Help choosing a RIP for a 242 or 700 XEROX

[funwork]

Hello,
we are in the process of acquiring a XEROX 242 printer.
Our company is located in a small Caribean island and the only serious printer dealer is Xerox...
So far we have been doing VDP with a XEROX 7760 and well, the job was done.
The only restriction was with paper weight and colorful whole page printing that could be...erratic sometimes.
An average job is between 500 and 4000 A4 pages, duplex or simplex.
We are using Print Shop Mail as a VDP software and have been pleased so far with it.
Eventually, our dealer said he could get us a nice price for DARWIN but I don't really see the point in changing our software as PSM does what we need.
Variable image letter (AKA your name in a cloud) is not really something our customers are willing to pay for a 3000 mails campain.

Most of the time we print an SRA3 sized paper (450x320mm) and then we cut it to a finished A4.
We use most of the time :
- non coated paper : never under 80gsm
- coated matte paper : never under 115gsm
- coated glossy paper : we never use this kind of paper as we had bad experience with our 7760. Btw, will we be able to handle it with a 242? a 700?
- From time to time we will have to handle 250 or 300gsm paper.

Our monthly volumes are :
- around 15000 SRA3 color printed faces (simplex)
- around 10000 A4 black printed faces (simplex)

---

My questions are :
- Do you thing a 242 will be enough. The 700 looks like a killing but of course it's price is higher. For what i've seen, the engine is the same, only difference is the paper handling. I mean, at the end I don't think it is a printing quality problem, it could only be a paper handling problem...What's your opinion here?
- Most important question. Our sales rep keep telling us we need a CREO rip to do our VDP in the best conditions...What's your opinion on this one ? Most of the job we process consist of text variables, it can happens that we have 2 or 3 differents PDF background but variable images is something we don't really do on a regular basis. I don't know, maybe in some years our customer will be asking for this one, but not today.
Which RIP would you recommand for us.

Thanks a lot for your attention, and thanks for all the info I have been able to gather on this forum.
Living in a caribean is really nice when it is about beaches and girls but it could be hell when you look for this kind of discussion !

Thanks a lot and sorry for all these questions.

Best regards

Frank

[SteveL]

The Creo, Fiery or FreeFlow RIP's will each be OK for the kind of work you are doing
PSM can output suitable data streams to each (VPS to the Creo, FF or FF2 to the Fiery and Optimised PS or Optimised PDF to the FFPS).
The Creo and FFPS are better suited to doing VDP runs or 10,000 records or more, though the Fiery isn't a slouch in that area either. The Creo and FFPS will do shorter runs, but they handle the longer runs better than the Fiery, in my opinion. The Fiery is probably the most user-friendly out of the three.
I'm not sure about the capabilities of the DC242, the 700 will cope with the stock you are using, perhaps someone else can give you more info in that area

[funwork]

Thanks a lot...I'll get a quote for each and than make a decision.

[X33]

Originally Posted by funwork

My questions are :
- Do you thing a 242 will be enough. The 700 looks like a killing but of course it's price is higher. For what i've seen, the engine is the same, only difference is the paper handling. I mean, at the end I don't think it is a printing quality problem, it could only be a paper handling problem...What's your opinion here?
- Most important question. Our sales rep keep telling us we need a CREO rip to do our VDP in the best conditions...What's your opinion on this one ? Most of the job we process consist of text variables, it can happens that we have 2 or 3 differents PDF background but variable images is something we don't really do on a regular basis. I don't know, maybe in some years our customer will be asking for this one, but not today.
Which RIP would you recommand for us.

1. The DC242 and X700 have these differences to name a few :
- Speed : 40ppm vs 70ppm in Letter Size. 8ppm vs 15ppm in 12x18 110lb Cover. Almost twice as fast
- Paper handling : DC242 duplexes up to 65lb cover, X700 up to 80lb cover. DC242 duplexes uncoated media, X700 duplexes uncoated and coated media. DC242 handles 12x18 from Bypass Tray or Oversized Feeder, X700 from any tray.
- Image Quality : DC242 registration 3mm front to back; X700 is 1mm front to back. X700 has decurler modules. The X700 has many tools for Alignment, Paper Profiles, Curling options, etc.
- Accesories : on the X700 you can get dual oversized high capacity feeders, more robust booklet makers with optional trimming, high capacity stacker, and a new GBC puncher with interchangeable dies.

2. About the RIP, if you want to say with PSM, a Fiery Bustled controller will do the job. But if you really want to go beyond simple VDP jobs, you may want to look at the CREO+DARWIN solution.

[Jtamoe46]

X33 nailed it in the recommendation

[funwork]

Well, I understand your point...and thank you guys for these advices.
Now I have to value the pros and see if they match the price difference !

[PDFSolver]

I suggest Xerox FreeFlow Print Server as RIP/DFE.

Pradip Shah
www.B2BeDocuments.com
215-542-8383

[jrsc]

Originally Posted by PDFSolver

I suggest Xerox FreeFlow Print Server as RIP/DFE.

Pradip Shah
B2BeDocuments SmartPDFPrintware inteligent PDF Print Workflow Automation. Free PDF Utilities. IBM AS/400, iSeries, System i convert spool file to PDF SBTN3812 PDFeFormPrinter and PDFeFormServer
215-542-8383

PDFSolver,

Can I ask why you feel the freeflow rip is a better option over the external fiery? I am looking at purchasing a xerox 700 and i know the capabilities of the fiery, but have no idea what would make the freeflow a better (or worse) option. I have not been able to find a good comparison of advantages vs disadvantages for each of the rips. My sales rep told me that either one is the same price.

[Gbane]

• VDP plug-in for QuarkXPress or InDesign
• Completely menu driven software
• Built-in features such as CopyFit and Rules Module Module
• Fast, clean and predicable output

DesignMerge Pro is a powerful variable data printing (VDP) software package that works directly within the Adobe® InDesign™ or QuarkXPress® page layout applications. The software allows the user to easily “personalize” any InDesign or QuarkXPress document, with variable text, graphics, articles, and even entire page layouts. The document never leaves the native application, just take any normal QuarkXPress or InDesign document, and “Make it Variable™.

DesignMerge is perfect for handling everything from simple mail-merge projects, to complicated conditional processing applications. DesignMerge supports all of the most popular VDP output formats, including PostScript, PPML, CREO VPS, and the new VDP Optimizer feature ensures the fastest possible throughput for any VDP job. The software includes a number of unique and sophisticated VDP features, such as: automatic copy-fitting, conditional logic (rules) processing, cut and stack, translation tables, and multi-up layout support.

Meadows Publishing Solutions

[funwork]

Hi reached a deal with my Xerox rep.
We will go with the CREO RIP...
It seems they seal a lot of that one over the others and got nice price on CREO.

I am not sure it is the best one for VDP but so far I didn't read any comment flamming it.

Now I got to choose between a 242 and 700 knowing that we're short on money these days !

Thanks a lot for your feedback.