> Paul & Andy: I downloaded a copy of FirstPROOF, and WOW! does that do a lot! I like it a lot, but not sure how the price will go over with the bean counters. One question for Andy; I downloaded the Lite version to see if that would do what I wanted, and made sure to select Lite during the install, but it defaulted to Demo mode of the Pro version. What are the functional differences between the Pro version in Demo mode and the Lite? Is there a way to force it into Lite mode? Also, I'm a little confused by the feature list for the Lite product; it says that "TIFF Input - Configures an Input Folder for viewing TIFF images (both tiled and striped)" works, but "TIFF Open - Dynamically opens the TIFF files in a given folder for viewing" does not. What's the difference?
Hi David,
If you compare the price of FP to other s/w (DotSpy and Perfection have been mentioned), I think you'll find it's very competitively priced, especially when you consider what you get - as well as loads of tools (with more being added all the time), you also get color accurate viewing (using a new method which is simple and fast as well as accurate). And that's before you consider it runs on Mac or PC, is extremely fast,... Try finding another piece of s/w that can do that (color accurate viewing) at the same price.
The Lite version is built into Pro. So you get to run FP Pro for 28 days and at the end of that time it reverts (downgrades) to Lite. If you want to see the differences between Std, Pro and Lite, take a look at http://www.hamillroad.com/main/produ...comparison.htm (there's also a PDF file at the bottom of that page you can download). If you really want to, you could force it into Lite mode but the method to do so is not nice (move your clock fowards by 28 days - not recommended).
For anyone wanting ocassional use for a quick view, but who doesn't want to do anything too serious, FP Lite can be of use. But for anyone wanting to use the s/w for anything serious, especially on a regular day to day basis, I'd really recommend either Std or Pro depending on requirements. FP Pro has a lot more in it than Std, and continues to get things added - we have lots of ideas for more tools that'll come over time - so to my mind is well worth it.
Our expectation is that any purchase / use of FirstPROOF should pay for itself in a matter of weeks or months at most. You only have to catch one bad job that otherwise gets through to being printed and it pays for itself.
FirstPROOF allows you to setup a workflow, by creating a "TIFF Input" which has an input folder and an output folder. IIRC, Lite does not allow you to Output, so with Lite you can only create a TIFF Input which lets you look at files in a given folder (which you therefore have to configure for each different folder). Rather than having to configure an Input each time you want to view TIFF files in a particular folder, the "TIFF Open" allows you to dynamically 'open' that folder. It's a faster more convenient method. Since Lite is free, we can't give too much away, so Lite is pretty basic and has a large number of things removed, this included.
If you've downloaded the s/w, I suggest you try it for the 28 days and see how you get on with it. I think you'll find that it's excellently designed and developed s/w, being very bug free, very fast, with lots of tools, intuitive, etc... and with a lot of polish and subtle touches. We get a lot of feedback from our end-users and act on it. So it's a tool that has really evolved to work as real operators want, as opposed to what our engineers think is a good idea.
And I could also mention that you get excellent support with it - from the actual engineers who developed the product. So if you do get a problem (which is rare), or just need some help, you'll get an answer fast. Ask any of our existing users or resellers about how responsive we are and I'm sure you'll only hear positive things about us.
I've downloaded the Pro trial. I'm trying to view one-bit tiffs from Nexus which works fine for viewing the individual separations. Is it possible to view a composite of all colors and if so...how?
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[SIZE=2][I][B][FONT=Book Antiqua]Joe[/FONT][/B][/I][/SIZE]
OS: Mac OS 10.5.4 - RIP: Nexus 8.6 rev 4 - CTP: Lüscher XPose! 260 (2)
FirstPROOF always tries to automatically group files it finds in a given folder into jobs, pages and separations. For Harlequin PGB files it can automatically do this, as the PGB file format (header) contains things such as job name, job number, page number, separation list, separation colors, etc... For TIFF files, although this information could be stored (as TIFF tags) in the TIFF header, it rarely is. What most RIPs do that generate TIFF files is embed this information in the TIFF file name. But there is no standard for this and different RIPs embed this information in different ways - in fact even the same RIP (e.g. the Hqn RIP) allows the user to define how and what information is embedded into the file name (which can include no information).
We therefore developed a flexible File Name Filter mechanism which allows you to specify how your file name are structured, so that FirstPROOF can automatically group files etc... Once you've defined a filter, you select it when you create the "TIFF Input".
If you download the documentation, you'll find a document titled "Defining File Name Filters". This contains all the information you need to know on how to define them. You can either do so by hand (that is hand write a file name filter), or better still use the Filter Wizard (PC) / Assistant (Mac) to help you write one. Or even simpler still, mail me (andy.cave@hamillroad.com) telling me how your files are named and I'll write one for you.
To give you a quick example, I have some TIFF files produced by Nexus. These are in a folder titled "Job_J41706" and are named J41706P001_Black.tif, J41706P001_Cyan.tif, ..., J41706P001_PANTONETETRA0294.tif. If I set my Input folder to be "Job_J41706" then I can use a simple TIFF File Name Filter of "J%nP%p_%c.tif" (excluding double quotes). Or better still "%j="J%n"P%p_%c.tif" (excluding first and last double quotes). This last filter sets the job name (%j) to "J41706", the job number (%n) to 41706, the page number to (%p) to 1 (001 -> 1) and the separation color (%c) to Black, Cyan, ... PANTONEETERA0294. If you really want to get more sophisticated, you can also strip off the "PANTONE" prefix, but I'll leave that as an exercise for the reader... :-)
The first result for my example above can easily be done using the Filter Wizard (PC) / Assistant (Mac). The second result needs a bit of help, either by reading the documentation, or by asking me.
Once you've set up a correct TIFF file name filter, you'll then see a list of jobs, each with a list of pages, each with a sub-list of separations, etc... and you can select all the seps in a page (double click on the page number - which opens up the page and selects all the separations (list view), or click on the page thumbnail (thumbnail view) - double click here opens up a floating window with the seps in).
Note that if you change a Filter, you need to do a Full Refresh to make use of it - not just an Incremental Refresh, as this is designed as a setup/configuration step.
Alternatively, you could always just select the multiple jobs (use control-click in the job menu, or use the multi job selection manager), open up the various pages and select the various separations, but that's not really recommended - much better to get the filter right (which in fact is required for color accurate viewing).
As I said, if you need help, mail me with a list of your folder / file names and I'll write one for you. I read/check email up to about 10:00 pm UK time, so you'll get a reply even quite late in your time in the US. Or if you just miss me, it'll be waiting for you the next day.
Here in my country, We are using Globis products via Creo to check the file in 1bit tiff. And printout in Epson Stylus. Works pretty well on Heidelberg and komori machines. The problem in 1bit tiff is the graphic is too pixalized.
>We also have a single seat of DotSpy, but that is used by the guy who does trapping and step & repeat, and is in a different room, so running the dongle back & forth doesn't really work well.
If DotSpy will do what you need and the only thing preventing its use is a single dongle, you could possibly install it on a neutral computer and use a VNC connection to access it from any workstation...only one at a time though or you'll end up fighting over control.
just a heads up. We also started with 1 seat of dotspy. I think its the best 1bit viewer for the mac personally. but back to the meat of the conversation. If you call you artworks rep. they offer additional seats on a floating license (no extra dongles) for a discount. I think it is like $2000 a seat or something.
1. a) I'm curious - why do you think its (DotSpy) the best 1bit viewer for the mac? Range of tools, performance, features, ...?
1. b) What is the best thing you like about?
1. c) In coming to your decision, what else did you use/try/evaluate? And how did they compare?
I think 'why' you think it's the best is much more valuable for people to know, as that's more objective than subjective.
Subjectively, I think FirstPROOF is the best 1bit viewer for the Mac and PC. Objectively, I think so because: a) it's got more viewing tools than anything else, b) it's got faster viewing performance than anything else, and, c) it can color accurately view 1-bit TIFFs.
2. If a discounted seat is $2,000, then you definitely should take a look at FirstPROOF - depending on what you want and who you purchase it from, you can get get what you want for a lot less than that.
But to my mind, the viewing performance, tools and capabilities (of FirstPROOF) far out-way the fact that FirstPROOF costs less.
Andy, the biggest reason for us was that it can handle the concentric screening. I havent seen another 1 bit viewer that can do this. I also like how the separation tags are picked up from nexus as well as the ability to see the screen angle, resolution, screen type and density just by zooming in on a area. I havent used the brand that you mentioned, I'm just saying that of the ones I have seen in the past, I am a fan of dotspy. Does firstproof allow you to merge the separations together? That is a must in our shop. I would imagine that it does.
I'm not quite sure what you mean by "it can handle the concentric screening"? - as far as I know it views the results from a RIP which does the [concentric] screening. Can you explain further what you do here?
FirstPROOF too will pick up separation tags (and filename info) from Nexus, allows you to see [& (automatically) measure] the screen angle, resolution, screen type and density (and a lot more).
FirstPROOF can merge together separations both to view a composite (or progressives, which is what I presume you mean), but also it can merge together plate data (such as "Pantone 123 CV" and "Pantone 123 CVC") for output (rather than having to go back and correct the separation names and re-rip). It does currently require that all separations are the same size, but we're going to relax that in our next release (to allow for web compensation in separations).
So yes, FirstPROOF does all that (and a lot more).
Jeff, I tried out firstproof. I did enjoy alot of its features that I havent seen in other viewers. But to be honest, that program has some serious bugs in it.
Get the bugs fixed, have some more stability and I would look at it again.
Re: 1-bit TIFF Inspection
Linear Mode
