Printready 3.0 and DCS 2.0 Format

tomu570

New member
Anyone encounter problems with DCS 2.0 files sent from Quark 6.5? We are sending separated Postscript but Recombiner just errors out. We have tried Quark 7 and got the same result.

Thank you
 
Re: Printready 3.0 and DCS 2.0 Format

YES THIS IS DEFINITELY AN ISSUE HEIDELBERG NEEDS TO ADDRESS.
MARKTONK IF YOU'RE WATCHING THIS, TAKE NOTE. THIS IS A BIG PROBLEM FOR ME. I RUN QUITE A FEW DCS FILES.

THE SAME THING IS HAPPENING TO ME. I SENT SOME FILES IN TO TAC AND THEY COULDN'T FIGURE IT OUT EITHER, ALTHOUGH THEY CAME UP WITH A WORKAROUND. THE RECOMBINER COMPLETELY SCREWS UP DCS FILES. DOES ALL KINDS OF ODD THINGS.

ONLY SOLUTION I'VE FOUND IS TO PRINT SEPERATED POSTSCRIPT TO PRINTREADY, DO THE TRAPPING ON THE FRONT END BEFORE IT HITS PRINTREADY. TURN THE RECOMBINER RIGHT OFF. YOU'LL GET A PSEUDO-COMPOSITE PDF FOR VIEW + PRINT BUT NO TRAPPING.
REGARDS
TIM
 
Re: Printready 3.0 and DCS 2.0 Format

The main problem is that you are working in a decade past file system.
There is no need to use DCS files these days and there is no need for any RIP system to support them.
Turn the thing into a PDF and run the file through the system as a composite file.

MSD
 
Re: Printready 3.0 and DCS 2.0 Format

I'll be sure and tell my customer that represents an average of $500k in sales for us that my new RIP
no longer needs to support their legacy files for an internationally established product line.

You're a prepress genius. thanks for the words of wisdom.

Tim
 
Re: Printready 3.0 and DCS 2.0 Format

We use a product from Callas Software called DCS Merger when we have large numbers of DCS files to merge. It is my opinion that you should try to work in a composite (non-separated) workflow whenever possible. Obviously, if you were dealing with InDesign files instead of Quark files, InDesign would be able to create a composite PDF for you from any DCS files that were placed in InDesign.

DCS Merger is a simple utility you can buy for either Mac OS 10.x or Windows that can be menu driven or hotfolder driven to merge DCS files into a composite EPS. You process your DCS files into composite EPS files and then relink the Quark file/s to the new EPS files. You can export composite PostScript from Quark to distill/normalize into a compsite PDF.

We have been using Heidelberg's Prinect workflow for around 4 years now and have yet to encounter a scenario where we could not create a composite PDF and had to resort to making a separated PDF.

We have been using DCS Merger for around 4 years now also and like it alot.

Abe Hayhurst
Director of Color and Technology
We Do Graphics, Inc.
 
Re: Printready 3.0 and DCS 2.0 Format

It is for you, to do to make your life easier - not theirs.

MSD

---
I'll be sure and tell my customer that represents an average of $500k in sales for us that my new RIP
no longer needs to support their legacy files for an internationally established product line.

--
Turn the thing into a PDF and run the file through the system as a composite file.
 
Re: Printready 3.0 and DCS 2.0 Format

Meanwhile - if you can not process decade old technology ...
I doubt the "genius" label should fall to me.

(Not that petty bickering is what this newsgroup was founded for)

MSD

You're a prepress genius. thanks for the words of wisdom.
 
Re: Printready 3.0 and DCS 2.0 Format

Thanks to everyone for their responses. Please excuse the lateness of my reply but I've been away. Heidelberg's solution was to create a separated .ps file from Quark and then distill it using Distiller. Do not normalize it in Printready just yet. Open the new .pdf in Acrobat and do a "save as" postscript. Then bring that .ps file into Printready and recombine. It seemed to clear up most of the issues but it still wasn't perfect. Especially if you have Quark type that must ko the underlying DCS 2.0 file. They also suggested the DCS merger which I haven't tried yet. We ended up sending separated Postscript through our old Delta workflow just to get the job out. No problems.

In response to Michael S. Dodds's comments:

"Turn the thing into a PDF and run the file through the system as a composite file." The only way to do that and not get the 72 dpi preview from the DCS 2.0 file is through a separated workflow. What process are you using to "Turn the thing into a PDF" and retain sufficient resolution?

To suggest that "The main problem is that you are working in a decade past file system." and "There is no need to use DCS files these days and there is no need for any RIP system to support them." just isn't a viable response. We can't control the file formats we receive on a daily basis. It would be nice to get a perfect PDF X-1a every time but that's not a real world scenario. Like any printer we're happy to be getting files at all. Our Delta system handled anything we through at it. It's just unfortunate that Printready seems to have some issues.
 
Re: Printready 3.0 and DCS 2.0 Format

THANKS FOR THE SUPPORT ON THE SUBJECT. THAT IS THE ONLY THING I'VE FOUND THAT WORKS. I HAD A VERY KNOWLEDGEABLE HEIDELBERG APPLICATION SPECIALIST SITTING RIGHT NEXT TO ME WHEN WE TRIED TO PROCESS ONE OF THESE JOBS. TRAP UP FRONT IN THE APPLICATIONS, PRINT SEPERATED AND TURN OFF THE RECOMBINER WAS THE ONLY QUICK SOLUTION. I'LL TRY YOUR METHOD AND SEE IF IT WORKS.

I AM ALSO COMING OFF A DELTA SYSTEM WHICH HANDLES DCS NICELY. NEVER HAD A PROBLEM. THE DELTA IS AN AGING AND LIMITED WORKFLOW, GRANTED, BUT IT WAS ROBUST AND THE CPSI GENERALLY CHEWED UP ANYTHING YOU COULD THROW AT IT. IF THERE WERE JOB ERRORS IT WAS USUALLY SOMETHING STUPID THE MAC OPERATOR SENT TO THE RIP.

AND YOU'RE RIGHT THE PREVIOUS RESPONSE FROM MR. DODD WAS SERIOUSLY FANTASYLAND. I HAVE AN AVERAGE OF 20 JOBS A DAY HITTING MY PREPRESS DEPARTMENT WITH FILES RANGING FROM THE BEST OF THE BEST, TO THE WORST YOU CAN IMAGINE. WE HAVE TO PRINT THEM ALL AND MAKE IT LOOK GOOD. AND THEY ARE NOT BUSINESS CARDS AND LETTERHEADS.
 
Re: Printready 3.0 and DCS 2.0 Format

Hi All,

Sorry for being late to jumping in here, I was on a great 10 day vacation, no kids, boating, BBQ and great weather. Got back this week to over 500 e-mails, 5 new projects and preparing for budget meetings in the weeks to come. I am swamped so not much time for anything outside of work.

I do not know the answer to but will ask the work flow Product Manager when he is back from Sales training. If tomu570 and TIM would also be so kind to pm me as to who you have talked with in TAC, I will also try to follow up with them.

I can say that I have know Abe for over a decade and he has excellent knowledge of Heidelberg work flow from having been a Demonstrator to many years of production experience with it. Let me know if you do try DCS Merger, if he recommends it, I bet it will work fine.

Regards,

Mark Tonkovich
Heidelberg USA
Product Manager, CtP & proofing

Go Cubs (please)
 
Re: Printready 3.0 and DCS 2.0 Format

What process are you using to "Turn the thing into a PDF" and retain sufficient resolution?

I just did a test here with CMYK and 3 spot colors saved to a DCS 2 multiple file with preview.

Place the DCS into InDesign (Photoshop document size)
Export to PDF
Result ... PDF with
full Photoshop resolution
all CMYK and Spots intact
transparancies and gradients intact.
This can easily be achieved on multiple files with automation and scripts.

As I mentioned earlier,
I have not sent a DCS file through a RIP since before 2000.
Maybe I am the only one though - except my partner.

MSD
 
Re: Printready 3.0 and DCS 2.0 Format

> {quote:title=TIM wrote:}{quote}
> I HAVE AN AVERAGE OF 20 JOBS A DAY HITTING MY PREPRESS DEPARTMENT WITH FILES RANGING FROM THE BEST OF THE BEST, TO THE WORST YOU CAN IMAGINE.

Wow, you guys must really be burning the midnight oil up there. How do you all keep up?
 
Re: Printready 3.0 and DCS 2.0 Format

How does a comment like this HELP anybody! People like you should be banded from public forms.

DCS is important to our clients and so we support them or they go elsewhere. DSC 2 is also very important as well being able to add spot channels in bitmap art.

You can work around it by using a PSD instead of DCS files in Illustrator or Indesign. But with Quark you might be stuck. Q7 may support PSD as is says it does but I have not tried it.

We are using Printready here and have not come across this problem so far.

Good Luck!
 
Re: Printready 3.0 and DCS 2.0 Format

Sorry, I know this is an old thread, but has this ever been resolved using DSC 2.0 files in Quark 6~7?
 
Re: Printready 3.0 and DCS 2.0 Format

Hi all,

This is a very late response to this thread....

The question i have is, wasn't the Prinect suppose to eliminate the postscript file?

And i have tried very unsuccessfully to print a 5 color photoshop tif, psd, or dcs from quark7,
of course no probs with indesign.

Also, how do you get a good pdf out of quark.....dcs or not.....


Keri
 
Re: Printready 3.0 and DCS 2.0 Format

ONLY SOLUTION I'VE FOUND IS TO PRINT SEPERATED POSTSCRIPT TO PRINTREADY, DO THE TRAPPING ON THE FRONT END BEFORE IT HITS PRINTREADY. TURN THE RECOMBINER RIGHT OFF. YOU'LL GET A PSEUDO-COMPOSITE PDF FOR VIEW + PRINT BUT NO TRAPPING. (From my previous post).

This is still working great for me. Use it almost every day. Turn recombiner and trapper off in Printready, and make sure you uncheck REMOVE TRAPS in PREPARE sequence template under COLOR CONVERSION. Do your trapping up front in photoshop, quark, illus, whatever.
On the Mac side, I export a separated PDF out of quark using the EXPORT PDF and weed through your job options like you would Distiller. The job options here are a lot simpler than
Distiller options. I usually turn off compression options when messing around with DCS. It's a lot more reliable. Of course PDF out of INDD and ILLUS are almost flawless. I have seen some issues, but they are few and far between.

Printready does not do away with the postscript file. PS file will be handled by the Mac in the background when using EXPORT PDF option, and distilled on the fly based on Adobe drivers installed on the Mac.
End result is a PDF with no freestanding PS file. You still have the option of sending a straight postscript, PDF, EPS, or TIFF file to Printready, but i prefer to create the PDF on the Mac and dump that into Printready.
Gives me the option to inspect the PDF at the Mac level to make sure there's nothing funky going on with the PDF before it gets into my workflow.

My EXPORT PDF function in QXP7 works well for the most part. It's easier than printing out a Postscript file, and then distilling, or going right into Printready with it.

Of course, there's no reason anybody should be working in DCS, a decades-old file format according to a responder to my original post.
Probably a "studio" designer. Pretty plants around their workstation and track lighting. 2 year Graphic Communications degree on the wall.
LOL have fun.
 

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