Bye bye rampage

[Sari]

So like many of you, we currently use RAMPAGE in our small corporate in-house print shop. For now we are sticking with Rampage, but we want to be ready for the day that we won't be able to use Rampage anymore. Teammate and i have found Rampage easy to use. We have used Preps in the past and we were miserable.
Can you all give me some other ideas of what other systems there are and what you think of them? Obviously XMF is looking to sell us their system but i don't want to jump into it blindly. The jobs we get currently use a lot of transparencies so need something that works well with that.

Thank you for all your input

 

[Alith7]

XMF is great, but pricey. Xitron's Sierra is the exact same program with a slightly different skin, and tends to run a bit cheaper. the support through them is pretty good, but XMF comes with Fuji's broaded shop-wide support. well depending on your fuji rep.
We run Sierra and it has been a great program for us. Either way, XMF/Sierra offer a lot of features and functionality that just aren't available in other RIP systems. although I don't have any direct experience, just from what I've gathered sending jobs to other printers and having the "oh, your RIP doesn't do that..." conversation.

 

[michaelejahn]

what are your points of pain ?

what are your points of pain ?

So like many of you, we currently use RAMPAGE in our small corporate in-house print shop. For now we are sticking with Rampage, but we want to be ready for the day that we won't be able to use Rampage anymore. Teammate and i have found Rampage easy to use. t

So - why move away from Rampage ? What problem ( or problems ) are you trying to solve. Hard to suggest what workflow without better understanding what you do each day.

Please share !

How many jobs, what kinds of jobs, what equipment, do you also do quotes or have a storefront - is this an inplant, etc...

 

[fire11]

I bought Xitron's Sierra as a modern shop-wide and highly capable RIP where I last worked. It's got the Adobe PDF Print Engine (APPE) so it renders transparencies well, traps, imposes and has a great user interface…all in one. It was nearly as good as all the big platforms but at a much better price point. We drove a metal platesetter, DI press, color proofer and even sent files to film before we upgraded to CTP so it really was awesome. I've since moved to another place where we've got an older copy of Prinergy and am trying to upgrade to Sierra here as well.

But, as Michael wisely indicates, there are many RIPs out there which may or may not work in your operation. Some are cheap, some are not…but there's much more to it than just price. Be sure to test your files and weigh the results against the price before you make a change.

 

[Sari]

i work in a corporate setting - in house print shop. We have VERY strict rules about outside companies accessing our files and they've become obsessed with needing to update our servers/java and all that other stuff i don't understand because i'm not the tech support here. So they want to be able to update servers here that Rampage won't work on or it's too costly to update for something that won't be around for long. It's what the big people want, i was just elected to investigate other options.

We do a lot of heavy color brochures, lots of BLACK coverage, invites, sell sheets, etc. We have a Dart platemaker, Sakurai 5/c press, a heidelburg 2/c, a hamada and some digital machines (Indigo and Xerox). I am not worried about digital as we have a workflow already that isn't affected by Rampage.

 

[Alith7]

i work in a corporate setting - in house print shop. We have VERY strict rules about outside companies accessing our files and they've become obsessed with needing to update our servers/java and all that other stuff i don't understand because i'm not the tech support here. So they want to be able to update servers here that Rampage won't work on or it's too costly to update for something that won't be around for long. It's what the big people want, i was just elected to investigate other options.

We do a lot of heavy color brochures, lots of BLACK coverage, invites, sell sheets, etc. We have a Dart platemaker, Sakurai 5/c press, a heidelburg 2/c, a hamada and some digital machines (Indigo and Xerox). I am not worried about digital as we have a workflow already that isn't affected by Rampage.

There is an added benefit to Sierra if you run digital machines. Sierra outputs high-res PDFs of Layouts. We use this feature a lot in our shop because the imposition software in sierra is super easy to use. Saves a TON of time on setting up digital runs.

 

[semi-tech]

There is an added benefit to Sierra if you run digital machines. Sierra outputs high-res PDFs of Layouts. We use this feature a lot in our shop because the imposition software in sierra is super easy to use. Saves a TON of time on setting up digital runs.

Yes. We use the Sierra-generated PDFs for approvals via e-mail rather than hard copy, depending upon the job in question. Saves time AND paper stock when there are copy changes and a new proof is requested.