Open PrePress Interface
Open PrePress Interface
- Subject: Open PrePress Interface
- From: Nick Wheeler <email@hidden>
- Date: Wed, 01 Aug 2001 16:32:08 -0400
on 8/1/01 1:12 AM, email@hidden at
email@hidden wrote:
>
OK, sorry if this is obvious to some, but what is OPI?
It stands for Open PrePress Interface. It was a way for networked computers
to store HiRes image files on a server and do page assembly on client
workstations in a client-server network environment. When choosing to print
from the client the server would swap out the LowRes client files for the
HiRes files on the Server.
This sped up page assembly on the clients and reduced network traffic, when
the client sent files on to the imagesetter they were released in seconds
for more work. Meanwhile the Server would grind away sending the HiRes data
on to the RIPs in the backround. In theory you could segment the network so
the HiRes and LowRes stuff never collides.
Another workflow similar to this used DCS files or Desktop Color Separation.
Difference being that all the DCS data was local. There were client-server
implementations using DCS files as well.
I helped install a Helios server at a local prepress shop and we never did
get it to work that well. We finally went to Rampage which worked much
better. To my knowledge the prepress shop where I worked is happily using
Rampage to this day.
Best wishes
Nick Wheeler