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Wow! I think I found my Software?

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Suz

New Member
Hey Matt, I'd really love to try Caldera myself on the mini-Mac, but I don't have $2,500.00 right now. Years ago (early 90's) I think, I learned to design on a Mac while working for a Publishing Company. When I bought my own system, I got a PC as they were about half the cost back then compared to the Mac. So, I used both platforms daily and was fine with it.

Wild, I have no problem with the idea of Linux, have played with it on a laptop in the past and I liked it myself. However, the hubby doesn't want it. Wanting to keep him happy, and also limited budget right now, it is just challenging.

My goal is to get a software that does the most and gives me the best color. Company I purchased the printer from is IRG Plotters out of California. The Technician I hired had a close relationship with that Company and so that is who I went with at the time we purchased the L25500. This Technician was not employed by them, they actually were in my area. But now the Tech is no longer in the area. Thankfully, IRG is trying to help me put something together and so is HP Technical Service. I am very thankful for the help.

Side note, John Butto (who used to post here quite a bit) suggested Shiraz Signature a while back and he contacted me a couple days ago to remind me of that program. So we are giving that a shot too. It is a modular system and you can add a profiling option onto it. The price is reasonable. So, we've almost got that ready to use on the new PC. it is super clean to install. The interface looks very easy to understand. I'll keep ya all posted if anyone is interested. They are in England, extremely responsive, so far the service is stellar!!!
 
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Suz

New Member
dypinc, I may do exactly that! It would be about $500 more than what my max budget is now, so I'm trying some other options. Gotta do something! Thanks for the suggestion.
 
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signswi

New Member
Your RIP computer should be it's own machine that just RIPs things, what OS it is hardly matters. It shouldn't be used for anything other than ripping.
 
FrankW

FrankW

New Member
Suz said:
Frank, I'm glad Flexi is working out for you. It looks like it has so many great features, but I'm an artist and I have lots of artsy Customers picky about colors. So, I'm leaning toward a software that has the best reviews on color.
Click to expand...

I'm a Hardware- and Software-Dealer with a lot of customers who are using Flexi for printing. I haven't had color issues with Flexi since 8.5v1 where a completely new profiler was established which works great, if you know how. A short time I have sold wasatch too, but never had the experience that Wasatch makes better colors than Flexi. Wasatch have some little software rubbish ;) in it like a 3D-gamut-displayer, but NO (if they do not have added it in version 7) ICC ColorProfiler were available, not standard and not as an option, for profiling you need additional software (what could cause problems because you need to set up the software manually for printing correct ICC-Swatches). And if color is important for you, you will not be satisfied with standard profiles of any of this applications, you need to profile yourself.
 
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Desert_Signs

New Member
Suz said:
Signswi,
I'm sure you are right about this. Thanks for your thoughts.
Click to expand...

Suz, listen to signswi.

You aren't going to be happy trying to run your rip and the rest of your shop off of one computer. RIP tends to be pretty memory/processor intensive. And you don't want to risk crashing your RIP station while in the middle of a print because you wanted to do something else.

A brand new Mac Mini is under $700. Load Caldera and ready to go. Or, check on eBay and pick up a used desktop for under $300 and load using Caldera's linux distro.

You have a piece of equipment that can make you a million dollars. Don't buy cheap, hard to use software that makes your job more difficult. You can set yourself up very nicely for less than the cost of a single wrap kit.
 
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Suz

New Member
Thanks everyone, lots of information here that is very helpful! I do think Signswi is right, keep the ripping station solely for ripping. I just have cad cutters and other stuff at that end of the shop, so it's tempting to use the new computer for other things too. But really, best not to.

Frank W., you sound very knowledgeable about the Flexi program and if I was leaning toward that program right now, you would be the person to talk to. You are correct, I do want a program that will allow me to do the profiling, for more than just controlling my colors. The other feature that is very important to me, and that is the ability to create film positive halftone color separations for the screenprinting part of my business. I'm not sure yet if there is a way to do this on a latex printer, but if I can do it I want to. I do have an Epson 4800, and also an Epson 1100 printer that I could do my color separations with, so this is not a "must have" thing, just wishful thinking! I got the Latex printer for full color prints, signs and banners and that type of stuff.

Jennifer at Wasatch just confirmed yesterday that Wasatch does not have the monochrome driver needed for making film positives on my HP Latex L25500. They told me that they felt that in the past, they did not have reports of HP users having any success making color separations with HP printers. I told her I thought that was sorta funny, I was doing it 20 years ago with an HP post script laser printer. The halftones dots were not 85 line, but they worked for what I was doing. Anyhow, they didn't feel there was enough of a need there to provide the monochrome driver needed to do this. So, now I'm still looking. However, Wasatch is still a consideration. It just won't help me for making film positives.

Raged, okay, that's what I needed... Some real information on what things cost. Maybe Caldera and Mac are within my budget!

Edit: Just called Ben from Caldera, he suggested going with Mac Mini 2.41 GHZ, with at least 4 Gig Ram. Looking for that now. I have Caldera Sofware demo pack here.
 
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iladi

New Member
I,m using wasatch with a roland versacamm, an epson 9700 and a mutoh rj900 pro. Computer is a i7 quadcore with a ssd for OS and 8 gigs of ram. Wasatch is set to rip 3 file simultaneously. I often print 30+ cad drawings AND 10+ posters on epson AND some vinyl on my roland with zero problems while i do some photoshop or pdf jobs.
 
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Suz

New Member
Iladi,

thanks for your post, can you tell me what your processor speed is on your quadcore? Sounds like it screams.

iladi said:
I,m using wasatch with a roland versacamm, an epson 9700 and a mutoh rj900 pro. Computer is a i7 quadcore with a ssd for OS and 8 gigs of ram. Wasatch is set to rip 3 file simultaneously. I often print 30+ cad drawings AND 10+ posters on epson AND some vinyl on my roland with zero problems while i do some photoshop or pdf jobs.
Click to expand...
 
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Suz

New Member
Scott, thanks for shopping! I love Craigslist. I've only bought one used computer in my life though. That was about 10 years ago, my first laptop. It works great. Think I paid $50 for it. Slow though, by today's standards! :)

Anyhow, worth checking out, and thank you! Gonna get this thing done soon, I'm so tired of thinking about it. I'm ready to go make my milliion bucks! Or two.

Wild, hinky? Like that word. Must use it in a sentence one day. Haha!

Scott Reynolds said:
Same price as the Mac Mini?

Comes with CS6 on it, but with no license.

http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/sys/3104878051.html

or a 24"?

http://seattle.craigslist.org/est/sys/3108613253.html

Im "assuming" your in or near Seattle.
Click to expand...
 
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iladi

New Member
I have a homemade system. Windows 7 64 bit, i7 2600 k, http://ark.intel.com/products/52214/ no overclock, 8 gig corsair vengeance 1600, 60 gig corsair ssd for boot, a samsung f1 hdd. I usualy convert arhitectural pdfs in 300 dpi tiffs, since they come from students and often are not made corectly, while i have 3 queues set for rip. no hickups so far and i,m using this configuration for 1 year and a half.
 
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Suz

New Member
iladi, thanks for sharing that info. Sounds like you are very well set up!

Well, we bought something...
http://store.apple.com/us/product/FC815LL/A

It'll have 4GB memory
, that is the only difference from specs above

Thanks everyone who helped me out here!!! I appreciate all the messages and advice, you are all THE BEST!!!!!
 
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Desert_Signs

New Member
Cool! Now just keep in mind, that Apple in their infinite wisdom, decided you don't need a DVD/CD reader. If you have your Caldera demo on a DVD, you won't be able to load it unless you buy an external DVD drive.

Or, you can apparently do this: DVD or CD Sharing

With the Mac App Store, getting the apps you want on your Mac has never been easier. No more boxes, no more discs, no more time-consuming installation. Click once to download and install any app on your Mac. But if an app you need isn’t available from the Mac App Store, you can use DVD or CD Sharing. This convenient feature of OS X lets you wirelessly “borrow” the optical drive of a nearby Mac or PC. So you can install applications from a DVD or CD and have full access to an optical drive without having to carry one around.
 
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Suz

New Member
Raged, Thank you again! This is news to me, so I do appreciate you sharing that information. Otherwise, who knows what what would have happened. I may have mistaken the new computer for a flying saucer or a pancake or something, with no DVD reader, haha. They do look really weird when you are used to looking at a PC. Some of them look like an electric coffee cup warmer. Anyhow, it will be fun to set up. Can't wait!!:goodpost:

ragedracer1977 said:
Cool! Now just keep in mind, that Apple in their infinite wisdom, decided you don't need a DVD/CD reader. If you have your Caldera demo on a DVD, you won't be able to load it unless you buy an external DVD drive.

Or, you can apparently do this: DVD or CD Sharing

With the Mac App Store, getting the apps you want on your Mac has never been easier. No more boxes, no more discs, no more time-consuming installation. Click once to download and install any app on your Mac. But if an app you need isn’t available from the Mac App Store, you can use DVD or CD Sharing. This convenient feature of OS X lets you wirelessly “borrow” the optical drive of a nearby Mac or PC. So you can install applications from a DVD or CD and have full access to an optical drive without having to carry one around.
Click to expand...
 
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jmcnicoll

New Member
Color wise I'm not a fan a wasatch. Caldera and EFI Colorproof XF have both produced great color for me. Ran EFI at my old job on a Epson solvent and aqueous printer. The canned profiles for the solvent produced excellent color, but used custom profiles on the Aqueous.
 
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