Thank you Terry for taking the time for giving such a descriptive answer. (even if you just sctatched the surface) It might help to give a brief outline of my situation here. Most of the work I do here for the monastery are prints used by us here and a few times a year we have to send jobs out to an offset printing company we use. Things were working fine on both ends with our previous setup of 4880 & X-Proof Plus 17". Now that we switched up to a 7900 I need a RIP to go along with that. I could just upgrade my 17"X-Proof Plus to the 24"version. But after speaking a couple of times with different people at ColorBurst they are recommending moving to Overdrive because that is where they are focusing their efforts now. I like the company and I've had a chance to use & try both of these RIPs and if there is a chance their X-Proof series my be discontinued then maybe I should go with Overdrive now? (I don't like change when it comes to color!) Again I am just starting to get into profiling my devices and I probably won't get into advanced stuff anytime soon seeing that I am the entire graphics dept. here and barely keeping up with the work. What makes things easy is that I only use Epson media. Also I just wanted to touch on a couple of points you mentioned. "with a RIP you are generally NOT at the mercy of operating system updates that could totally hose your color" Before the 900 series that was true. "With ColorBurst and the 7900, they're essentially using Epson's CMYK driver" But now with the 900 series relying on Epson's CMYK driver couldn't your color still get hosed with system updates? Also I never had a chance to get into Ink Curves, Linearization and Ink Limiting and now they are grayed out options in X-Proof Plus and non existent in Overdrive. "With an RGB driver print system, you're at the mercy of the print media options for things such as ink limiting and black generation." This is true but from what I've been hearing (and experiencing) that Epson has done a pretty good job with their drivers/profiles etc. "With an RGB driver print system..." Just checking. What you mean is a RIP based on the manufacturer driver or JUST using the driver? I apologize for such a long reply and I promise to keep em shorter. Thank You. God Bless. Father Damian On Mar 12, 2012, at 5:12 PM, Terence Wyse wrote:
On Mar 12, 2012, at 4:10 PM, sngraphics wrote:
***What I need help with is finding out the differences between a CMYK & RGB RIP. (Not specific to ColorBurst)*** Does one have certain advantages over another?
If you want to talk more specifically about an RGB *driver* print pipeline vs. a true RIP, be it CMYK or otherwise, most RIPs will have additional production options such as nesting/ganging and tiling....though there are some 3rd party options for doing this within an RGB workflow.
One thing that can be a VERY compelling reason to use a RIP as opposed to the printer manufacturer's driver is that fact that with a RIP you are generally NOT at the mercy of operating system updates that could totally hose your color....the recent fiasco with the MacOS one case in point. With a RIP, you're relatively immune to changes in the printing system of the OS.
If I purchase an RGB RIP am I missing out on some color profiling options I would have with a CMYK RIP?
With an RGB driver print system, you're at the mercy of the print media options for things such as ink limiting and black generation. If you use the printer manufacturer's media, you're probably OK....but if you want to use some 3rd party media, you have very limited options for getting an optimal profile. Some trial and error might be involved getting just the right media settings to work with a 3rd party media.
Biggest thing I would not want to give up with CMYK is the ability to control the total ink limit and the black generation/GCR. This can go a long way towards producing more stable gray balance and reduce color inconstancy under different viewing conditions. Again, if you make an RGB profile, all that is "under the hood" of the print driver and you have no control over it.
Having said all THAT, outright color gamut (or gamut volume) between CMYK and RGB profiles is not all that different in my experience. I used to think that having total control over per-channel ink limits, light/dark ink transfer, etc. would result in "better" profiles. That was maybe the case some years ago but today when I look at my own CMYK profiles where I've carefully slaved over all this stuff and then compare my results to an RGB profile made through a driver (using an optimum media setting), I don't see much of a difference, especially considering the work that goes into a really good CMYK profile.
Specifically with ColorBurst X-Proof, you'll find the setup of the 7900 much less daunting than with some of the legacy printers, especially if you delved into setting your own ink limits and linearziation. With ColorBurst and the 7900, they're essentially using Epson's CMYK driver....there's nothing to do other than printing a profiling chart and setting your separation parameters when you build the profile. You can still control total ink limit and black settings in your profile but there's nothing much you have to do within ColorBurst other than setting the correct media type.
Understand that this is really only scratching the surface of the difference between RGB and CMYK RIPs....there's likely more difference among the various CMYK RIP systems than there is between CMYK and RGB. :-)
Regards, Terry Wyse