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A RIP for all reasons

By Chris Morrison, Kathi Morrison

If you’ve studied large-format digital printing, you know the print-operation cornerstone is the Raster Image Processor, the RIP. Print speed, colors or how many features the print machine supports are immaterial if the source images aren’t properly prepared for printing. Meaning, with-out a satisfactory RIP, you might as well stuff your money down the drain.

A good RIP must be fast. It must support most major file formats, like PostScript, JPEG and TIFF. It should also offer such print-composition features as nesting and queuing. Further, the high-end models must include color-management tools and, perhaps, job accounting and workflow features.

Take your pick

Early on, ErgoSoft determined that large-format, textile and photographic printing markets vary, and, thus, it decided to customize its products for each field. A digital-print shop is interested in production speed and color accuracy; a textile shop is interested in step-and-repeat functionality, dot-on-dot ink layering and shrinkage adjustment; and a photo lab needs precise, color-management control and image fidelity.

Consequently, ErgoSoft produced three packages: PosterPrint is for the traditional, digital printmakers; TexPrint is for textile-print shops; and StudioPrint is for photographers and photo labs. Although the three software features vary, the underlying engine is the same. Also, each displays a similar, user-friendly interface and supports numerous printers.

In a moment, we’ll detail PosterPrint, but first, know that optional job costing is available for each package, as is the ColorGPS color-management system. Textile printers will be interested in the time-saving color-combine feature, which allows users to change a layered image’s colors and create multiple variations, without having to recreate the design. Many shops will enjoy the optional white-ink support and variable-data entry. Photographers and photo labs may fancy the color controls and Picture Package. It permits photographers to create and save custom templates that comprise various sizes of a single photo, that is, wallet, 8 x 10 in. and more.

System requirements

PosterPrint (and the other ErgoSoft packages) require a Vista or Windows XP 32-bit Windows OS. The system should have at least a 2GHz CPU with at least 1GB of RAM (2GB on Vista). It will also support multi-core processors and 64-bit.

You’ll need a 40GB hard drive, a graphics card and monitor that supports 1,280 x 1,024 screen resolution. In addition, the software supports most popular color-profiling devices, such as Xrite and Gretag Macbeth eye-one.