Alternative to Colorgate Productionserver 7

[palodi]

We are looking for a rip that have a very similar color conversion to the one that Photoshop or Indesign have.

What I´m talking about here is to put an input profile, a rendering intent, and a output profile. And that the color conversion of the rip should very similar to the one that Photoshop or Indesign would do.

Right now we do all the color conversion in photoshop or indesign. So we use those 2 programs as a rip. But we want a rip with hot folders to automate the color conversion.
99,99% of the time we use relative colorimetric with black point compensation to do the conversion. Most of our output profiles are rgb.

Lately we have using Colorgate Productionsever 7 and the color conversion that it does is different than what the adobe photoshop or indesign do (using the same input profile, rendering intents and output profile).
We have been doing much testing with rgb images and we don´t like how Colorgate converts the images to the output profile. It leaves the pure blacks a little bit more washed out than what the Adobe conversion would do.
Another thing we don´t like about Colorgate is that if you send the image as a tiff file the rip respects the rendering intent of that queue and converts the image accordingly.
But when you send that SAME image inside a pdf (whether is cmyk or rgb) Colorgate WILL ALWAYS use the relative colorimetric conversion to do the color conversion regardless of the rendering intent that you have in that queue.


So we are looking for another rip with hot folder options (like Colorgate have) that have a closer color conversion to the Adobe one. And also a rip that respects the rendering intent that you want to use whether you send the image inside a pdf or as a tiff.

Thank you very much.

Palodi

 

[Gianni_S]

Hi you can consider different solutions:
_ give a spin to Absolute Proof, a sw like Colorgate that works fine. Mac base, easy and reliable. It can produce colormanaged pdf, tiff or drive an inkjet printer.
_ use PitStop to convert files, it can also preflight pdf files
_ I think also that Acrobat could help you to do what you ask, but I'm not sure if it could work with hotfolders
_ You could give a look at Elpical Claro or Binuscan products to colormanage your files

It all depends on your budget.

 

[palodi]

thank you very much Gianni_S

I appreciate it

 

[rich apollo]

Are you printing these files, or just converting? I can't tell if you're wanting a RIP or a color server. There are a jillion choices out there - your use will determine which is the best fit.

<But when you send that SAME image inside a pdf (whether is cmyk or rgb) Colorgate WILL ALWAYS use the relative colorimetric conversion to do the color conversion regardless of the rendering intent that you have in that queue.>

That shouldn't be. There has to be a setting. Elements in PDFs can be tagged not only with an ICC profile, but with a rendering intent as well. Perhaps ColorGate is honoring the embedded rendering intents?

 

[palodi]

Ok

Right now we are just converting. In that particular print queue Colorgate outputs a tiff file.

As for the rendering intent tagged element inside the pdf, is there a way to find out if that is happening?


Thank you

 

[palodi]

Maybe this is

Maybe this is

I got this screenshot

 

[palodi]

ok after some more testing, as Rich Apollo Said Colorgate uses the rendering intent of the image inside the pdf.
But we´ve to another dead end. the best rendering intent for us is relative colorimetric with black point compensation, but there´s no such option on an image inside a pdf. You can assign relative colorimetric but without the black point compensation. Also Colorgate does not have an option to override the rendering intent of the pdf objects and force them to use another one you put on that particular queue.
So I don´t see any way to have a relative colorimetric conversion with black point compensation with an image inside a pdf on Productionserver 7.

 

[rich apollo]

If you're just looking to convert, you can do that with Photoshop or Acrobat. Photoshop actions can be exported as droplets. You can just drop images onto the droplet. Acrobat Preflight Profiles can also be exported as droplets.

Any proofing RIP can be set up to do what you're talking about, however, you will get only raster data out. A color server like Color Tuner Web, ColorLogic ZePrA, GMG ColorServer, or Alwan CMYK Optimizer will allow you to maintain vector elements and transparency in the final file. Some of these only allow for conversion to CMYK colorspaces, though.

If you wanted to go 'hog-wild', Switch combined with PitStop Server, or Callas PDF Toolbox would allow you automate not only your color conversions, but as much of your workflow as you'd like.

If working only with raster imagery, Elpical Claro is a product that will handle 'image enhancement', and there is also Imagemagick, which is free.

 

[palodi]

ok thank you for all the info

 

[rich apollo]

No problem. PM me if I can help.