Printing to Gracol with no color rip?

[stargate]

Is it possible to print PDF files within Gracol tolerances with just Epson rgb print driver? without having a rip?

[TheProcessIStheproduct]

Would be very very hard, you need a RIP to clip some of the epson gamut to be able to achieve gracol

[TerryWyse]

Is it possible to print PDF files within Gracol tolerances with just Epson rgb print driver? without having a rip?

Sure, as long as you do a profile conversion. As long as you are using the GRACoL profile as source and your printer RGB profile as destination, you should be good (assuming custom profiling of course....no "generic" supplied profiles).

There's nothing *inherently* more accurate about CMYK "RIP" profiles/color management vs. RGB "driver" profiles. If you're using the printer manufacturer's media (i.e. Epson media) then RGB driver-based profiles using that as the media type should be nearly as good as CMYK RIP profiles (I'm speaking strictly of ICC profiles here). On the other hand, if you're using a 3rd party media, then a CMYK RIP may be better suited since a custom calibration/profile will likely get you closer than running the "gamut" of different media types to find what works best for your 3rd party media.

I like to think of it like this....
A CMYK "RIP" profile will generally be better than an RGB driver profile IF the CMYK profile was done by someone skilled in building a particular RIP calibration and profile set-up. On the other hand, a CMYK RIP profile will generally be WORSE than an RGB driver profile in the hands of someone unskilled in using color management "best practices".

Terry