Perhaps you are overlooking the obvious: The world's largest-selling Postscript RIP, EFI XF, runs natively on the Mac OS, both the client and server software. Perhaps more comparable to XProof would be EFI eXpress. It has te same color management engine, Patone libraries and spot color editor, and can use third-party profiles. For those who print in RGB mode there is a "Photo" version; you can use the same RGB profiles you use in Photoshop, but of course with nesting and other productivity features of a RIP. It's quite inexpensive. Mike Strickler MSP Graphic Services 423 Aaron St. Suite E Cotati, CA 94931 O: (1) 707.664.1628 C: (1) 707.321.7855 F: (1) 707.939.4542 info@mspgraphics.com www.mspgraphics.com On Oct 27, 2012, at 12:00 PM, colorsync-users-request@lists.apple.com wrote:
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Message: 1 Date: Fri, 26 Oct 2012 12:59:22 -0700 From: John Lund <john@jwlimages.com> To: colorsync-users@lists.apple.com Subject: Re: ColorBurst users switching to Overdrive Message-ID: <D2C05297-004E-4DE6-8094-B4DD8316714A@jwlimages.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Thanks to all who have responded, both on- and off-list. Sorry if this is tardy - I only get the digest right now.
It seems like there are some XProof users like me out there, not looking forward to losing a Mac-bassed CMYK RIP.
I did hear from ColorBurst, with a very detailed & helpful explanation of their rationale & plans for the transition to Overdrive (actually, I guess it's already complete). They maintain that Overdrive gets better accuracy for hitting Pantone colors + proofing than XProof, and that XProof's approach of setting ink limits & linearizing limits the printers' color gamut compared to using the manufacturers' drivers for current printers.
Louis - thanks, it sounds like you're pleased with the new RIP.
Dick - yes, I too have been successfully proofing for offset. And as I replied to Louis:
One thing I wonder about proofing - since Overdrive is RGB, those proofing bars or wedges, being CMYK to start with, must get converted to RGB in the print stream. Seems like that "extra" conversion might be problematic, or at least it's not as clean & simple as building a CMYK file & sending it unmodified thru the RIP (especially if this same file is the one supplied for offset printing)
- I would really miss the confidence gained when I can pair up a hard proof with the file used to produce it, with that same file used for final output on the press.
Again, thanks for any further thoughts and/or experiences to be shared.
John
JWL Images Emeryville, CA