GMG or EFI - Question for decision

[Printus]

We have in our company in different production locations RIP's from EFI as well as from GMG.

Within the scope of an organizational restructuring the equipment should be standardized.

Which solution is to be preferred: EFI or GMG?

Which criteria are to be followed?

Or is there a possibility / software to transfer profiles on EFI, which were provided with GMG?
Or vice versa?

Greetings
Printus

 

[rich apollo]

Your organization will need to decide which platform best serves your needs. Outside opinion will be largely irrelevant. Maybe a ledger-type listing of features and needs to see which one is a better fit would help.

Each product will perform color management tasks acceptably. A conversation of whose color matching performance is "best" would involve a lot of hair-splitting.

Consistency, ease of use, ease of implementation, feature set, et cetera. Which one fits most seamlessly into your workflow? Are the needs of all users the same - is there justification for keeping multiple solutions? Which is the simplest and quickest to calibrate/linearize? How is the calibration/linearization monitored? Are there automation options available with either product that would generate cost savings? What are the hardware requirements for each? How many devices can each one drive? How many devices do you need each one to drive? These are the kinds of questions I would be asking.

The single biggest pain I've faced with proofing RIPs is calibration/linearization. I've run products that took half a day to re-linearize, and an entire day to set up a new paper. I'm running a product now on which I can set up a new paper in about 1 1/2 hours. I can re-linearize in about 30 minutes. It'll run on Macs and PCs, and is so modular that I can move from one machine to another in minutes. The product takes advantage of multiple processors, can be built into clusters, will run an unlimited number of clients, will run an unlimited number of output devices, and will run every device that (in my case) Epson has released to date.

 

[tmiller_iluvprinting]

I need one of those!

I need one of those!

I'm running a product now on which I can set up a new paper in about 1 1/2 hours. I can re-linearize in about 30 minutes. It'll run on Macs and PCs, and is so modular that I can move from one machine to another in minutes. The product takes advantage of multiple processors, can be built into clusters, will run an unlimited number of clients, will run an unlimited number of output devices, and will run every device that (in my case) Epson has released to date.

Hi Rich,
May I ask which product you are using? Thank you.

Regards,
Todd

 

[SilvaJr]

Rich,

So far the best software for colorproofs in the market is EFI. Please would you mind to share with others which sofware are you using it?

Thanks in advance,

 

[rich apollo]

I'm using Serendipity MegaRip. It's akin to BlackMagic, but without spot color capability. We don't run spot colors, so for us MegaRip accorded us a chance to save a few dollars.

By the way, that move from one computer to another that I cited - that was from a PC over to a Mac. So, not only did I move to another machine in minutes, I changed the platform that the software was running on. I don't know of any other software of any kind that can do that.

SilvaJr, you state, "So far the best software for colorproofs in the market is EFI." What is it about the software that you feel is superior to others? Not arguing, I'm interested in what EFI offers you - in the perceived benefit.

 

[stargate]

Rich,

So far the best software for colorproofs in the market is EFI. Please would you mind to share with others which sofware are you using it?

Thanks in advance,

Hey,

I think you should stop taking whatever you are taking. You cannot make such crazy statements.

 

[neleson]

Hi,


I would suggest you EFI. EFI is the best solution.


hp 300 ink

 

[mazengh]

i will have to agree that EFI is my choice after i've tried different rips, that include, harlequin, trueflow, onyx, and others... i haven't tried gmg, but i've seen acceptable proofs from companies that use it... but i can only talk about EFI cause i use it.

 

[stargate]

We have in our company in different production locations RIP's from EFI as well as from GMG.

Or is there a possibility / software to transfer profiles on EFI, which were provided with GMG?
Or vice versa?

Greetings
Printus[/QUOTE

No. You cannot move profiles between gmg and efi nor any other color rips. They all are using proprietary file formats for their color profiles. eg. epl, mx etc.

 

[chevalier]

I would give CGS-ORIS a look. I looked at all three and chose ORIS. If I had to choose between EFI and GMG it would be GMG.

 

[rich apollo]

No. You cannot move profiles between gmg and efi nor any other color rips. They all are using proprietary file formats for their color profiles. eg. epl, mx etc.

I don't think that's quite accurate. The linearization and calibration files are proprietary, but ICC profiles can go anywhere.

 

[tmiller_iluvprinting]

I'm using Serendipity MegaRip. It's akin to BlackMagic, but without spot color capability. We don't run spot colors, so for us MegaRip accorded us a chance to save a few dollars.

Hi Rich,
Thanks for the info. I had a chance to check out Serendipity's BlackMagic and it almost seems too good to be true?
Is it pricey?

Regards,
Todd

 

[stargate]

I don't think that's quite accurate. The linearization and calibration files are proprietary, but ICC profiles can go anywhere.

gmg and cgs are using proprietary color conversions and are not compatible with anything else. You can use ICC profiles instead of gmg technology but what for? You would miss a lot of great stuff. Why buy gmg if you want to use ICC profiles unless you do some multi color work. You can also import or export ICC profile from them but you cannot use gmg mx4 or cgs rfp in other systems. Out of the major 3 players efi is the most ICC based. As Rich said lin is proprietary. If you are talking about BlackMagic check their support. I used to have a BlackMagic and replaced it with other system. Interested with older BlackMagic dongle?

 

[rich apollo]

Hi Rich,
Thanks for the info. I had a chance to check out Serendipity's BlackMagic and it almost seems too good to be true?
Is it pricey?

No, it's not pricey. Not at all.

To Stargate's point on support - you would rely more on your reseller. I haven't run into very many issues, but I have had a couple of questions.

Todd, I don't know where you're located, or who you like to deal with.

Eric Magnusson at LeftDakota knows the software in and out and Eric will be totally straight with you about it's capabilities and shortcomings.

David Piccus with Piccus4Color sells and supports it. Son Do with Rods and Cones sells and supports it. Troy Buccini with Mid-States Papers sells and supports it.

You can also contact Bob Miller at ColorHQ. He's the guy that introduced me to the product, and he can make you aware of other folks that are supporting the software. ColorHQ sells the product, but they farm out installation and support. My experience with Bob and ColorHQ was very positive.

Any of the guys I've listed are trustworthy.

By the way, Stargate, thank you for your clarification.

 

[Johu]

I don't think that's quite accurate. The linearization and calibration files are proprietary, but ICC profiles can go anywhere.

That is actually also not very accurate. As such all of the previously mentioned systems can take and operate with ICC profiles. BUT even if EFI (or any other proofer RIP) uses ICC profile as the output profile, it does not mean that it is interchangeable with some other RIP that uses ICC profiles This is because almost all vendors use proprietary halftones in proofers. This means that ICC created for EFI does not work as the output profile for some other vendors RIP.

To my knowledge CGS is the only vendor who actually has OEMd printer manufacturers halftoning for atleast Epson, Canon and HP. Even then using CGS ICC output profile (if somebody actually wants to use those in Color Tuner) to print with just printer driver that uses the same dithering is most likely going to fail, because of linearization and the fact that printer drivers mostly use RGB profiles where as Proofing rips ofcourse use mostly CMYK profiles.

To answer the original question of EFI or GMG. If you really want your different sites to have accurately the same result take GMG. CGS does the same with nice extra features like color accurate softproofing over a web browser and web browser driven UI, but it is unlikely that you would totally want to change your system.

 

[MonsterBabyBLN]

even if this thread is a lil old i would like to share my experience.

everyone gives pros and cons.. but noone gives reasons ? besides the very interesting list of the black magic!

i tried to work with EFI. i used tons of paper because sometimes the swatches for the DTP-20 just didnt came out right and EFI couldnt read them!.. bugs when building the profiles, too. it was a very rough way to finally get a very good ISOcoated match!
after month i was off around dE 4 avg.. so i tried to relinearize.. not possible. rediciulous reading results and no change at all in the lin.
so i moved to colorgate.. which is very easy to handle as it only has cantone drivers for my printer that do the job in this case.

BUT.. EFI has one major advantage in my eyes.. it has the patented dynamic wedge!
meaning you can choose instead of the fogra wedge up to 64 patches from the pdf you are proofing!.. then read them.. and optimize the profile just for that picture.. i loved that!