Run proofer via workflow or via proofing rip? your thoughts please

[beermonster]

hi geniuseses :smiley:

would there be issues or anything negative in say having apogee or xmf (or any workflow I guess) running an epson 9900 for contract quality proofing etc and impo proofs - as opposed to flipping a tiff etc at a proofing rip like oris, gmg or efi?

your opinions on good or bad idea or not, upsides, downsides, b-sides welcomed - hopefully before the thread goes to shit :laugh:

thanks folkies :smiley:

[Joe]

They will do it but I've heard they are not as good as the stand alone rips. Had we wanted to do that when we got Prinergy they told us they would recommend a secondary Prinergy server just for proofing and since we already had 2 EFI servers it didn't make sense for us.

[beermonster]

gotcha thanks

agfa just came in with mental price for apogee and a proofer (epson 9900) and cant decide if apogee is good enough to run it or it should have a rip inbetween - efi or gmg etc

of course another rip costs so it makes sense if the workflow can do it

[DigitalCrapShoveler]

We run a separate proofing RIP. AX can handle it, but it slows everything down with 4 proofers and 2 CTPs.

[DigiCorn]

We run EFI RIP for color. Ours is pretty fast... like I said before on another thread - with color match from impo drop in in Rampage to finished proof (25 x 19) about 10 minutes. Pantone match is very accurate - best I've seen. We have an 8-color 7880, and a 6-color 10600 (dead) that we are hopefully replacing with 8-color 9880 very soon (maybe today - yay!)

[rotarypower3]

I came from Prinergy with EFI Colorproof to Apologee with it's own "proofing" system.  :cry:
Unless you opt for ColorTune, you're shit out of luck if the supplied paper and color profiles don't magically give you what you're expecting.

Definatly go for a 2 piece setup!  :grin:

..

[Farabomb]

I have Prinergy EVO with the KPS so there is no separate rip for the proofing. It does work but it slows everything down and looses connection often. I have EFI and a Proactive box sitting here that came with the Epson gathering dust. You can do it but if you want throughput a separate RIP is the way to go.

[frailer]

We run Black Magic which polls the RIP'd data, then re-reses to something like 720 dpi. I can't comment on other setups, but this works really well. It's damned fast under Snow leopard/Intel Mac too.
If you are desperate for this thread to be jacked, looks like you'll have to DIY it, beer.    :laugh:  Hmmm...would this constitute self-abuse.   :undecided:

[beermonster]

neh - i'm a brit - they don't understand a word i've said - the little they do is via some obscure interwebs decyphering utility called "britspeek" or summat

i think the standalone system / method is best - however agfa just came back with a brilliantl price AND threw in a epson 9900 too but all via apogee and not a standalone rip. sadly the price almost forces me to take this deal - possibly subject to quality

however - we print on so many substrates it's impossible to profile them all so how "accurate" does accurate have to be?

[frailer]

A mile away from packaging here, but 'accurate' would be a bit elastic, I guess. Good luck with your decision.

[andyfest]

We're running 1 bit tiffs from Nexus to an EFI BestScreen proofing system output on an Epson 10600. It's pretty quick, albeit old (6 years now). CMYK is press-accurate, but spots are emulated and not contract quality.

[andyfest]

Oh forgot to say that we too are in packaging. We've done different "whitepoints" (within EFI) for all of the substrates we use (SBS, CCNB, PPV), so the substrate colour is brought into play in the printed proof.

[Grimace]

hi geniuseses :smiley:

would there be issues or anything negative in say having apogee or xmf (or any workflow I guess) running an epson 9900 for contract quality proofing etc and impo proofs - as opposed to flipping a tiff etc at a proofing rip like oris, gmg or efi?

your opinions on good or bad idea or not, upsides, downsides, b-sides welcomed - hopefully before the thread goes to shit :laugh:

thanks folkies :smiley:

FWIW-

I had basically asked my Fuji sales guy the same question, my understanding of how workflows and CTP are nil, so I may be missing something.
I think a proof should be generated by the same RIP that will process the final Plate/Film. I think this because, if a different RIP is used for proof than output, how can you guarantee it will be processed the same?

That being said, this is the answer i got from the fuji guy:
Hi Tim-
Here is your answer on the TIFF:
 
Using the included low-res driver XMF can export composite tiff, (4/c) or Raster PDF which is essentially a separated tiff that includes all spot colors wrapped in a PDF wrapper.  Raster PDF is fast and efficient when sent to proofing rips / DFE's that support it.
 
IMPORTANT:
If driving a Fuji CTP directly the included high-res driver is consumed, even if the engine is not running.  If export of 1-bit is required we would need a second high-res driver.
 
Using this second HR driver we could also export Fuji TIFF 8bit separated, (Final Proof file format).  Again, the rip receiving this would need to support the format.  CGS does, I believe GMG does but EFI does not.
 
So I am more confused than ever about RIPs and how workflows with integrated RIPs connect to devices!
I figure I must be missing something here...

One more thing, our current RIP (Open RIP Symphony v3.0) has three separate devices we can send the RIPed file to(imagesetter, laser printer, HP110 Ikjet proofer)is this somehow unique?

[beermonster]

well - went to a company thats running their 9900 direct from apogee - so i gave em a file and got em to print it - total crap, and that's being "kind".

The agfa rep was with me too - we took their proof back to my workplace, got out press sheets, existing proofs and pantone books - all adds up until the apogee proof then it dies :undecided:

needless to say the rep was amazed......

so may be back to trueflow, exf rip and epson 9900

[G_Town]

Driving an 9800 and a approval from Nexus here.