Which RIP. Onxy or Efi

[Robert Lambie]

we have versaworks running both our Roland machines and ONYX our HP latex.
had ONYX with our UV Flatbed too… to be honest, i prefer Versaworks for its simplicity/ease of use etc.
i havent used/run ONYX with our latex, our guys do that nowadays but did with our flatbed and kinda found it a bit disjointed a software. maybe just my limited use of it, but wasnt warming to it.
I have no knowledge on the efi RIP. sorry…

logic tells me that the Roland rip should work best with your Roland machine. 😕 could it be a profile issue rather than RIP?

[Lee Reeves]

Hi Rob

It not a profile issue jobs that have transparencies, drop shadows are not printing correctly but leaves a white box behind the transparencies. We save all our files as pdf x1a 2001 so transparencies are flattered but we still have issues on some jobs it’s a problem Roland are aware of as I have spoken with them versaworks just does not like transparencies especially in design files rolands solution is to save the files as tiffs. We handle a lot of clients supplied artwork and I don’t want the risk of messing with there artwork.

From what I’ve seen of the rips I’m leaning towards the efi xf fiery rip just wanted overs opinions

[Tom Gent]

A lot of users I know moving from versa works have gone over Using Caldera, the APPE PDF engine eliminates a lot of the issues you have, also it runs on Mac. Check out there website you can download a free trial, you won’t get the APPE engine on the free trail, prob due to adobe licensing. They have videos of how to use it ect.

[Chris Wool]

just a thought because its a print and cut machine have you concidered wasatch don’t know how the others handel the cutting but wasatch seams easy enough and printed every thing i have thrown at it so far ?

[Alan Drury]

Large format RIPS do not seem as robust as some of the high end litho RIPS when it comes to transparencies and effects. These files also potentially can be very large. I always make a point of flattening such effects on my own files I send out or on files I get in from others before I send them out again. Rather than the expense of another RIP whiich may sort one problem but actually not be as good with another I would concentrate on making the files as clean as possible and then you will have no trouble at all.
Alan D

[Lee Reeves]

A selection of file has been sent to roland tech and they have reported back that there is no problems with the artwork some had live trasparencies and some had been flatterned but the versaworks rip still is not processing them correctly as I have said there answer is to save job that do not need cutting or special inks ie white as tiff’s. We always preflight client supplied artwork to highlight and fix problems which could cause problem even after this some jobs are still not printing correctly this is why we are looking at a new rip. We really like the simplicity of versa works but just need something that will process PDFs ideally with live transparancies.

[Andrew Edwards]

Hi

You will find Onyx Thrive does a great job with these issues – it has the full Adobe engine with Normalizer which ensures ALL your Postscript files go through the same route and have the same correct output.
One of the big problems with Caldera is that it doesn’t have Adobe Normalizer so only PDFs are processed by the Adobe rip – other file types can’t use it and you are back to square one. Try a Thrive trial where you can use the Adobe rip.

Tom it’s best to register yourself as a supplier so the good folks on here know you are a Caldera dealer and have a vested interest 😉

Andrew

[Stafford Cox]

I can’t speak for EFI but Thrive is very good. Slow, but good. Shiraz on the other hand is lightening quick but doesn’t have contour cutting or spot colour replacement. I’m a reseller for both so I’m fortunate enough to know the downfalls of each. For a Roland, I would choose Onyx, purely because of the amount profiles it will have as standard.

I hope that helps.

Stafford

[Colin Crabb]

Slightly off topic – with Onyx X11 should we run it on its own dedicated PC, or is it happy to run along side another RIP?

[Stafford Cox]

I find it’s better to have a dedicated PC for any proper RIP. However, that’s not always possible. As for running 2 RIP’s on the same PC!? I think you’re asking for trouble personally 😀

Stafford

[Colin Crabb]

Cheers Stafford – was running X10 & Rasterlink fine on the PC, since upgrade…. not soo good, could say its a little sloooooooooooooooooow 🙄

[Stafford Cox]

Yeah, Thrive is a greedy b*****d!! I run it on a wicked spec i7 in our demo room and if it’s got more than a couple of MB PDF to play with, forget doing anything else on it. Great RIP, but very power hungry.

[Colin Crabb]

Yeah latest version seems very power hungry, 2 RIPS on an i5 + 16GB ram works fine, until you try to import large 40MG + files.

Oh well time to add PC 7 to our set up lol

[David Rowland]

very interesting

I really want Thrive in our flow, as i think it will sort our final problem out but as I found with all RIPs I have tested, there just is not a perfect one!

[Stafford Cox]

I totally agree Dave. If I can help with Thrive at all, let me know. I have a copy running here on our Voyager Pro. It’s definitely the right RIP for that machine but I’d still rather run Shiraz to a Mimaki.