My Symphony Results
My Symphony Results
I would like to add to this thread by submitting my testing results for OpenRip symphony 3.0 back in Sept 08. It only took about 45 minutes to install and configure a few printers and hot folders for testing on OSX 10.5.5 & XP pro, I was extremely impressed with the speed of the rip, trap functions and extremely comfortable with the built in impo as would most who are familiar with Preps. I did not have any physical output devices hooked up so I will not comment on the final output just the input side, but I did setup Epson proofer, CTP device and an imagesetter all in pause mode and was able to get a good feel for the total frond end time. The support guys were very helpful with any questions, but honestly I had it up and running rather fine right out of the gate, very intuitive. Below is my evaluation:
The Drag and Drop of files onto the rip is very nice, this is on most new workflows.
Adobe Print Engine V2 rips regular 8.5 x 11 pdf magazine pages (full coverage) very fast, even on older PCs (P4/1GB ram), it was noticeably faster at ripping and trapping than Rampage 10.5 on a Quad-Core workstation with 2GB ram.
Preview seems a bit slow compared to other rips, this feature could probably be optimized on newer equipment, remember my test box is my home PC not a workstation grade anymore.
The Ink Density easy as dragging a cursor over desired area to show density.
The Total Ink Usage tool is very straight-forward and useful for coverage estimation. Creates a great starting point for planners. I could see using this to do a quick rip of several representative pages and coming up with a ballpark average to assist in the bidding process.
Advanced Scan is a very unique and productive feature providing quick, accurate and most importantly a cost effective way to input "Camera Ready Original" and add value with the ability to add color, change elements and even add elements, all within the workflow. It is faster than doing the same with photoshop and/or Illy. The quality was great and I just happened to have the default scanner (Scanmaker 9800XL from Microtek) hooked up.
I really like the readily available info in the "Print Devices" window, very useful at a quick glance. Serves as quick check for the output and input settings.
Ink remapping done easily, would like clearer defined drop downs.
Raster Touch-Up tool ran slow on my computer, great feature though. You can add or erase off the final plate file
, but always do this with caution because the final print file does not match the plate file any longer, one my favs but it is dangerous.
Proofing easy to setup, Advanced proof very useful for the last minute changes that always occur, Kooltone very nice for the screened proof, big cost from other vendors such as EFI. The email proofing option worked great, file size was perfect for this solution
Love Open-Rip Remote on Mac OSX 10.5.4, would like the actual job view. Would like more control, such as editing the job ticket and imposition creation/editing. With this level of control it could be run completely from the client OS and would level the playing field dramatically.
All in all I believe you get much more than you would expect for such a modest priced, total solution.
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John Barr
210.489.9646
