Demo copy of Fiery XF?

[Correct Color]

Does anyone know if such a thing exists?

So, I've been in the business of large and grand format color management for 14 years now, and the biggest change I've seen in the market has been that when I started, stock profiles were universally terrible and it was hard to get a good many raster images to print even reasonably well on a good many materials on a good many machines.

But times have changed, and fact is that now stock profiles are pretty much the equivalent of OEM tires on a car; they're what I'd call adequate but uninspiring. In that they might get you to the grocery store, but I wouldn't want to take them to the track.

But, for lots of people, the grocery store is good enough. So client's ability to print raster images has become not nearly the overall driver of my business it once was, while the ability to hit spot colors has become much more of a concern.

And in working with this, I've noticed certain anomalies in the way different RIP's reproduce spot colors, both from built-in libraries such as Pantone, as well as measured-in spot colors.

And just to note to any litho-types looking in: In this case, "spot color" means a named color associated with a L*a*b* value, so that the name, and not a pixel value, is what the RIP recognizes, and then fires process colors accordingly.

Anyway, these anomalies have bugged me for awhile, to the point that I'm setting up a RIP comparison at my office to get to the bottom of just what RIP does what, and in what situations.

I have dealer versions of Onyx, and of Caldera, but I am not a Fiery XF dealer, and would like to include them.

I've tried calling and gotten no returned phone calls, so I thought I'd try here. Also any other large-format RIP manufacturer that has named spot color capability and isn't limited to one machine that I don't have, i.e. Versaworks, if you want to be included, please drop me a line.



Mike Adams


Correct Color

 

[PricelineNegotiator]

HAH! I had this same discussion with several people from EFI about one or two months back. I got turned around quite a bit trying to figure out more about the software. EFI does not deliver it direct I guess, but the demo copy of Fiery XF was available from a Chicago based company called IT Supplies. Check with them.

 

[abc]

If you are going to do a rip shootout, you might consider adding this free test suite to it.
https://www.gwg.org/workflow-tools/test-suites/ghent-output-suite/

It'll show you how your rip handles PDF elements.
EFI are GWG members so they supply info on the correct Rip settings, I'm not sure about the rest.

 

[DYP]

Does anyone know if such a thing exists?

So, I've been in the business of large and grand format color management for 14 years now, and the biggest change I've seen in the market has been that when I started, stock profiles were universally terrible and it was hard to get a good many raster images to print even reasonably well on a good many materials on a good many machines.

But times have changed, and fact is that now stock profiles are pretty much the equivalent of OEM tires on a car; they're what I'd call adequate but uninspiring. In that they might get you to the grocery store, but I wouldn't want to take them to the track.

But, for lots of people, the grocery store is good enough. So client's ability to print raster images has become not nearly the overall driver of my business it once was, while the ability to hit spot colors has become much more of a concern.

And in working with this, I've noticed certain anomalies in the way different RIP's reproduce spot colors, both from built-in libraries such as Pantone, as well as measured-in spot colors.

And just to note to any litho-types looking in: In this case, "spot color" means a named color associated with a L*a*b* value, so that the name, and not a pixel value, is what the RIP recognizes, and then fires process colors accordingly.

Anyway, these anomalies have bugged me for awhile, to the point that I'm setting up a RIP comparison at my office to get to the bottom of just what RIP does what, and in what situations.

I have dealer versions of Onyx, and of Caldera, but I am not a Fiery XF dealer, and would like to include them.

I've tried calling and gotten no returned phone calls, so I thought I'd try here. Also any other large-format RIP manufacturer that has named spot color capability and isn't limited to one machine that I don't have, i.e. Versaworks, if you want to be included, please drop me a line.



Mike Adams


Correct Color

Your really should also include Colorgate. The color controls are awesome especially the ability to set output values for spot colors which gives you the ability to get the largest gamut possibly out of a printer. https://www.colorgate.com/color-management/color-atlas/ And the replace color options are fantastic.

I have tried a lot of RIPs over the years and when it is all said and done (testing or actually use) I always come back to ColorGate.

 

[Dov Isaacs]

If you are going to do a rip shootout, you might consider adding this free test suite to it.
https://www.gwg.org/workflow-tools/test-suites/ghent-output-suite/

It'll show you how your rip handles PDF elements.
EFI are GWG members so they supply info on the correct Rip settings, I'm not sure about the rest.

I'd be exceptionally cautious about the use of the GWG tests for this purpose, especially given that the GWG (Ghent Workgroup) tests are more about properly handling the PDF graphic elements per the PDF language specification as opposed to the quality / aesthetics of the color profiles and color management. Note that many if not most RIP/DFE developers ship with various “secret sauce” / added value color management settings enabled (beyond those of the PDF specification or anything that can be tested with the GWG tests) to produce what they believe to be superior results.