Inkjets, RIPs and Postscript

[jeremy h]

Right, it's time for a new printer. I'm graphic designer and am currently bodging along with a ropey A4 laser printer. (It's about to run out of toner and a new set will cost the best part of £800 - the printer with toner was £100ish when I bought it.)

I'm thinking of getting back into inkjet. Over the years I've had plenty of experience of them but when I recently looked for say, the modern equivalent of a HP Designjet with a bundled software RIP I'm now confused. There does look to be some decent A3 inkjets (Epson and Canon) but there's appears to be nothing much in the way of Postscript RIPs for them. The third party RIPs that are still around seem to be aimed at photographers (and appear to be non Postscript) or when postscript targeted much, much more expensively at large format guys. (The more reasonable designer RIPs - PowerRIP X etc all look to have vanished.) I just need something to get in 'the ball park' but I do need to be able to handle Illustrator files etc

What do you all do? Is my thinking way behind the times? For example can I just get say an Epson Surecolor and effectively RIP my work by printing say, from a PDF and selecting printing as image etc? (Just about everything I do now ends up as a PDF in some form). I don't want spend £500 and then find I need to buy a £1000 RIP to get postscript to work. Thanks in advance...

 

[eyoungren]

I think if you are using Adobe products it's not really an issue any more. Possibly not even an issue with QuarkXPress.

Since Adobe created PDF they have built that engine into their products (as far back as CS4 or earlier). I have yet to use an Adobe app that required me to have a software based RIP to print to an inkjet.

Just my two cents on it.

 

[MacGizmo]

You haven't needed a software RIP to print postscript in 20 years. The only reason to use a Software RIP is for multi-user work environments where you want to make color, size and finishing adjustments on the fly and/or when you have dozens of jobs in the print queue.

The apps you use on your Mac are only half the issue. The printer itself needs to have a postscript interpreter, which most do. I regularly print to HP and Epson desktop and large-format printers without a RIP with no issues at all.

 

[jeremy h]

Ah, excellent, thanks for your response. I thought I might be completely out of touch. I get it with large format inkjet that advertise built in postscript. I've looked at some but they're too big and expensive for my needs (I can't really charge for the output - they're for internal proofing). But what about say an Epson desktop - say the P600. No PS built in. Epson do a specific desktop proofer (the SC-P5000) but even that doesn't seem to have postscript. At some point the PS in the PDF will have to handled - so would selecting print as image and jacking up the resolution in the PDF print options effectively RIP the file to the inkjet? Or do the supplied printer drivers now handle this well? Or am I overthinking this?

 

[MacGizmo]

Ah, excellent, thanks for your response. I thought I might be completely out of touch. I get it with large format inkjet that advertise built in postscript. I've looked at some but they're too big and expensive for my needs (I can't really charge for the output - they're for internal proofing). But what about say an Epson desktop - say the P600. No PS built in. Epson do a specific desktop proofer (the SC-P5000) but even that doesn't seem to have postscript. At some point the PS in the PDF will have to handled - so would selecting print as image and jacking up the resolution in the PDF print options effectively RIP the file to the inkjet? Or do the supplied printer drivers now handle this well? Or am I overthinking this?

Have you installed the latest driver(s):

• 
  Installing the PostScript (PS3) Printer Software - Mac
  If you did not install the standard Epson printer software, you need to install the PostScript (PS3) printer software before you can adjust the print settings and print to your network printer.
  Note: Make sure your product is turned on and connected to the same network as your computer before installing the printer software.
  
  1. To download the Drivers and Utilities Combo Package - PS3 PostScript file, visit epson.com/support (U.S.), epson.ca/support (Canada), or epson.com.jm/support (Caribbean) and select your product.
  2. Double-click the downloaded package.
  3. Double-click EPSON.
  4. Click Continue on the next two screens.
  5. Click Agree.
  6. Click Install.
  7. If necessary, enter the administrator password.
  8. Click Start and follow the on-screen instructions.

 

[eyoungren]

Or am I overthinking this?

You are overthinking it if using an Adobe app.

The Adobe app (whichever one you are using) essentially has the RIP software built in. That's what I meant when I said the PDF engine was built into the app(s).

So, Adobe apps are handling the postscript on the fly as you print.

 

[jeremy h]

Thanks for the posts guys. My last experience of handling an inkjet myself was just over 10 years ago and back then not using a specific software RIP would immediately put you in a world of pain in terms of postscript output. (For example the printer would use an illustrator file's embedded preview file as opposed to the ps info). It could be a nightmare! As the old saying goes - once bitten twice shy. Sounds like I need to just stop thinking about this and just go and get a decent inkjet.

 

[MacGizmo]

Thanks for the posts guys. My last experience of handling an inkjet myself was just over 10 years ago and back then not using a specific software RIP would immediately put you in a world of pain in terms of postscript output. (For example the printer would use an illustrator file's embedded preview file as opposed to the ps info). It could be a nightmare! As the old saying goes - once bitten twice shy. Sounds like I need to just stop thinking about this and just go and get a decent inkjet.

It will still happen if the printer or its driver don't have an interpreter. Thankfully, almost all do.