Let’er RIP

ColorGATE recently upgraded its RIP software Version 6 and provided a significant increase in productivity for printing services and color management.

“The Parallel Process Manager is without a doubt one of the most exciting innovations in the Productionserver 6 architecture,” said Catherine Kirschner, manager marketing communication, ColorGATE Digital Output Solutions GmbH, Hannover, Germany. “Intelligent resource management provides for a significant increase in productivity.”

An equally important technical innovation in Version 6 is the Ink Saver option. Sophisticated algorithms for the calculation of the color separation guarantee a substantial reduction in the amount of ink used, particularly for vividly colored production processes without any loss in quality, even under the most intense scrutiny. “CCM, the Cost Calculation Module, which is already available for Version 5 and later, makes it possible to precisely determine how high the savings will be before you print—right down to the last picoliter,” said Kirschner.

Wasatch SoftRIP has introduced the Wasatch Tracer. “This powerful new tool has become the new premier solution for print-and-cut needs,” said Schaumburg. “Users can now prepare cut paths directly in SoftRIP quickly and easily for both vector and raster graphics.”

Nelson has been impressed with the introduction of load balancing, which he said is important when one is driving multiple presses with one solution. “In addition, ink optimization has been introduced as a means for large-format devices to save 15 percent, even 20 percent of their ink consumption,” he said. “There is also an increased desire to monitor color quality, and correct and verify the color quality.”

Color Management

Print shops are placing a great deal of importance on color management because their print buyers have increasing color quality demands, while shops are introducing new printing devices. This makes color consistency across devices, and from day-to-day, mission critical for today’s print shops.

Color management is so much more than a library of pre-configured color “set-ups” found in most RIPs today, according to Eversole. “Color management is the top line focus at ColorBurst,” he said. “Every RIP platform we develop starts and ends with color management.”

This focus has lead to the inclusion of an ICC-compliant printer profiler as a standard feature to its RIPs. Because of this, at any given time a user can quickly re-profile their system bringing back to its known color state or add new media to their line without sacrificing color accuracy.

“How color profiles are actually used is every bit as important as having them and can be the tipping point in taking real advantage of a color management system,” said Eversole. “ColorBurst RIPs’ CMS properly renders print jobs with mixed-color spaces, Pantone and custom spot colors, as well as live transparencies and blends.”

In order to address the importance of color management, ErgoSoft has developed the ColorGPS profiler, which in integrated into the RIP and creates a color profiles that conform to the ICC-standards. Color GPS is user-friendly and can support up to eight colors profiles. ErgoSoft has also developed tools in the RIP to check the color accuracy of your output. “This is very instrumental for users that depend on Named Colors and Swatchbooks,” said Eduardo Vargas, sales/support, ErgoSoft US LLC, Nashua, NH. “This can show you what is within the color gamut of your printer and what is not, so that you can make your color corrections appropriately to match color.”

EFI Fiery XF features Dynamic Wedge. “This is a technology for verification and optimization of key colors within individual jobs that ensures customers get the most from their prints, whether they are in a proofing or production environment,” said Campa, who added that both Adobe PostScript 3 Engine (CPSI) and Adobe PDF Print Engine 2.0 (native PDF rendering) are supported.