See my response in Blue...
1. Can G&J offer a 98% comparable proof to press sheet?
G&J do not offer to provide a 98% comparable proof, however G&J use the SAME Epson vDOTII and vDOTIII colour Proofing plugin that Jetplate do, both come from Xitron and are considered the industry standard proofing plugin from Xitron for Epson based devices. But a ICC profiled proofing system is not part of the G&J system, and you WILL NOT reproduce the same print quality as perfected by JetPlate, not even Xitron could reproduce the color JetPlate produced due to the experience of the indiduals they employed (Past tense, now, there is nothing there.)
[iCtP] Yes it is, all systems ship with both the vDot2 and vDot 3 plugins. And the icc Profiles, HOWEVER, the icc profiles are not active unless the user purchases the Harlequin ColourPro unlock code to activate them.
As you know the trick is not to use the embedded ICC profiles...
2. Why did G&J switch from the Roland 300 system to the Epson 4800 as JetPlate has been using for many years?
G&J have never used the Epson4800, you know what he was referring to. They still couldnt get the Roland machine to perform correctly. As for any agreement with Epson, I seriously would question this, Epson could just as well see all of these companies that butcher their machines to go away. Unless G&J has spent $10 million for some licensing agreement or signed a contract to purchase thousands of machines per year, I can assure you there are NO agreements between the 2 companies that will enhance their system This is inaccurate and should be removed from these posts.
[iCtP] Well as I work for G&J R&D I should accurately be able to assist you in an answer here. We are Epson Intergrators, we have Epson technology colaboration, and we use our own customised Epson Firmware. Go to any of our customers, remove the cart and put it back in...(or at an exhibition) and you will see the printer thinks about it then comes up "Geniune GJ cart". Put a third party cart in, and regardless of the supplier it will come up as unknown, or not geniune. Look at the cart you remove.. it is a Genuine Epson cart... not a third party one. And the sum you state is not accurate but the principle might be correct.
Well then quite possibly you are well on your way to solving most of the issues the other companies are running into, its nice to have deep pockets. I was NEVER afforded that priveledge. I look forward to seeing these changes firsthand, however since I am not in the business of Inkjet CTP any more, I choose to be a freelance Prepress/IT trainer. It may be sometime before I am able to see it.
they did not consider the faceplate on the printhead used as being stable enough to provide a reliable solution. They did switch from the Roland to the Epson 4880, in conjunction to a joint venture agreement made with Epson, the Printhead is different, and a different coating on the faceplate is used by Epson with this head, The print head uses an ink repellent coating to help with the head clogs and this coinceded with a customised firmware ware for specific platemaking and monochomatic primting - unique to Glunz & Jensen. Again I would like to see this agreement before I would believe it, I have met most of the Epson VPs at different trade shows and being in this industry for so long, I can assure you again, Epson is in this business to make money and sell machines, they will not work with any of these 3rd party vendors that DO NOT USE EPSON CONSUMEABLES.
[iCtP] Agreed, Epson does not work with vendors that doe not use thier consmables. All G&J carts are Epson carts under license., please don't make assumptions without checking the details
Well considering the complexity of the chips on these cartridges thats a huge hurdle to get over. Good for you. The other company's carts dont even show levels, they leak, and constantly give cartridge read errors, at least 1 out of 8. I guess its all about doing it right from the start. Some people have/had a hard time with this. Some people simply make a bad business dicission to get into something they have absolutely NO CLUE about, then turn it around for a quick profit, however it seems to have backfired on them.
[iCtP]. You have probably been talking to Epson Reseller VP's, these do not deal with either the OEM, or Intergrator side of thier business.
This is partly due to Epson's unwillingness to deal with the company and the egos of the company owners. Bad situation all the way around.
3. Why doesn't G&J ever have a press sheet or a working sytem on display at the trade shows?
I beleive all shows since 2007 they have, they also visit more shows than many other companies.. The 1 or 2 press sheets (literally thats all you had in quantity, you didnt even have enough to pass out) they did show were questionable if anything. Any machine can print a decent 4 color black with some small 4 color saturated images on it. Both companies use the same lizard image from the older GATF images. These images have been enhanced to print well on these machines. Try a 40-60% tint screen at 11x17 and look at the streaks and inconsitencies.
[iCtP] Okay, we definetly go to different shows. You say you went to Drupa? We had 24 different samples, of all varieties. Noneof them the Lizard sample we ahven't used that for years.
That is incorrect, you showed a roughly 22x26 black press sheet that you were not passing out, that sample had all of the old GATF images on it, the same ones used for what seems like a decade... lol, it has only been 6-7 months that you started passing out samples. And I certainly did not see more than 1, you say 24???? Where were they? Yes I did go to DRUPA, after that was Croatia.
But, a good point... I agree, a standard Epson engine in Mono Chromatic mode may struggle with a 40 -60% tint in terms of stepping or unifromity, especially if you are a Jetplate user and you output in 720, or 1440x 720 dpi modes - this is "A" typical of their machine. And indeed we saw similar issues with our first generation products... . With our second generation PW2000, and PW2400 machines, G&J uses a much more advanced plugin, with customised firmware, outputing at higher resolutions and interweaving with a rolling wave pattern - with additional microweave. This coupled with custom devloped screening minimises or eliminates this. However, I would suggest users run samples plates of their own creation to check print quality on this or any other device.
Again, I hate to say it, but the only way you would convince me otherwise is to see it for myself. All of these machines run fine for the first 6 months as I stated, I was able to rival a 300k CREO press sheet running on a Komori press at 22x26.5 sheet size. I know the machines run fine at the beginning, accept with the inherent flaws and issues described above, for the most part and the first 6 months the machines will do 85% of the work needed for the target market. Unfortunenatly its all down hill after that.
(Ohh and no, this is definetly NOT the same plugin as Jetplates... it is definetly from a different source... I know to whom you refer...this is way more advanced...with some quite advanced controls for grey point step generation, grey levels, beta curve correction, fine line enhancement, text edge definition and screen coarsness controls, solid inking controls, halftone inking controls... the whole 9 yards...I have seen the one to which you refer and its more like "my first plugin" i comparison... but then G&J had the funds to devlop this and mature it, where other didn't.)
You first plugin?" I spent 7 months on that plugin. I am not sure which one you are talking about defintley not the JetPlate2 or even the IJ2P (Which was a total POS)COLOR]
Why dont you just say you work for G&J?