AW: Birmy 5.2 vs. Epson Driver

["JŸrgen Ršsch" <jr@best-online.de>]

> Rafe B. wrote:
> >
> > OK, so I've decided to try working through a RIP,
> > just to see what it's all about, and what might
> > be gained over the Epson print driver.
>
> Well, I remember you relating - quite emphatically -  in several
> messages a week or so ago all of the reasons that you didn't need a RIP.
>
> > Ordered the demo of Birmy's PowerRip (V 5.2) for the
> > Epson 700.
>

Nice test - especially the part with the RGB-TIFF that didn't print as good
using the Birmy as with the native Epson driver.
I think Rafe is the typical example of someone who clearly does not need a
RIP. As Ken explained in his mail posted on Saturday, a RIP is extremely
useful for people who work pre press. Where elements out of several programs
are combined on one page (e.g. using XPress or PageMaker) and where vector
graphics or EPS elements are also used. A RIP is not needed if you only work
in PhotoShop or a similar program. These programs offer often a pretty good
handling of RGB files that can be easily printed using the original printer
driver. ICC profiles and several PhotoShop settings may improve the image
quality significantly. Even proof quality is achievable this way - but if
you combine your PhotoShop images on a page with other graphic elements
(e.g. Illustrator, Freehand or Corel) then proofing may become very
difficult and even printing can cause some problems (EPS-elements).
In this case there are several products available that offer assistance.
The easiest product is Epson's Stylus RIP that allows to print such pages
including EPS-files or to print Quark XPress files (where it is not so
simple or in some versions impossible to print to non-PS printers).
A product like Birmy's PowerRIP offers an clear defined CMYK input, more
settings and profile based color management to print your files as you see
them on your monitor. This softproof shows pretty good how a print job would
look like. PS-fonts and other PS-effects (like PS-patterns) can be printed
this way.
The next step are products like BESTColor that are clearly addressed to
professionals in design, advertising, prepress and publishing. These
products allow also to simulate the color behaviour of the final press by
choosing a 2nd profile, they recombine separated jobs and show so also
trapping, overprinting, the usage of DCS files and even individual spot
colors. Also interfaces to image setter RIPs are not unusual (BESTColor has
built-in Delta support). Also these products become very useful for
reproduction professionals because any conversion within PhotoShop to match
on another paper becomes unnecessary - it is done within the RIP, so your
workstation is immediately free after saving a copy of your RGB file to a
drop-folder, that is set up for the loaded paper. When you change the paper
you just place a copy in the folder for this paper and that's it. It also
avoids multiple copies (for multiple papers) on your workstation and so you
never accidently delete the wrong file from your hard disk.
But these professional features have their prices. Usually those products
are $1000-5000 (BESTColor $1799) and even more expensive for large format
printers: $2500-10000 (BESTColorXXL $3499). But these products are for
professionals and the companies have to offer professional support,
trainings and supplies (BEST takes this part very serious).
But the demo-version is free <G>.

Check out Joseph Yates' RIP comparison page for more details:
http://www.islandartcards.com/epson/RIPcompare.html
if you want to know more about BESTColor/BESTColorXXL send me an email or
visit
http://www.bestcolor.com

Juergen Roesch
Technical Director
BEST Software Inc.
190 East Main Street
Huntington NY 11743 - USA
Phone 516-423-3710    mailto:jr@bestcolor.com
Fax   516-423-5008    http://www.bestcolor.com

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