HP z6100 w/out a RIP

[westend]

My bosses, against my advice, are getting an HP z6100 w/out a RIP. since this is a fait accompli, what steps should I take to get a semblance of colour control in my workflow?

I was thinking of converting every file I receive to CMYK Swop PDF, place in InDesign and print to the Mac OS X driver, and use the settings there...

What about colour calibration? I know it comes with a calibrator, how can I use it to get the results I want?

Thanks

[finecanvasprints]

They wont let you get a rip? Onyx Posterprint is around a grand. Hmm. I tried using a z3200 from photoshop with the HP profiling solution. Hp claims it works well, but is meant for profiling their own medias. So basically their profiling "solution" is worthless. I don't get it how so many people are afraid of Rips. They require some training, however once set up, one has true quality control. I am sure you know that, but your bosses have not a clue about that.

[edwinb]

Ive installed proofmaster on mac workstations and its also relativly cheap and simple to use
edwin

[westend]

Update: we took delivery of the printer (60" HP z6100) and to my growing horror, it seems there is no print driver for the Mac, there is a web browser interface and we can drop TIFs and JPGs, they output seemingly OK, but it seems that in certain cases JPGs are resized by the printer to 72dpi, also, there is very little control of print position.

I hope that I'm wrong, but I cannot believe there is no print driver for the mac, If anybody knows for sure there is a driver, I'll have to raise it with HP, but from what I understand now --No Driver--

[Ian Mackenzie]

Westend-

We installed about 1200 HP 6100s with EFI RIPs last year in the US.
RIPs can pay for themselves easily in under a year.
Why?
Our client did a study that measured ink use using nuclear scales.
Bottom line.....RIPs save about 25% ink use on HP 6100s.
Your next quest is to seek a RIP that can be loaded on Mac.

- EFI
- Colorburst

"OEM drivers" are designed for photo applications. They hose the paper with huge amounts of ink for maximum gamut.

Get a RIP.

[comholt]

I can confirm Ian's point. That standard behavior of the EFI Colorproof XF RIP does save ink over the driver. We've done a bunch of testing with the Epson X880 series and XF, and a standard calibration saves about 10% on ink vs driver, and there are little tricks that can make it jump to 25%+. However, this is contingent on the RIP driving the printing in halftone mode. Last time a calibrated a Z6100, the only drivers that were available were contone.

That said, we have been able to achieve nice results with the HP Z-series and the Mac driver. The main drawback is you have to explicitly invoke the profile and a variety of driver settings with each print. Generally OK for an individual and a pain for a multi-user environment.

Feel free to call if you'd like to discuss further.

--Clark Omholt
415-382-8681
Spectraflow Color Workflow Solutions

[A.B Ula]

I'd recommend you EFI ColorProof its a good one.
why Z6100. try the Canon iPF9000s.

[edwinb]

consider also a cheap pc as a print server and you have a whole range of more options

[andyplowman]

We supply Original HP inks for the Z6100 at £135. You can contact me on a.plowman@sourcemedia.co.uk if this is a saving to you.