Newbie in the Wide Format Industry

[Seixas]

Hi there,
Recently the company I work for (Alta Systems, Inc), acquired a small building next door to us to accommodate our new Wide-format business.
We purchased a Digitech Truefire wide format flatbed; a MIMAKI CJV30 series Print and cut, and a COLEX 5x10 flatbed cutter.
I'm a prepress operator for offset and digital printing using Heidelberg Prinect Cockpit and Signa for all my impositions. Now I'll be also prepping files for WF.
For the WF imposition I have been told to use only Adobe Illustrator because I need to keep it in layers when saving as PDF (Print and Cut layers).
Is there a plugin for Illustrator that has a "step and repeat" option? What is everyone else in the WF industry using?
Have any of you used Deepnest (open source nesting)?

Thanks in advance!
Valerie

 

[jwheeler]

Is there a plugin for Illustrator that has a "step and repeat" option? What is everyone else in the WF industry using?

Usually the print controller software that comes with the printer has a nesting/imposition feature built into it. For high volume or more advanced workflows, many shops use Onyx.

 

[Greyfall]

If you just want a stand alone Esko makes something called iCut that does a pretty good job at imposing and outputting files for wide format printing and cutting.

 

[Seixas]

Usually the print controller software that comes with the printer has a nesting/imposition feature built into it. For high volume or more advanced workflows, many shops use Onyx.

Thank you. I forwarded to my boss.

 

[Seixas]

Thank you! I forwarded to my boss.

 

[michaelejahn]

Less expensive is an adobe illustrator plug in named "PaSharp"

Founder Electronics - PaSharp

/products/pasharp.htm /images/pasharp.jpg

www.foundereagle.com

 

[Seixas]

Less expensive is an adobe illustrator plug in named "PaSharp"

Founder Electronics - PaSharp

/products/pasharp.htm /images/pasharp.jpg

www.foundereagle.com

Thank you! I'll look into that.

 

[Correct Color]

Valerie,

In quick answer to your question, everyone in the large format inkjet industry does step-and-repeat or imposition in the RIP. That's why the file has to be created in Illustrator, and it's also essential that your cut file layer use the color name that the RIP will recognize -- the name associated with cut files in the RIP. The default name in ONYX is CutContour.

If you're asking for the Digitech, which I'm sure you're running with ONYX, then you can either right click on the files when they're in RIP-Queue and select the quantity you want to print, and select your spacing options in the Placement dialogue; or you can open the file in Job Editor, and setup your step and repeat parameters using the options in the Patterns tab.

If you're asking for the Mimaki, and you're using Rasterlink, my first suggestion would be to switch the machine to ONYX. But similar settings are in there somewhere.

Give me a call or drop me a line. Helping wide-format newbies is what I do.


Mike Adams
Correct Color

 

[DesignNBuy]

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If you are keen to grow your web-to-print wide-format printing business, In this blog we discuss, how we help our clients scale their business and what you can learn in the process.
Read full blog.

 

[Seixas]

Valerie,

In quick answer to your question, everyone in the large format inkjet industry does step-and-repeat or imposition in the RIP. That's why the file has to be created in Illustrator, and it's also essential that your cut file layer use the color name that the RIP will recognize -- the name associated with cut files in the RIP. The default name in ONYX is CutContour.

If you're asking for the Digitech, which I'm sure you're running with ONYX, then you can either right click on the files when they're in RIP-Queue and select the quantity you want to print, and select your spacing options in the Placement dialogue; or you can open the file in Job Editor, and setup your step and repeat parameters using the options in the Patterns tab.

If you're asking for the Mimaki, and you're using Rasterlink, my first suggestion would be to switch the machine to ONYX. But similar settings are in there somewhere.

Give me a call or drop me a line. Helping wide-format newbies is what I do.


Mike Adams
Correct Color

Hi Mike,
First time coming back to the forum after all my questions about Wide format. Thank you for explaining all the above.
Since the WF machines are located in another building, we decided to use ESKO for imposition because I don't have access to ONYX from my workstation. I really like ESKO. Very easy to use and does a good job separating the print and cut file.