp pushes flexi, but onyx is way better than flexi.

 

[FrankW]

Onyx is able to do contour cutting.

When buying a Latex 315 or 335 without the cutter, the Flexiprint-Version delivered with the printer is very basic. There are more enhanced versions available.

 

[rjssigns]

I will be the lone voice of dissent. For basic everyday jobs Flexi. Fast and simple. I'm not a fan of Onyx for multiple reasons. I have experience with both.

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

I will be the lone voice of dissent. For basic everyday jobs Flexi. Fast and simple. I'm not a fan of Onyx for multiple reasons. I have experience with both.

Do you work in flexi for design changes? That would be the only advantage I can foresee in Flexi over Onyx.

 

[CharlieA]

We have Onyx Thrive 19 but we have to run the CUT-Server printer driver from 18.5 on our Graphtec FC8000. The printer driver from Onyx 19 just dances around on the 8000. The updated Onyx 19 didn't work either with the 8000 like they said it would. It still does he dance and weird pattern cut. So back to the 18.5 driver. Onyx writes for the 8600's but not the 8000's anymore.

 

[Joe House]

In my experience both Flexi and Onyx are very capable at what they do. More important than than the software is learning how to use it to it's full potential. No offense to Ikarasu, but just learning on your own won't get you to that point, on either Onyx or Flexi. I have taken multiple classes on both programs and with each one, I come away with another tidbit that makes them more useful and more powerful.
So whichever route you go, base some of your decision on support and training that you have available to you.

Good Luck,

Joe

 

[ColorCrest]

Depending upon who certain clients may be and when they ask, it may help to know the answer of which RIP technology the software might use to interpret their files; Adobe PDF Print Engine, JAWS, etc.

(Beats the heck out of me if anyone could truly find a difference.)

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

Onyx is all PDF now.

 

[rjssigns]

Do you work in flexi for design changes? That would be the only advantage I can foresee in Flexi over Onyx.

Yes. Since getting back into Flexi Pro I've been using it for most work. One job had 21 revisions.

Sidebar: Just installed Affinity Designer yesterday and have been playing around with it. For a lot of the basic stuff I do it should be fine for 35 bucks I took a shot. Time will tell.

 

[jpescobar]

Onyx and Flexi (depending on the version) are really good RIP softwares but if you want more control in your print jobs and advanced features you should go with Caldera and ColorGATE.