Re: Rip Software
Re: Rip Software
- Subject: Re: Rip Software
- From: Dan Reid <email@hidden>
- Date: 02 Feb 2006 09:51:29 -0800
- Date: Thu, 02 Feb 2006 10:10:35 -0700
- Thread-topic: Rip Software
Title: Re: Rip Software
on 2/1/06 6:20 PM, Graeme Gill at email@hidden wrote:
> Matthew Kelly wrote:
>
>> I worked with the Roland FJ500 and the same ink set and used the
>> ColorBurst Prepress RIP, which handles the 8 colors quite well, and
>> allowed one to apply curves to each of the colors. It also allows the
>> creation of custom spot color values.
>
>> The reality was that I was never able to get a proofer gamut that was
>> any better than what I was getting from a Sherpa43 CMYKcm. I tried
>> various papers and Pantone Vantage inks. I used ProfileMaker with the
>> multicolor plug-in for the hifi profile.
>
> I had a play with a Roland 8 color at one stage (CMYKOGcm), and what
> I noticed was that Orange and Green in themselves did not expand
> the CMYK gamut at all significantly. What did expand the gamut noticeably,
> was combinations of the non-CMYK inks, e.g. the light inks in combination
> with Orange or Green. What this told me, was that if the profiling software
> uses a formalistic, by the numbers type orange and green separation (ie.
> substitutes Orange for Magenta and Yellow, substitutes Green for
> Cyan and Yellow), and a typical "use the light inks at light tints
> of Cyan and Magenta" separation, you won't see much improvement
> in the overall gamut.
The Orange and Green inks are NOT designed to increase CMYK gamut. I guess that's not obvious. LT inks have never in my experience expanded the color gamut of any printing device I have worked with, including the Rolands. The LT inks are introduced to create a more continous tone looking print without hard (sharp) dots of cyan and magenta.
If you were using the Roland ColorChoice software, as I assume, then you might as well have used the Epson RGB print driver and gotten similar results. You need a real RIP that offers good calibration and proofing options.. As mentioned in previous posts, ColorBurst, GMG, Oris, Onyx, AbsoluteProof, and EFI ColorProof XF all offer support for Hexachrome and some allow good proofing of Hexachrome press seperations.
Finally, Hexachrome Orange and Green were introduced to not improve CMYK color gamut but allow a larger simulation of the orignal Pantone spot color library. Yes and ancillary benefits are better reds, greens, yellow-greens, skin tones, but that's a nice side benefit not the reason why Hexachrome was developed.
>
> My conclusion at the time, was that noone knows how to create
> optimal separations for such ink combinations. This may not
> have changed (I haven't had the opportunity to complete my
> work on this problem). This lack of ability to exploit extra
> non-traditional colorants may well lead to the demise of
> devices offering such extra colorants.
>
PM5 MultiColor plug-in and Pantone Hex plug-ins allow RGB (or CMYK) files to be converted to Hexachrome seperations that will utilize the extra colorants *if* needed. Just because orange and green is present doens't mean it needs to be used for every subject and image.
Maybe you haven't noticed the industry trend happening but many manufacturers are adding extra colorants to their printers and press setups. I guess the biggest indicator could be GretagMacbeth's ProfileMaker Packaging product released last year. I have made a pretty good living working in CMYK+ environments to date. Interesting point of view.
--
Dan B. Reid
RPimaging
Color Management Products and Training for Print, Internet, and Motion Graphics
http://www.rpimaging.com | Toll Free: (866) RGB-CMYK
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