Ready for a new RIP....What's best?

[eahicks]

Caldera? Onyx? I've used Onyx in the past (the version that came with the HP8000 years ago). Which is best? Been using Flexi as a RIP, which isn't bad, but I need something better that doesn't crash all the time.
Which one is easiest in building profiles? Which is most efficient running 2 printers? Ready to pull the trigger and need to know which is best, in your opinion.
Thanks!

 

[FireSprint.com]

I think you're going to get a lot of vague answers. Best is a tough term to answer.

I'll probably get bombarded for this, but to me, Onyx "feels" more like a PC and Caldera "feels" more like a Mac.

The equipment you're using is pretty important too. If you are going to buy a new printer, you may consider what that manufacturer recommends as they will be able to provide you with the most support on that platform.

 

[SightLine]

I'd also say that for the vast majority of users Flexi does not crash all the time or even often. For us almost never.... it could be any number of things that are just conflicting with it in your situation such as antivirus software not having Flexi excluded, a display driver update might fix the issue, etc. That sort of thing can happen with any software and any RIP. I'm not saying Flexi is the absolute best rip you can get.... that is strictly a personal opinion and anyone can say that about any rip. I'm just pointing out that before your toss out a very expensive application and turn your entire workflow and how you do things at your shop upside down changing such a major key part of your processes that you might look at figuring out what is causing the issue. You might go through all that trouble changing to another rip only to find it crashes all the time too when the actual problem might not actually be the rip but some other program, driver, bad stick of ram, etc that was causing the problems all along...

 

[dypinc]

Caldera? Onyx? I've used Onyx in the past (the version that came with the HP8000 years ago). Which is best? Been using Flexi as a RIP, which isn't bad, but I need something better that doesn't crash all the time.
Which one is easiest in building profiles? Which is most efficient running 2 printers? Ready to pull the trigger and need to know which is best, in your opinion.
Thanks!

Almost every RIP maker has a demo available. I would contact them and ask for a demo version that you can try.

Ones I would look at also.
Colorgate, very easy to use calibrate and profile.
Shiraz
Fiery XF, very easy to use calibrate and profile and has client for Mac or Windows workstation.

The above have very clean interfaces compared to Onyx and Caldera which scatter controls about in various windows.

 

[eahicks]

Thanks for the input. "turn your entire workflow and how you do things at your shop upside down"...that won't be happening....only looking to replace RIP. Will still design, cut, etc with Flexi. Just need a better RIP platform. It won't cause me any problems, as I am pretty much the only one doing the file setup/printing/etc.
I guess more research will be done. And I'll definitely check out demos of the 'lesser known' software.

 

[AF]

Get an APPE rip with a front-end that you like. I suggest getting the ColorGate demo if you use Windows for your rip machine. Not only has it been rock-solid stable for us, but it rips very quickly and works great if running in the background. The vast majority of updates are feature enhancements since there are few bugs left to fix.

 

[TXFB.INS]

Started with VersaWorks with the Rolands and now run caldera.
The profiles are SUPER easy to do and overall very happy with the change. the other factor is the service is VERY good, they will stay on the line until the issue is resolved.
also really like that all machines can be ran from a single program, currently we have some Rolands, Epson and Summa plotter all being ran

 

[dan1942]

Get an APPE rip with a front-end that you like. I suggest getting the ColorGate demo if you use Windows for your rip machine. Not only has it been rock-solid stable for us, but it rips very quickly and works great if running in the background. The vast majority of updates are feature enhancements since there are few bugs left to fix.

With Colorgate have you seen any issues with cut contour issues (alignment) with the summa that I am getting with Onyx. I updated Onyx everything was good now it is starting again. I too think it's time to check into Colorgate and Caldera

 

[eahicks]

Downloading ONYX trial now...taking forever. I did download the Shiraz demo....ew. That looks like a cheesy program, and it seemed to support every model of Roland except ours, so that's out. Will try Caldera as well after the Onyx download.

 

[dan1942]

Let me know what you think of caldera vs Onyx. Don't you also have an HP latex printer?

 

[eahicks]

Yes L260.

 

[AF]

With Colorgate have you seen any issues with cut contour issues (alignment) with the summa that I am getting with Onyx. I updated Onyx everything was good now it is starting again. I too think it's time to check into Colorgate and Caldera

Switched from Onyx to Colorgate specifically to relieve that very issue. Colorgate and Caldera both cut accurately with the Summa. Caldera requires a Mac with X11 or Linux with X window server to run. I believe Caldera can be used headless like the old Fiery servers. Headless, Linux and iMac were not what I was looking for, so I focused on finding a well executed Windows compatible RIP. There are many options out there, but I was just simply blown away by the well designed UI of ColorGate. I use the barcode workflow with Opos. For what it is worth, ColorGate can be automated to run headless if so desired.