Home Forums Printing Discussions General Printing Topics Does RIP software degrade the image quality?

  • Does RIP software degrade the image quality?

    Posted by James Breeze on 15 December 2009 at 14:46

    I’m running a good UK RIP software (correct profiles, manufacturer inks etc.) & use it mainly to print display work but occasionally I get asked to do a photo print (jpeg, tiff etc.) for someone, mostly friends & the like.

    What I find though is that it’s better to bypass the RIP software & print direct to the printer as the RIP tends to darken the pictures & also make them more grainy. I thought that this was exactly what the RIP was for, to ensure the exact colour match & control the quality of the print.

    It’s fine for poster & POP work though & makes life a hell of a lot easier & I just tend to avoid photo work anyway. Does anyone else find this sort of thing happening or am I just unlucky?

    Not a biggie question this, just really an anomaly that was just wondering if it was common or if some RIPs were better than others?

    David Rowland replied 15 years, 10 months ago 1 Member · 1 Reply
  • 1 Reply
  • David Rowland

    Member
    15 December 2009 at 15:41

    well perhaps your printer has a very good driver, for instance an epson or a HP might, but a ‘tuned’ RIP profile should be amazing in colour, detail and smoothing but this will be down to the skills of the RIP operator, theory is a RIP will print perfectly and will allow you to tune it to get it right, but a print driver should only allow certain amount of control.

    IMO, especially as I got an Xerox Office Copier is, I wish I could afford the RIP to run it with lol as the quality sucks at times

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