Accuset 1000/Harlequin RIP prints multple black plates

[maria1013]

Hi ... I'm new to this forum and have read some interesting posts/advise. I would like to ask if anyone has a solution to the following problem:

Imagesetter: Accuset 1000
RIP: RTI 6.4 (Harlequin rip as I understand)
RIP Platform: Windows 2000

We use a Windows based RIP with both macs and PC as workstations. When we print color seps from Mac-based programs (i.e. Quark 7.5, Quark 8.0, InDesign CS3 and CS4) thru the RIP to the imagesetter, we get multiple black plates when the file contains images that have been saved a .tif. The only work-around we have found thus far is to open the .tif image and resave as .eps out of PhotoShop. As you can imagine when we have a large number of .tifs this can be a real pain!

I've spoken to the people from whom we purchased the RIP, and of course, we are the only people experiencing this problem. Hard for me to believe.

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[toronar]

What is on the extra black plate? Only the tiff-image in question or anything else? Is it an exact copy of the "real" black plate?

 

[maria1013]

Example:

If there is black type and black tiff on a single page, the black type will print on one plate with crop marks and file info and the tiff will print on a different plate with only that tiff and no crop marks or file info and no black type.

Thanks for giving this some thought.

maria

 

[DonBlock]

maria1013,

Have you tried to send a composite to the RIP and see how it handles the separation? If you have the color space set to separations instead of mono, it should handle the seps. for you.

 

[maria1013]

We have tried to send as composite and it still will print on 2 separate black plates. Tried composite grayscale, composite RGB and composite CMYK ... sames results on all ... 2 black plates.

It keeps pointing to an issue with how this RIP handles tiff images, but dealer says no. We really are at a loss as to how to solve with the exception of saveing the tiffs as eps.

Thanks.

maria

 

[DonBlock]

To verify the issue is at the RIP, save the file as a PS file and distill to a PDF both with seps on and off and see what you get. This sounds very familiar to me, but ver. 6 is an older version that we don't see much. I will check my notes to see what I can come up with.

 

[mattbeals]

If you'd like you can send me one of the jobs and I can take a look at it. Send me a private message or email and I'll give you my FTP information. Or you could use YouSend It! to send the files. I'm very curious to see what's going on.

 

[toronar]

I second what mattbeals said.

I have an idea what is going on, but without a look on a PDF I can't be sure.
If you have PitStop, check the tiff-image in the PDF: I would bet it is a NChannel-image with one separation color, black. And your old Harlequin-RIP does not know how to handle this and produces another black separation instead of merging it into the process black.

But this is just a guess
Can you save as a CMYK-TIFF from Photoshop? That should work, too, if this is indeed the problem.

 

[maria1013]

Matt ...

I have sent the sitx file to your business email.


"toronar"...

I do not have a current version of PitStop. We have an older version and never upgraded because we used it so seldom.

I tried saving as CMYK as you suggested. That produced duplicate plates for all the C, M, and Y colors (all blank) and still 2 separate plates for the Black ... text on one, image on the other.

Many thanks to both for your support

maria

 

[hagar]

One other option which I would try and use is to use the recombine seperations options in the the seperation style in the rip. Can sometimes help with cases like this

 

[DonBlock]

I'm sure Matt will figure it out since he now has the file, but more info. would be helpful.

What app. was the tiff created in?
Was it a scan that was converted to Gray Scale? and if so, what app for this?
Is the final job CMYK or just Black?
At the RIP are you using Monochrome or Separations for the color space?
After it is ripped, does both of the files show black as their color?

The more info you can provide, the quicker the solution can be found.

 

[maria1013]

Hagar ...

Thank you for your suggestion ... IT WORKED on the test files and few others that I sent to the RIP.

Many, many thanks. Hopefully I can pass it forward and help someone else on this forum.

Thank you to everyone who gave suggestions.

maria

 

[prepressing]

Create a PDF of the job then go into Acrobat Professional and preview the job with CMYK, RGB, etc. Check to make sure you do not have any other elements. The Harlequin RIP is a powerful RIP but it will obey what is in the job. More than likely there are plates going to the software that should not be there. Color bars, etc. will often show up if being added in a design application. It is important to note that you should always allow the application trapping the job to separate the job as well. If you are trapping, make sure recombine is turned on and send composite. If you send separations to a page setup that is meant for composite input you will get extra plates.