Imagesetter and Mac

[Laverne]

Hi Everyone,
I am having big problems in my prepress department, actually we are one of the largest printing in my country and have been putting out imagesetter film for other printing plants for the past eight years. it's been about 3 years now that our imagesetter have not been service reason for this is because we don't have a technician to do this as a matter a fact when we purchase it form the agent in Guatemala they didn't want anyone to touch the imagesetter while it was under there warranty back then and our technician didn't get any training. We have a Monotype System Panther Pro 46 Imagesetter that output 12'"and 18" film only it use to have two buffer but is currently working with one which cause the process to be longer every morning at the start up of the image setter our first process of the day always cause it to get a bomb could anyone give advise on this could we upgrade this machine if it is not obsolete it also runs on Release 10 software Version 10.2 we also use PC Maclan Xp Version to transfer information to Panther another thing is that the PC Maclan Xp Version does not allow us to send Adobe InDesign CS2 Files to the Panther. could anyone again help me with ideas or tips on this problem as I have many more question that needs answers but this is it for now.


Sincerly
Laverne Davis

 

[neotrog]

Re: Imagesetter and Mac

First thing is the InDesign CS2 has lots of problems sending to older RIPs. It's easy enough for me to say "stop using InDesign" but that probably isn't an option for you. The number of times it simply errors with "Image too large" is more than I can accept. There's some things I can't be sure of from your post. Sounds like you're running InDesign Cs2 on a Windows XP machine and the MonoType RIP is on a MAC. Is this correct? What version of MacOS?

"Obsolete" is hard to define. I once had a client running a Linotype L300 with a RIP30. They tried to upgrade to a new DellPC running windows Xp and InDesign CS. It never worked reliably. With the old MacOS9.2.2 and Adobe Illustrator 8 it was reliable and predictable. I encouraged them to allow the designer to work on the new system and then save the file as an Illustrator 8 EPS then copy it vi PCMacLAN to the Mac for output. It work but was inconvenient. In my opinion, far less inconvenient that all the odd errors caused by InDesign on the Windows platform. The images they were outputting were simple enough and they could still be using it today if they wanted to. What I'm trying to say is that the image setter and RIP may function fine according to their design. However, if the technology feeding it advances to far they don't work together. Truth is, in much of the US film is considered obsolete. People would encourage you to go to a small computer-to-plate device like an Escher-Grad Cobalt with a Harlequin RIP. It's your company's financial situation that will limit your options more than available technology.

I hope this is, in some small way, helpful.

 

[epms]

Re: Imagesetter and Mac

I do not have a solution for you but I do have a opportunity for you.
I have three complete Panther imagesetting systems with inline processors and RIPs postscript Level 3/
with mac computers and dongles. It also comes with a 4th machine for parts, this equipment was running until Jan 2008, this newspaper closed. If you are interested call me 915-253-9954 Eddie Armendariz

 

[maddskill]

Re: Imagesetter and Mac

We had problems getting cs2 indesign (PC version) to ouput to one of our imagesetters as well. It just would not rip it no matter what we tried. So we started exporting them as pdf files and then resending them from our macs after importing them in Quark. It worked however we were constantly nervous about font issues and if those special characters were going to rip properly. It did work and that was the way we did them until we got our ctp system.

Edited by: maddskill on Feb 28, 2008 8:30 AM

Edited by: maddskill on Feb 28, 2008 8:31 AM

 

[neotrog]

Re: Imagesetter and Mac

Yup. Fontological refluxification. (laugh) One does need to be very careful about font problems when saving, exporting and importing a layout. If one is in a position to create an output version where the fonts are "outlined" so they are now just vector graphics it's safer but the file size gets larger. Not a great solution but better than buying 3 more systems just like it that won't work either.

 

[Laverne]

Re: Imagesetter and Mac

Thanks everyone I just got this mail from another source could you advice what happen is that we will go CTP too but want to keep this imagesetter for a while but we'll see how it goes.

but yet Harlequin is saying that 7.2 will not run but have other Harlequin that will please advice.


(Yes, we have a new Harlequin rip version 7.2 available for the Panther
Pro 46.


That will care of all the problems that you are having with your
existing rip. The problem is that you feeding your existing rip with
postscript that is so new that it has no idea what to do with it. If
you
upgrade your applications (Indesign, Quark, etc..) you also need to
upgrade your rip system that needs to interpret the postscript that
those newer apps spit out....)


Regards Laverne

 

[cosmo]

Re: Imagesetter and Mac

are you sending PDF files made from indesign CS2?, surely you cannont just be ripping indesign CS2 files to the rip? Make the PDF file to the same version of your rip, even do 1.3 PDFs and you shouldnt have a problem, no RIP is made to take native files like indesign or quark, you must prepare the files before your send them to the RIP.

Edited by: max on Mar 7, 2008 8:00 AM