The Multi-Purpose RIP
Easy to integrate—and packed with JDF functionality—today's robust RIPs are tagged "revolutionary" and "central" for any workflow.
THE RIP OF of today is a master of all trades: color management, advanced screening, JDF-functionality, ticketed workflow, soft proofing finesse—a wide range of performance targets for a new era of prepress automation. Central RIP (raster image processor) for any workflow; revolutionary RIP architecture; JDF-enabled—and proud of it. These descriptions fit the latest trends in RIP technology targeting prepress environments today.
Xitron, for example, has been giving high emphasis to its Navigator Harlequin RIP, XiFlow workflow, and Xenith Extreme Adobe RIP—all of which introduced new functionalities at drupa earlier this year. These new products all include JDF functionality.
Key enhancements of Xitron Navigator RIP 6.4 include the JDF support and preflight checker. JDF support will allow handling of JDF-compatible files from other applications and devices through the RIP. The Preflight Checker allows an operator to verify that PDFs being sent to the RIP are certified PDFs.
A workflow solution for Navigator and other Harlequin-based RIPs, Xiflow 2.0 also made its international debut at drupa. Using a graphical Workflow Editor, operators define specific workflow needed to complete a job, including basic job management, preflighting, imposition, and output for both proofing and film or plate. Client software for both PC and Macs allow prepress operators to direct jobs through a workflow without leaving their workstations.
What do these RIP functionality boosts touted by Xitron mean to the larger graphic arts community collectively? In a word: synergy. The RIPs of today are armed with more robust architecture—giving them the ability to meet escalating prepress demands for multifunctional RIP support to deliver new levels of productivity and automation, reports Bill Owens, product manager of Navigator RIP Solutions, Xitron.
So, does this mean it is an exciting time to be in workflow development? "Absolutely," notes Owens. "JDF technology is creating new paths and connections for communicating between processes in print production. I am sure we have not begun to realize where it can take us."
The latest in RIP
Earlier this year, Ultimate Technographics announced that its Impostrip JDF output has been certified by five more industry-leading prepress vendors: Adobe, AGFA, ArtWork Systems, Dalim, and Global Graphics. Prepress professionals can make plates faster with Impostrip, because of its client-server architecture. Impostrip Server sits on the same computer as the RIP and the PS and PDF files, saving an enormous amount of time from unnecessary transfer of files across the network for proofing and printing.
David Watson, president and CEO of Ultimate Technographics reports: "Impostrip is well positioned to serve prepress professionals moving from existing standards like the CIP4 PJTF workflows to the new emerging JDF standard, because Impostrip is the world's only imposition solution that supports the full requirements of CIP4, including cutting, folding, and color information for modern printing presses."
Esko-Graphics has been energizing its RIP developments with FlexRip, a multipurpose RIP and quality-control tool offering a variety of output formats and driving a wide range of filmsetters, platesetters, and proofers. FlexRip is workflow and device independent and features new screening technologies for a wide range of printing processes.
The new FlexRip 5.2 is JDF enabled and can output a JDF file with ink key settings for a variety of offset presses. It also features ScreenManager, a tool that lets users create custom screening, blending various screening technologies across the tonal range with full control of parameters and transition points.
At drupa, Kodak Polychrome Graphics (KPG) introduced its Matchprint ProofPro RIP version 1.0 and Matchprint ProofPro Media for users of inkjet printers from HP, Epson, and Canon. This new RIP is based on Adobe's CPSI technology and provides compatibility with the most recent PDF files. KPG's Color Fidelity Module color management software and Matchprint profiles ensure accurate color reproduction, true spot colors, and true black reproduction.
"Used together, the Matchprint ProofPro RIP and Matchprint ProofPro Media offer our customers an easy-to-use source of accurate and consistent proofs from a variety of inkjet printers," said Lisa Singer, worldwide product manager, inkjet proofing for KPG. "The combination helps users take advantage of inkjet proofing from concept to contract as their customers' demands dictate."
With a strong packaging background, Artwork Systems' technology has focused on providing its customers with strong vector and raster workflow and editing tools, reports Artwork Systems' C. Ted Namur, IV, manager, consumer packaging and print solutions. Namur says that Artwork Systems has reinvested in providing technologies that meet its customers' needs and the emerging—and proliferating—presence of PDF and JDF.
"Artwork Systems has spent much of the past two years expanding its vector workflows to support PDF 1.4 and 1.5, including the development of an entirely new trapping engine which supports these file formats and can trap them without flattening," Namur said. "This new trapper also automates the trapping processes and extends the automated trapping module's current abilities to include CT-to-CT, vignette-to-CT, and vignette-to-vignette trapping—providing users with a truly automated trapping workflow option."
Artwork Systems has incorporated its Certified PDF technology, from its Enfocus subsidiary, into all of its workflow products including its RIP workflows. Certified PDF allows users to create profiles that dictate how PDFs should be made and to preflight incoming PDF files to insure they meet their specific PDF specification.
Creo's Brisque® family of workflow products automates operations and processes in the prepress workflow and includes Brisque Access, Brisque Pro, Brisque Pack, and Brisque Impose. By combining the Brisque workflow with Adobe Extreme™ technology, Creo provides the flexibility of a PDF workflow with the security and reliability of the CT and LW production file formats.
Brisque Pack is specifically designed to apply the automation, RIP Once workflow, color handling, trapping, and editing tools of the Brisque family of products for the packaging industry. RIP Once assures file integrity since the same RIPed data is used for all output devices (contract and imposition proofer, imagesetter, or platesetter).
RIPit Computer Corp.'s OpenRIP Flexo Edition is a high-end Adobe PostScript 3 Workflow designed for use in label prepress environments of all sizes that cater to the flexographic and offset printing markets. OpenRIP drives a wide variety of imagesetters, inkjet printers, and plotters; and it offers TIFF-out and PS-out drivers for advanced Level 3 features, including monitor preview, step-and-repeat, In-RIP Trapping, and die database.
In-RIP Trapping executes complex trapping commands automatically at the RIP—reducing human error in complex prepress tasks. RIPit's TrapZone feature enhances Adobe In-RIP Trapping by letting the operator select separate trap settings for different parts of a page. You can define zones while viewing the RIPed image, and immediately re-RIP the file to see the effects of your settings.
In response to demand for greater productivity and multi-device prepress operations, RIP developers are producing solutions that are targeting new levels of automation. Open standards, such as JDF and PDF, enable applications to deliver better collaboration and increased automation to help prepress environments work in smarter territories—with the RIP as a central component.
Marie Alonso has been covering the printing industry since 1994 and is the editorial director of PrintWriter.com. She welcomes responses at 856-216-9956 or marie@printwriter.com.
