Rampage or Prinergy?

Jim_T

Member
I'm currently reviewing a new rip for my firm. I'd be interested to hear what users of these two rips have to say.
 
Re: Rampage or Prinergy?

Three years ago - I would have said Rampage - without a doubt.
Now - I would say Heidelberg Signa and Meta.
(But - you did not ask about that)
I would not even invite the Prinergy guy over to talk about it.
Rampage is quite slick - they have just not kept up with the design software ... IMO

MSD
 
Re: Rampage or Prinergy?

I'd like to invited you to review the EskoArtwork solutions http://www.esko.com as well. We have complete workflow and automation tools, including imposition, that I believe would suite your business ( direct mail, catalogs, cards, and brochures ) very well.

Regards - peter
 
Re: Rampage or Prinergy?

When you're into offset printing the concentric screening (available in the nexus/odystar rip) results from EskoArtwork are definitely worth looking in to. Some amazing printed samples i have seen from them.
 
Re: Rampage or Prinergy?

Jim, I've been running RAMpage now for about 6 months and I love it. All PDF workflow, never have to look at another application print dialog box, and I can do all my plate impo's right in InDesign, so no need for Preps or anything like it.
After 10 years of out putting to a 14" imagesetter and stripping by hand, this setup was a godsend IMO. BTW the current version of RAMpage comes with PDF trap engine as well, so no need to flatten any PDF. The only drawback, and it's minor, is the rip, server, and shooter are Windows boxes, but the clients, and you can have as many as you want, are Mac based.
 
Re: Rampage or Prinergy?

What do you mean they have not kept up. I have been a Rampage user for many years as well as Barco, Scitex, Contex and as far as I am concerned there is nobody better at keeping up with changes to applications from Adobe or Quark. You get multiple updates during the year that are "Free" as opposed to other vendors out there who charge for any update. Rampage had their native pdf workflow "Pdf Trap engine" out before Adobe had released theirs, so I am at a loss as to what they have not kept up with. If you have used Rampage then you will agree that NO ONE! has better support. You call them and they answer the phone.
 
Re: Rampage or Prinergy?

I vote for Rampage also. I used it since 2004 and I like it a lot. Great workflow and excellent support. Don't even think about talking to Kodak! The worst rip out there is better than Kodak.
 
Re: Rampage or Prinergy?

Why is everyone bashing Kodak? We switched from Rampage to Prinergy this year and I would never go back to Rampage. Prinergy 3 and 4 are much better in my opinion.
 
Re: Rampage or Prinergy?

Why?

It's simple. Just look what Kodak did to all the Brisque users... after Kodak bought Creo.

They received offer from Kodak they couldn't refuse...

Where is my investment in Brisque? After they did that I will never ever buy any rip from Kodak.
 
Re: Rampage or Prinergy?

They abandon Brisque. Discontinued. Kodak forced everyone to buy Prinergy or something else. No more development, no more service, no more support...
 
Re: Rampage or Prinergy?

That doesn't make Rampage better than Prinergy. Sound like you are just bitter against Kodak. Applications get discontinued and dropped all the time.
 
Re: Rampage or Prinergy?

not to be casual about it, but ford discontinued the Model T as well. not all technology is going to be around forever, things are going to come and go. i do have sympathy to some extent, due to the large number of brisque users that now face a complete system overhaul, but i dont feel that kodak had some kind of moral obligation to keep string along the brisque workflow. things change, technology changes. it isnt always easy to keep up, but the writing was on the wall with the brisque a long time ago. i have used rampage, brisque and prinergy, and i definitely prefer prinergy, but rampage was a fine system too. there are several things i actually preferred about rampage to prinergy, but overall i find prinergy to be head and shoulders above brisque and rampage (strictly opinion).

cr
 
Re: Rampage or Prinergy?

btw, macphenom is right about the support. rampage support is absolutely the best, you get a direct number to a direct person, and you get immediate help.

kodak support has been a pleasant surprise after hearing for years how lousy it is. i find it fairly quick and efficient, though not on the level of rampage.

i am happy with kodak support.

cr
 
Re: Rampage or Prinergy?

> {quote:title=stargate wrote:}{quote}
> I vote for Rampage also. I used it since 2004 and I like it a lot. Great workflow and excellent support. Don't even think about talking to Kodak! The worst rip out there is better than Kodak.


everyone is entitled to ones opinion, but blanket statements like this are silly. i have used both and they both have issues. what rip problems have you had with prinergy that lead you to say they are that bad?

cr
 
Re: Rampage or Prinergy?

Heres one last tidbit people should consider before buying a workflow. Who has been in the business from the beginning under the same ownership
and are debt free and profitable, versus a company that in its best years loses millions of dollars instead of hundreds of millions and are buying up what ever technology they can so they can survive. Rip technology from Scitex, digital presses from Heidelberg, imposition software from ScenicSoft, who's next? It would make me a little uncomfortable with the long term outlook.
 
Re: Rampage or Prinergy?

It's really hard to people to compare workflows since each shop has different requirements, budgets, and tools at hand.

Best suggestion I have for you is to try and visit shops running the workflows you are interested in, see how they work in a production setting, talk to the operators about the strengths and weaknesses and try to imagine how it's going to work for you and your customers.

There is no one best workflow, they each have strengths and weaknesses, you just need to find which one will be best for you.
 
Re: Rampage or Prinergy?

Several big questions to ask yourself:
1) Do you want to connect to an MIS system?
2) Do you do both short run and offset? Are there parallel workflows/staff/infrastructure for those?
3) Do you have any plans to offer end to end web to print?
4) How many different vendors do you rely on to run your organization?
5) Who do you call when something busts?
6) Having some troubles with InDesign transparency? (BTW, that's what killed Brisque)
7) Tired of dongles? Seat licenses? Terabytes of tiffs? (The 90s called and want their issues back.)

Prinergy isn't a RIP. It renders from a refined vanilla PDF you can read in boring Acrobat Reader. Add up the whole folder of the Job on any workflow and ask yourself how much time, space and horsepower is needed to work through a ROOM workflow.

A couple years ago, people wanted to see spot color handling, duotones, and now people are asking to see how to get on the JDF superhighway and compete better as a whole organization vs. the next guy down the street or in Northern Saskatchewan who offers a web-to-pint solution that makes them more attractive to work with than the guy down the street.

If you are just looking for a wood chipper workflow with a good lumberjack wiping sweat from his brow that's one thing. It's another to grow your business when the typical printer is single digit profit margin and the costs are rising every year.

There, I feel better. Now back my PRN files.....
 

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