Subject: Postershop Question
Subject: Postershop Question
- Subject: Subject: Postershop Question
- From: Dave Gaudet <email@hidden>
- Date: Fri, 05 Jul 2002 10:45:28 -0400
I spent a HUGE amount of time testing a whole bunch of RIPs: Wasatch,
Postershop, EFI, ColorGATE, PerfectProof, ImagePrint, PowerRIP, among others
for use with my epson 10k
Of all the rips I tested, I was most impressed with PosterShop's ability to
linearize, and control ink output--right down to controlling the ink output
for each dot size! I loved the queue features, the ability to build new
media profiles, the interface, the documentation, and *almost* everything
else about the software.
BUT (you knew there had to be a 'but') I ran into a bit of a showstopper. A
huge one. As it turns out, I couldn't for the life of me, get the output to
be smooth. Anywhere there was a sharp edge, such as picture boxes, text,
line work, etc. the edges looked imprecise and "shaggy" kinda like the
24-pin dot matrix printers of old. I bantered with Onyx's tech support a
bit, and we applied all the patches and fixes that had been released since
the demo, all to no avail. At first, they admitted that it was a known
problem with the Epson 10K series of printers, and that a fix was pending.
About two weeks later, after my rep made some inquiries about the status of
the fix, they called me back, denied there was a problem, and asked me to
send in the files and some comparative samples.
I sent in a file along with sample output from the PosterShop RIP (ugly!)
and a print from the same postscript file from Wasatch SoftRIP. (Very smooth
like output from all of the other RIPs.) About another week later, an Onyx
tech support rep got back to me. The long and short of their explanation for
the difference was that Postershop users are creating ouput for viewing at a
distance--i.e. posters. Therefore, any minor aberrations in the smoothness
of the output is acceptable because from a distance you can't see it anyway.
What's more, he explained that since they didn't see this as a problem,they
have no intention to fix it.
I almost fell over when I heard that. It completely took the wind out of my
sails, because up until that point I was convinced it was the rip for me.
How can a product with so much attention to detail in the color area be so
careless with output quality? And with every other RIP producing super
clean output how can anyone find that output acceptable? Doh! In fairness, I
*was* using a 30 day demo, and as such I can't help but to wonder if since I
wasn't yet a paying customer, whether they weren't simply tying to get rid
of me...
At any rate, about a month later I had a long and very informative
conversation with the lead engineer for the PowerRIP 2000, and I mentioned
this whole scenario. He told me that his team had the same exact problem and
that once they ironed out a problem with the code for the microweave in
their screening, it went away.
I revisit the Onyx web site from time to time to see whether they've posted
anything in the support area about it. If they do, then I might well give it
another try...
Hope this helps!
Dave Gaudet
PixelGlow Studios
http://www.pixelglowstudios.com
>
I've had a bad experience with Postershop yet I hear this is a widely
>
used rip.
>
>
Could I get some feedback on this product from other users?
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