RIP Purchase Guide

In fact, if you know what you need, choosing the right RIP server is difficult. Does your company or personal studio need to add output devices? Maybe your salesperson asks the company to print some poster-sized promotional materials. This requires you to invest in large-format inkjet printers to replace the traditional way of printing out-of-print; or you are a promising designer. It is intended to replace the inkjet printers used in the past with color copiers that excel in quality and speed. At the same time, you can even do a little bit of output work without any problems. However, the correct choice of output device is only half the work done. After you decide to pick a device such as the Xerox Docu Color 5750 or the Encad NovaJet Pro 50, you must also carefully consider which RI P (Raster Image Processor) you are using to drive them more efficiently. There are various brands of front-end controllers such as Amiable Technologies, Color bus, EFI, Image Technologies, Management Graphics, Splash, UFO Systems, Visual E dge, and Wasatch - only a few of them are listed here. There are a large format printers and color copiers of various sizes and sizes on the market. The only thing to consider at this time is which one will really satisfy the need. In some cases, you can follow a few simple rules: Some printers already have built-in Postscript processors, such as Hewlett-Packard's 36-inch HP DesignJet 2500CP large-format printers, or some output devices. Manufacturers, in their products have already provided the option to configure RIP, such as ColorSp an company launched DesignWinder and DisplayMaker and other product sales program that is the case. However, even if you choose an output device equipped with RIP, it is possible to find other RIPs on the market that are more suitable for your use. Suzanne Shultz, software product manager at Amiable Technologies, said: "The products that are usually sold with printers are mostly low-end products," and the company is also designing software for large-format printers. Signboard production and digital color output. "They may not be true Postscript interpreters, or products may be limited in size, length, or even dot-net computing methods." If this is the case, you may be working with other designers and production managers. As such, bury your head in a bunch of product descriptions to find the right RIP. "To pick the right RIP is really hard to choose," said Mars I Bennett, Hewlett-Packard's image product manager for North American Markets. "There are so many good things on the market after all." select". What do you want to do with it? If so, then where do we start? "Actually, most of them are based on your business model and what you want to achieve," said Sandra Crowley, vice president of public relations at ColorSpan, which also expresses many printers and RIPs. Manufacturers' common voice. Looking at the market of large-format printers, this means that RIPs (or output devices) used by artists who want to export their work on the canvas do not have to print the display placards on the polyethylene fabric with the output center. The same hardware device. "You shouldn't think about other factors such as specifications or rules first, but you must give priority to the kind of output you want to make," said Ksuuli. From the point of view of the copier market, Splash--a RIP manufacturer divides the market into five parts: the manufacturing department wants to get the best output in the shortest time; the prepress staff needs to look on the sample proofs. To the most precise color output effects; Graphic designers need fast output and reasonable color accuracy in layout; Cartographers need to output jobs quickly and do not need too much for color accuracy, up to the screen The content displayed is the same; as for the output department within the company, besides being able to smoothly integrate RIP and printers into existing network equipment, the output of promotional items and the like also requires a professional level of color representation. "Of course, these devices are quite expensive in price, so think about what they can do before machines are purchased," Tony Bojorquez, marketing manager of Splash's products, cautioned. Once the digital prepress workflow has solved your problem, you also have purchasing-related equipment capabilities and experience because you put the demand as a priority. For the entire publishing industry and its markets, the compatibility of output devices with existing systems and networks is also important. Some RIPs, like other products, can support more kinds and skilled devices. For example, the ImageJet RIP from Visual Edge can support all models of large format printers from 24 inches to 36 inches wide; Splash's RIP only supports Xerox copier products; and EFI (Electronics for Imaging)'s overseas public relations director Andrews Andrew Borg stated that EFI's RIP supports all digital printers. Among the models it supports, there are large format color printers, standard color copiers, and high-output color copiers such as the Canon CLC 1000 with 31 pages per minute. Instead of purchasing a RIP that can only support existing or planned purchases, it is better to choose a RIP product that can support multiple printers - whether it is to achieve multiple uses of the same device or to support various types of RIP. Different devices are available. Like Wasatch's PosterMaker, it can drive multiple large-format printers such as Hewlett-Packard, Encad, and Others. Similarly, Colorbus' Cyclone II can also drive two printers at the same time, supporting products from multiple vendors including Canon, Kodak, Xerox, and large format printers from ColorSpan, Encad, and Hewlett-Packard. Management Graphics' Edox document server and UFO (User Friendly Operating) also support color copiers and large format printers from multiple vendors. (Edox also recently started to support the Canon CLC 1000 model.) In addition to being able to have a limited space In addition to the ability to connect two devices at the same time to work, it is also necessary to consider whether there is more flexibility in cooperating with the existing workflow control. "A lot of people use color photocopiers to do proofreading of large prints," said Cousi of ColorSpan. "This can save time, costs, and consumables." When planning for larger projects, there may be several different approaches Type of device for output. For example, at a company's party, you want to post several large-format printer-output posters, together with promotional materials, seat signage, and other related items printed using color printers. Who should use hard RIP? Another question for consumers is: Should we buy soft RIP or hard RIP? In the past, hard RIP would give people the impression of a "black box" -- in fact, it was only used to drive specific output. Device Controllers - However, today's hard RIPs have been improved: they can operate on different workstations such as Mac, Unix or PC. "The most basic requirement is an open work platform," said Charles Lissenburg, vice president of Colorbus's marketing department. "Open systems and the possibility of upgrading are all important factors because when you buy a new output device, you don't have to invest in new hard RIPs anymore." When you buy a so-called When hard RIP - in fact is a print server - it seems like a source of strength. Colorbus' Cyclone RIP series products operate on Silicon Graphics systems that use MIPS RISC processors, built-in hard disks with a gigabyte capacity, and Unix architecture. EFI's Fiery color server is also built on the mainframe of the MI PS processor, equipped with more RAM, high-capacity hard disks and ASICs. The Management Graphic s' Edox server is based on an Intel Pentium processor host and is equipped with a specific system configuration. If you decide that you want to purchase a software RIP to install on your workstation, or even an old 486 machine, Linsenberg believes that this combination may not apply to the output of large-format printers. "RIP operations for large-sized output devices will take more time and will create very large bitmap data," he said. "Your host must have more computing power and memory to handle the output of files." But Shytz of Amiable Technologies said that pure-soft RIP products such as the company's PhotoPrint series can be Many users bring more ideas and benefits. "More than half of users don't need to spend tens of thousands of dollars to buy a workstation host," she said. "Using software RIP, they can buy any computer host device based on their own budget." In addition, Hughes also criticized that hardware RIP is more difficult to upgrade, and it was eliminated more than software RIP. A lot faster. The company's vice president and chairman, Clive Liu, also agreed with Pixo Art, the maker of Picosio 98, a large-format output software RIP. He said that hardware RIP was an early solution designed to accelerate slow Postscript processing operations. But now, "the hardware on the market is already fast enough; the speed issue now depends entirely on the software architecture," he said. Picoxo's Picoxo supports the FlashPix format (this is the format provided by Live Picture, developed by Microsoft, Eastman Kodak, and other vendors). Liu said that this support can provide dramatic speed improvements and surpass other software RIPs. "When time is money," he said, "You don't have to waste two hours waiting for an output. You don't have to be bound by a black box, and you always pray for the quality of the output." Regardless of the choice of software or In the case of hardware RIP, the operating platform is also a relevant consideration; your RIP must be able to easily connect and transfer data with existing computer network equipment. Kesu Li stressed that the graphics market is still quite focused on Mac orientation; as for new markets, such as photo printing shops, etc., there may be more opportunities for the Windows platform. However, you will find that many RIP products can handle files from any operating system. For example, Picoxo 98 can be used on Windows NT servers for Windows 95 users or as a Chooser-level driver on a Macintosh; Splash Server can be built on Apple Power Macintosh, Windows 95 and NT systems. ; Amiable's PhotoPrint server will also have Windows 95, NT (with the same software part) and Ma c models. As for what Liu said, "Every product can provide very good quality." The difference between these RIP products lies in the number of tools they provide and other specialized operating capabilities. , such as pre-press or signboard production related functions and so on. For professional video applications, RIP should have the following functions: support for Postscript Level 2 , ICC color management, and calibration of printers for specific conditions. These are any competent prepress RIP should have the basic requirements. In addition to these, various manufacturers also provide some special features. For example, Am iable's Hugh says that if you use the company's PhotoPrint to work, you need not skip back to Adobe Photoshop when you need to add text or perform some color correction. . The software also provides a variety of fuzzification algorithms used for output, allowing the image content to appear as a special effect with various depths of field. Colorbus RIP products--Cyclone and Cyclone II--provide optional OPI (Open Prepress Inte