RIP IN Signlab 8

[Denise Goodfellow]

we can run our mimaki on either signlab 8 or rasterlink ( rasterlink came with the printer)

In all honesty, signlab is much easier to use ( well I think so) but rasterlink gives better reds.

Signlab is a full program with rip, rasterlink is just the rip ( so I`m lead to believe, the conversation at tea time is riveting, the downfall with working with your hubby)

[Peter Normington]

signlab is a very good rip, especially for print and cut. it does have a few issues with colour profiles, but overall it is fairly user friendly, I use wasatch also, but find the interface a bit lacking, Wasatch does have a very good color replacement facility, though.
Signlab 9 now offers some features that have been improved over 8, and now supports transparencies, but at the end of the day, if you have used any program for a number of years, it is probably better to stay with the devil you know!
I think you can download a demo from cadlink so may be worth having a look,

Peter

[David Rowland]

as with any RIP they have their downsides, we use Wasatch on the AGFA and to be honest, it isn’t that bad but I am slowly learning the negatives as I move into month 5 with the RIP & machine.

I cant comment on signlab, but I am wondering if you can install Signlab rip on a seperate PC so you can carry on design work in SignLab? i suspect the experts will know.

[Peter Normington]

Dave
signlab rip can be installed on a separate machine, but there is an extra charge for a separare dongle. Cant tell you how much though

Peter

[Ruairi O'Boyle]

I use both Signlab 8 and Rasterlink. I find rasterlink more comprehensive but for general printing signlab is relatively easy. I agree with Peter profiles in signlab can be a problem as I almost learned to my peril on a last minute print job I took on! Rasterlink saved me though.

[Dave Rich]

interesting guys, yes Pete, as I know Wasatch it would be silly to ditch it, and I am sure the extra dongle on Signlab 8 would be expensive. Food for thought…

[Peter Normington]

you dont have to ditch anything, just download the demo, and see if it works for you, signlab rip is actually underrated, but you do need to have a reasonable knowledge of how print works, to take advantage,
all rips require some basic knowledge to get the best results.
most rips do the job,
but at the end of the day its down to cico

Peter

[Harry Cleary]

Dang….thought this thread was gonna be about some sci-fi disaster movie sequel! 🙁 😀

[Shaun Harris]

I currently run SL8 and I am about to purchase a CJV30 with Rasterlink so I was interested when I spotted this thread.

I am interested to know if anyone here has any more to add as I am venturing from an Edge to ink. I do currently outsource print so we do prepare the job ourselves.

[Neil Riley]

Hi Shaun,
I have a CJV30 and SL8 and RL.

Probably 99% of my stuff gets designed and printed & cut through Signlab/VPM.
It’s just so much easier to do it all from within SL.

Setting it up right is the biggest problem for most users, but once you’ve worked out the best settings you can save that as your queue and just tweak it if necessary.

I should say though that I’ve made my own profiles/printmodes so I get perfect colours and density from the Signlab rip. I’ve never use the supplied profiles so can’t comment on those.

The RL profiles are good and that rip is okay but once again you need to work out the best settings and work out how to alter things within the rip. Setting up a print & cut job is a bit of a pain having to go through Corel, manually place reg marks, go through Fine Cut and then Rasterlink.
Makes you appreciate how well Signlab does it all – and much faster ripping too.

[Shaun Harris]

Thanks Neil.

The CJV is being installed on Wednesday of next week and we will receive 2 days training with the engineer so I will be looking through the answers I have received to help with questions.

Shaun.

[Gordon Forbes]

As said SL 8 colour profiles were not good for me I print to Versa works from signlab and the colours are good deep and vibrant. Thinking of upgrading to 9 and was told that the colour profiles have all been re done in SL 9 plus it supports transparencies now which I would think would be a really good thing.