Re: CDTobie's comments on CMYK RIPs

["Rafe B." <rafeb@channel1.com>]

At 06:05 PM 8/27/99 +1000, Dale Weedman wrote:


>Can anyone help as to where I should go to obtain more understanding. What
>do they do? Advantages of use? How does one use a RIP?


Dale, I'll let some of the experts here fill in the
major details of your question.  I don't use a RIP,
and I suspect that many others on this list don't
use one either.  (But then again, many do!)  I've
worked with a couple of RIPs, and decided against
their use, at least for now.

If you're simply printing photos, or scans of
artwork, and if you're mostly happy with the
results you're getting now, you probably don't 
need a RIP.

If you're printing on one of the newer 6-color
Epsons (eg., Stylus Photo, 700, 750, 1200, etc.)
then you will have a hard time finding a RIP for
your printer, in any case.  And even if you do
find one, you may be a) disappointed with its
output quality, and b) rudely amazed by its price.

The pros on this group are using RIPs for a number
of purposes, but one of the more devious of these
is to circumvent the Epson print driver, so that
they can hand-tune the CMYK components of the 
images they're printing.  They do this for any
number of reasons -- to get deeper blacks, or to
optimize the printing of a certain range of 
colors, etc.)  This is no trivial task, even once
you've acquired an appropriate RIP for your printer.



rafe b.

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