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What's the best rip software to use for wide format printing?
- Thread starter CalamityJay
- Start date
genericname
New Member
Been using Onyx here for a while, and it works well for us, but I'd be remiss to say it's not because we simply got used to its quirks. Plus, we were using Flexi beforehand, and it was way too amateur-hour for me.
I kind of want to be convinced to push for Caldera when the time comes, but when I tried the demo, I just found the interface to be gawd-awful! Willing to bet it was just me, and my setup though.
Could anyone post a screencap of their Caldera setup, as it appears when sending files to RIP and print?
I kind of want to be convinced to push for Caldera when the time comes, but when I tried the demo, I just found the interface to be gawd-awful! Willing to bet it was just me, and my setup though.
Could anyone post a screencap of their Caldera setup, as it appears when sending files to RIP and print?
No. They're connected.
particleman
New Member
Used onyx since 6.5 to the latest release and honestly I feel like a beta tester. We routinely ran into flat out bugs, crashing issues, and rendering issues. Our shop was heavily invested in it so it wasn't an economical switch to make. Most of the things I would consider bugs had to do with print and cut work flow such as cut marks, cut paths translating right, etc.
If I could do it all over again I would use Caldera.
If I could do it all over again I would use Caldera.
Bly
New Member
I know what you mean totally.
Past versions have on occasion been bug ridden messes.
And we don't use CutServer. We cut from summa Winplot.
Like yourself I have too much invested in it to simply switch RIPs.
As I said I'm happy with the colour management and print quality but if I was starting again I'd have a long hard look at Caldera.
I'v just looking for some good RIP software for Epson Stylus Pro 9900, I can get: Shiraz Focus V4 or Caldera VisualRIP+ in the same price with the printer. The Shiraz is for Win and Caldera for Mac. I just wonder if it's will run on G5? As for the knowlage I don't have none as Epson Printer USER. I'm newbe to photography printing, but as I see the softwares are very nice. The Caldera look's more PRO and Focus I think is more intuitive ?? Or I'm wrong... ??
I see I can get also Onyx. Why The Caldera will be better choice than Shiraz Focus V4 ?? We want to print some photos and some photopaintings. So we choose the 9900 for us but don't know with RIP will be the easiest and good working horse.
I just went through trialing Caldera and Onyx Thrive. Initially I was put off by the Caldera Interface, but it worked and Color Profiling is included. Also as one sets up hotfolders they should have less to deal with at the RIP.
Then Onyx Thrive arrived, I found it easier to navigate through the interface included profiles printed great, however I had some scrim banner material that needed more passes and Unidirectional. Onyx sent me a trial key update but told me this was an option extra, would not tell me the price as that was up to my dealer but it sounded like it was going to be over $1000.00 more. I did manage a good profile as well with the Onyx, but I found the Onyx RIP would crash for anything, like 6 times a day or more.
I had mentioned a bit on both here
http://www.signs101.com/forums/showthread.php?112491-Profiling-a-L26500&highlight=ken
I am going to say, be very careful if you download Caldera, do the MD5 check routine that the download is good, make your DVD, then create a iso file back to hard drive in another location if thats able to check out with the MD5 verification then use for the install. I say this as I had some issues when first running Caldera and when I went back and did the 2nd MD5 check the file was different so I burned another DVD and verification ISO file and when it passed I used it to install.
On Caldera generally speaking the factory profiles should look good, if they don't, before creating your own profile reset your printer as per this list
http://otrs.caldera.com/otrs/public.pl?Action=PublicFAQExplorer;CategoryID=13 Topic 100090
The major issue I had with Caldera on the 1st install was after creating my profile, it would test good using my own tiff test image of people, then the same as a pdf would look different - but if I reset my printer as above the test image pdf would look good just like the tif . I have since re-installed with the verified DVD so I may not have the issue any more but just in case it is a bug - resetting the printer after creating a profile is not difficult.
What hardware to use?
In Part to test Onyx I went with the fastest quad core processor Xeon Processor available 3.5 ghz , with 16 Gigs of Parity RAM and both a 256 GIG SSD as well as a Terabyte Seagate Enterprise harddrive. Caldera I had sitting on a separate Terabyte drive. I did need to have a NVIDIA graphics card to allow full monitor resolution and 2 monitors in Caldera or would have been limited to 1280x1024 and 1 monitor. I also had to add a Intel network card for Caldera as the onboard network cards were not yet supported in Caldera Linux.
I did order the Caldera because in day to day use I did not find it crashing vs Onyx Thrive Crashing all the time, yet Windows would keep operating. I also tried Onyx on the SSD but will likely run it standalone on the 7200 rpm Seagate Enterprise drive and move the SSD to a Windows computer where program swaps will make it more worthwhile,
As Onyx sent the program on a USB I had to assume the file was good, but if others have no issues with Onyx Thrive then it could be faulty media.
Unfortunately I have ran into bad install disks on occasion - I went 6 months fighting faulty EFI Fiery disks for instance. It is my opinion all companies should follow the lead of SME Linux from Contribs.org . They include a MD5 check on the ISO so you have the option of verifying the DVD matches the download before installing.
Ken
http://www.caldera.com/support/minimal-requirements/
If I read this correctly, probably not but it doesn't hurt to call and ask.
I guess because of our Digital copier background I dislike RIP companies charging an arm and a leg for slow pc RIPs. so I I bought the best in Xeon which allows parity RAM memory. Regards Graphics we are not speaking Video here, I think any NVidia with 2 ports will provide sufficient display for 1980x? . I do find a 2nd monitor useful for reading onscreen notes though its only at 1280x1024.
Of course the unit will spend most of its time idle printing out large format stuff but its nice if it transfers quickly (gigabit network) and it RIPs quickly so you can verify it then hit the print button. From that point of view the only thing quicker would be either SSD drive or 10k harddrive instead of 7200.
The Caldera Linux operating system plus Caldera take up less than 10 Gigabytes, client files additional of course. We Clone back up the RIP with www.redobackup.org cloning software, it takes 7 minutes.
Ken
If I read this correctly, probably not but it doesn't hurt to call and ask.
I guess because of our Digital copier background I dislike RIP companies charging an arm and a leg for slow pc RIPs. so I I bought the best in Xeon which allows parity RAM memory. Regards Graphics we are not speaking Video here, I think any NVidia with 2 ports will provide sufficient display for 1980x? . I do find a 2nd monitor useful for reading onscreen notes though its only at 1280x1024.
Of course the unit will spend most of its time idle printing out large format stuff but its nice if it transfers quickly (gigabit network) and it RIPs quickly so you can verify it then hit the print button. From that point of view the only thing quicker would be either SSD drive or 10k harddrive instead of 7200.
The Caldera Linux operating system plus Caldera take up less than 10 Gigabytes, client files additional of course. We Clone back up the RIP with www.redobackup.org cloning software, it takes 7 minutes.
Ken
I'v got the notebook Dell Vostro i7 with 8GB rams and Radeon 7670M but I'v got only one out port. But laptop has screen so I will have 2 screens also but not on DVI with the notebook don't have. But as I see it will be more than ok for Caldera. What is with the 1280x1024 ??
On a pc you are replacing the operating system with Caldera's implementation of Debian Linux. I purchased the 3.5 ghz Intel Xeon processor with onboard graphics chip as was same price as without. With this I could only obtain 1280x1024 monitor resolution with a windows video benchmark in the 5's. However it appeared the included drivers supported Nvidea, I had a older card and installed and had a higher video benchmark but more importantly could get1980x1050 or theirabouts on the monitor I could have got the same on a 2nd monitor but it was smaller only supporting 1280x1024. The Windows cpu benchmark was something like 8.1
You should ask Caldera if drivers are included for your card, if not I believe you will be limited to 1280x1024 video reolution unless figuring how to download drivers.
At least with a Unit like this if you decide you want more performance you can buy better hardware unlike the preconfigured EFI Fiery and other hardware RIPs.
Ken