PDF Print Engine

jbbbarr

Well-known member
I have been using 10.5 since the beginning of the year and have been very comfortable using JDF tickets for all jobs now because of the hands off approach it allows with Preps, but I cannot find any compelling reason to register jobs using the PDF print engine. I do not see the advantage like I have with the JDF tickets, could someone please give a reason.
 
Re: PDF Print Engine

It depends on the type of work you do. We do high end annual reports and the like, where the customer designs include drop shadows everywhere including over spot colors.
The advantage is that you get traps between the spots and cmyk that lay underneath the drop shadows as opposed to flattened pdf where you don't. It all depends on the work.
We only use it about 30% of the time even at that. Its still not the quickest thing even with the new Quad cores. But if you need trapping between elements that normally would not be able to be trapped if the transparency was flattened, then it works very well.
 
Re: PDF Print Engine

OK, that sounds good, you are right , most of our work is either 4/4, 1/1 or 2/2. I could see possibly using it on some of the troublesome 2/2 with those spot drop shadows. What I have been doing currently was replace with process to fix the trap issues.

Thanks for the clarification!

john
 
Re: PDF Print Engine

I've been using it since 10.4 here. Only real issue I have with it is speed. It's really faster to just flatten the PDF before you put it in RAMpage.
I'm running a job right now 32 pages with transparency on every page. Took 4.5 hours to trap and rip this job and another hour for proofs.
I would have flattened it first but many pages contain complex transparent objects that never seem to flatten properly without time consuming edits on my part. I read in the with paper for 10.5 that a dual core will trap and rip faster but 5 grand for a new RAMpage box is out of the question.
 
Re: PDF Print Engine

Yeah, I am using an HP G4 duo core 3ghz with 2 gb ram/2003 svr (non-Rampage) and it is not that fast, that's why I was asking the advantages. I could see the trans issues being my main reason for the extra time. I guess, since I am about 60 miles from the shop that I could submit the job from home first. I have been using LogMeIn pro for this and it has been a great timesaver as I can have the jobs ready and waiting.
 
pdf engine

pdf engine

I like the way the pdf handles the trapping also, but...We get allot of PDFs that have rgb images, color builds and rgb spot color modes etc... I cannot stand how the pdf engine handles these conversions. I thought that the advancement in technology was to make our jobs easier and allow us to handle more files at a faster and more predictable pace. For us to preflight every job that comes through and work out the kinks would drastically reduce the amount of work we can put out. I really think Rampage dropped the ball on this one, but it is to expensive to switch workflows. We have Pitstop to handle the PDF color headaches and can get native apps for the rest, but shouldn't the PDF engine be able to do to the photos what we ourselves can do in Photoshop? Or at least give us conversion options like the EPS profile does. I believe in quality, but lets face it, quantity matters to. I'm not in a prepress position where I can casually look over files and check everything out like some of the other operators we have had come through the shop, we have to hustle. I realize that nothing good can come of this environment but high blood pressure, drinking and heart attacks, but I need a job... Rampage helped in some ways with the trapping but really messed things up with the color conversions. What do you folks think? I need a vacation!
 
I think I'd rather convert color in Acrobat. I don't trust auto color conversion altho if it's just a POS RGB low-res customer provided PDF, that needs to be process, I impose as is in InDesign and export the imposed file as a CMYK PDF. BTW the latest 10.6 (Rampage 10.6b10) update arrived yesterday. Easy install, and it seems to have speeded up the PDF trap engine as well. Now you get a pop up if you select interactive trapping, telling you the job will rip faster if you turn it off. Although I already knew that.
 
PDF Trap Engine

PDF Trap Engine

We use PDF Trap Engine for Indesign files that have complex transparencies and spot colors. We too have had problems with speed. Most of our Indesign files are about 40" wide by 15" high and at times it takes us 4+ hours on a 2 Xeon 3.6ghz processor box which is a 2 year old technology. We did some benchmarking and with a version 11 and a Quad core Xeon processor box, the time was reduced to 45 minutes!

With clients coming for press approvals, we don't want to have to tell the client it will take us 4 hours to re-rip their job and output a set of plates for some problems that may happen at press-time.

For the price they charge, it's well worth it.
 
Most of the owners that request to see demos of Prinergy are the ones tired of waiting 4 hrs to reRIP files, and can't afford to lose another client. One of those customers gone is usually the price difference to work with a premium workflow. Sorry to say, but Brisque and RAMPage had their glory in the sun, much like the Concorde, but throwing another engine, 4 more processors, faster switches still don't help when users are admitting it's faster to flatten on the desktop or heaven forbid, the designer used a (gasp) drop shadow!!!!. The horrors and the nerve!

One single Prinergy box will leisurely jog through your pesky worst case nightmare files, while using a fraction of storage space, network traffic and delays standing by a quiet press while someone in prepress gets the customer another coffee. Don't believe me? Send us your worst case files for timings.

Sorry about the cheeky blatant plug. Just trying to help...
Allan Larson
 

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