Which workflow do you use?

[Laurens]

I've set up a poll on my Prepressure site asking visitors which prepress workflow they use. So far Prinergy seems to be the most popular, closely followed by Apogee and Prinect. If you haven't voted yet, please do so - then head back here to discuss your vote and somehow relate it to some obscure 70's TV show (or so)  :grin:

[Joe]

Prinergy here. We used to use Nexus and switched a couple of years ago. I like the product but dealing with the big red K can be frustrating at times.

[andyfest]

Nexus "Classic" here (v 9.5.. Good product once you get used to it - we have both the older ps RIP and the newer pdf RIP module. Only regret is that when we purchased the RIP in 2003, I couldn't persuade the company to invest in a full version of ArtPro, so we ended up with Nexus Edit, which I find somewhat clunky. My main frustration is that once Artworks Systems merged with Esko, and subsequently updated the workflow from Nexus to Automation 10, they wanted us to pay major $$$$ to update. At some point in the next two or three years we will be forced to either pay the update $ or completely switch workflows. BTW does Prinergy charge for updates?

[Stiv]

10.6 Rampage here. Mostly a PDF/EPS workflow with for Preps 5 imposition.

Been talking about upgrading since the final episode of M.A.S.H. It doesn't look like we are going anywhere soon.

It is a real fight sometimes to get some of the new PDF versions through the RIP. Its going to bite us in the ass one of these days.

[frailer]

Just voted Laurens. Shall post back when the necessary obscure 70s show reveals itself.   :grin:

We've found recently that XMF and Apogee both use Adobe trapping. Some issues with trapping of Spots, which Kodak and some others don't experience with their proprietary trapping.

FYI, Andyfest, we pay about $K5/year for XMF Maintenance Licence. Cover all upgrades, bug fixes. They have improved things a lot since we first got it. I don't know how that compares to the others upkeep fees.
Every year I go through the "WTF do we have to pay that amount of money for!?" 

[Joe]

Nexus "Classic" here (v 9.5.. Good product once you get used to it - we have both the older ps RIP and the newer pdf RIP module. Only regret is that when we purchased the RIP in 2003, I couldn't persuade the company to invest in a full version of ArtPro, so we ended up with Nexus Edit, which I find somewhat clunky. My main frustration is that once Artworks Systems merged with Esko, and subsequently updated the workflow from Nexus to Automation 10, they wanted us to pay major $$$$ to update. At some point in the next two or three years we will be forced to either pay the update $ or completely switch workflows. BTW does Prinergy charge for updates?

If you have a service contract (not cheap) the dot updates are included in the service contract while major upgrades have to be bought. If you don't have a service contract I think you have to pay for the dot updates though I'm not 100% sure on that because we do carry the expensive service contracts. And I think if you have the super duper deluxe service contract even the major updates are included in it. We do not have that one.

[Joe]

Just voted Laurens. Shall post back when the necessary obscure 70s show reveals itself.   :grin:

We've found recently that XMF and Apogee both use Adobe trapping. Some issues with trapping of Spots, which Kodak and some others don't experience with their proprietary trapping.

FYI, Andyfest, we pay about $K5/year for XMF Maintenance Licence. Cover all upgrades, bug fixes. They have improved things a lot since we first got it. I don't know how that compares to the others upkeep fees.
Every year I go through the "WTF do we have to pay that amount of money for!?" 

That's cheap. We're paying $1,200 a MONTH! That's almost 3 times as much as what you are paying. :cry:

[andyfest]

If you have a service contract (not cheap) the dot updates are included in the service contract while major upgrades have to be bought. If you don't have a service contract I think you have to pay for the dot updates though I'm not 100% sure on that because we do carry the expensive service contracts. And I think if you have the super duper deluxe service contract even the major updates are included in it. We do not have that one.

We do pay about $8000 CDN for our service contract and do get the small updates and support for free, but the major updates seem to be major $. It seems like a lot of money when there has only been 1 dot update this year and we have logged 1 support call in 2011.

[typeman]

Rampage 12.0 with Metrix. We used to use Preps. Metrix is very nice, and Rampage does wonderful for us.

[frailer]

Rampage 12.0 with Metrix. We used to use Preps. Metrix is very nice, and Rampage does wonderful for us.

Any chance some screenshots of Metrix GUI? Heard good things about it. Curious.

[David]

Esko Suite 7 here, been using it since V8-V9 back in the late 80's, I think.

[Stiv]

Rampage 12.0 with Metrix. We used to use Preps. Metrix is very nice, and Rampage does wonderful for us.

Any chance some screenshots of Metrix GUI? Heard good things about it. Curious.

I'm interested also. Start an AMA?

[G_Town]

Nexus "Classic" here (v 9.5.. Good product once you get used to it - we have both the older ps RIP and the newer pdf RIP module. Only regret is that when we purchased the RIP in 2003, I couldn't persuade the company to invest in a full version of ArtPro, so we ended up with Nexus Edit, which I find somewhat clunky. My main frustration is that once Artworks Systems merged with Esko, and subsequently updated the workflow from Nexus to Automation 10, they wanted us to pay major $$$$ to update. At some point in the next two or three years we will be forced to either pay the update $ or completely switch workflows. BTW does Prinergy charge for updates?

How do you like the PDF rip versus the "classic nexus"?

[andyfest]

We bought the Nexus pdf RIP module to RIP supplied pdf files exported from Indy CS4/CS5 that contained transparent elements that "classic" did not interpret properly. 99% of our clients supply Illy files which we use in conjunction with our classic RIP with no issues. However, we have one large client for whom we make plastic tags, that supplies pdf files loaded with weird transparent elements. We generally gangrun these tags - up to 224 different tags on a 224 position dieline. Classic would sometimes mis-interpret the transparent elements and choke on the mega-pdf we were inputting. The pdf RIP module seems to interpret and RIP these files properly and quickly (compared to classic). These gangruns are really the only files that we have been using the pdf RIP for.

[G_Town]

We bought the Nexus pdf RIP module to RIP supplied pdf files exported from Indy CS4/CS5 that contained transparent elements that "classic" did not interpret properly. 99% of our clients supply Illy files which we use in conjunction with our classic RIP with no issues. However, we have one large client for whom we make plastic tags, that supplies pdf files loaded with weird transparent elements. We generally gangrun these tags - up to 224 different tags on a 224 position dieline. Classic would sometimes mis-interpret the transparent elements and choke on the mega-pdf we were inputting. The pdf RIP module seems to interpret and RIP these files properly and quickly (compared to classic). These gangruns are really the only files that we have been using the pdf RIP for.

So the PDF rip retains the PDF format until when? Final output to 1 bits?