-
Advice on RIP software please?
anybody have any ideas on what would be the best rip software available?? I know wasatch, shiraz and versaworks are the main ones but i Have found that versaworks has its limits. for example sometimes i find that its a little buggy. or the nesting feature is not as sophisticated. I just feel like investing in better software which is faster to use. I cant say I have the latest update on the versaworks but dont think it would make that much of a difference.
thanx
Phill
-
11 Replies
-
i dont work versaworks much these days, but i havent found any issues with it at all… actually find it a good and easy to use software. the lad that works ours daily hasnt told me of anything that has restricted him in anyway…
if it wasnt for us having the earlier version Roland soljet 2 ide have moved that machine onto versaworks also as its currently being run using troop RIP.
the versaworks runs our Roland AJ740.that aside, i have also considered moving both machines onto Wasatch. i think that RIP looks really good and has some nice features i noticed in their demo videos. this is not so much to do with me having any sort of problems at all with versaworks. its simply having all our printers using the same software. makes life easier on the staff and those trying to learn how to use the machines if they only have to get their head around the one software.
-
I was thinking the same about wasatch. though i dont know too much about it, it looks like you can work it faster then versaworks. The main thing is the nesting.if i have 2 triangles then i would like them to be nested efficiently which versaworks just dont do. I cant understand why people dont see this as an issue??
as for what i would like to get out of my rip software :
quickly set up the layout and other settings
no cut contour problems as sometimes versaworks dont pick it up
no unrecognised printer problems
better nesting capabilities
if halfway throughout my printing the laptop goes dead or theres a carriage interuption i would like to continue without restarting the whole job.
more print and cut facilities e.g print ten then cutcontour then contue to print ten more without cutting the sheet. or print and cut a graphic individualy sa ten a1’s for example( you might be able to do this on versaworks but i’m unsure)among other things
-
sorry cant add to that…
the reason being is, our "print and cut" machine is run via TROOP RIP. which is a watered down version of flexisign. So we wouldnt find any cut issues as we do not use versaworks for cutting.
versaworks runs our AJ740 which is high speed print only machine. we only run large banners, truck wraps and large volume printing through this machine. versaworks does this and more effortlessly.
regarding nesting…
if its a triangle design, will the RIP not still see the image as a bitmap square and nest accordingly, rather than interlocking?
IF the RIP is the problem, and its an actual vector graphic, can you not nest the vector in your sign software before exporting?just thinking out loud, im probably wrong… 😉 :lol1:
-
well we just started learning Wasatch, some nice little bits to it, its not that bad, its pretty good.
I tested about 4 RIPs so far, they all got plus points and bad points, I yet to find the perfect RIP 🙂
-
In the design software rob anything can be done of course but if you have 5 different files which you cut and paste in to another file simply for nesting purposes it just take ages to get a perfect nest. if i could click a button and everything gets nested economically then it would be great. just saves time and money.
-
quote Dave Rowland:well we just started learning Wasatch, some nice little bits to it, its not that bad, its pretty good.I tested about 4 RIPs so far, they all got plus points and bad points, I yet to find the perfect RIP 🙂
I think the above is about as true as it comes. There are many RIP’s out there but none of them are perfect. I am obviously going to be biased toward Shiraz but it is NOT without fault. v6.7 appears to be as good as it gets and the latest Signature is fantastic, but I’m sure I will be responded to with a multitude of arguments on that statement 😳
Nobody has mentioned Onyx on this post! That surprises me as for many years it has been our biggest competition. Wasatch (or Mimaki Raterlink as it is also known) is another big contender, then the others seem to follow up behind, so to speak. Troop, Versaworks, Colorgate, Colorchoice……
If there are any questions regarding the new features in Shiraz (and yes, it does handle PDF’s better now) just ask, but maybe in another post
Stafford
-
hmmm… may be they should have a seperate piece of software which handles nesting better. may be a plugin for illustrator perhaps?? as for which rip i guess its just a matter of learning about what they all do or speaking to people who can give ideas of whats good and whats not.
-
Most RIPs are fairly equal in what they do and my opinion is let the printer decide the RIP for you ie get the most popular RIP for your printer, this will give you the most flexibility to find profiles etc.
Most suppliers will have profiles for a Roland using vesaworks or a Mimaki usiong Rasterlink but i currently run a Mimaki through Wasatch and yes it is a great RIP but very hard to find profiles for this combination.
Regards
Russell.
-
Well we are currently learning Wasatch as we now have an AGFA Anapurna M2050 flatbed printer but RIP is still yet to be settled, we are on trial of Wasatch and I have studied RIP’s over the last few years as I want a central solution that does the JV3 and some form of proofing, let alone do other things that I want it to do. I am already finding some weaknesses but as we are profiled, the print quality is very true to it’s colour.
As we already have Shiraz 6.4 on the JV3 and the nesting feature does work reasonably well, I also had a test of Shiraz Signature few years ago and I have to admit it certainly a very good bit of programming, it uses a layout feature which is great. Shiraz imo lead the way 6-7 years ago as the other rips on the market that were bundled with the JV3 where not producing good output.
Onyx, I have tested production house as well, I learn quite a bit about this one but they just brought out X10, so need to look at that. Onyx did print well when it was tested.
For colour accuracy, I was blown away with Ergo Soft/ Gandisoft but not impressed with stability of the RIP.
Caldera, amazing RIP tbh but doesn’t do everything I want, but was taken back by the speed of linux.
I could write a book on RIPs, as I review RIP’s I am looking for how well it will fit in with a workflow from today to tomorrow.
-
:police: Please take a moment to look over our Board Rules.
.
-
quote Stafford Cox::police: Please take a moment to look over our Board Rules.
.
Sorry, honest mistake 😳
Stafford
Log in to reply.
