Is there any RIP + profile creator right now other than HP's own RIP that is sophisticated enough in the color engine + CM to handle the Z3100 inkset as good as HP's driver +profile do ? I have my disappointments with the Wasatch SoftRip 6.2 and I have not seen messages on other RIPs that say metamerism, clean colors, saturation, B&W printing is better than or equal to the HP driver. A friend with a Canon iPF9000 has a similar experience with two RIPs + several profile creators. The question is more general than IP being late I'm afraid. This is no criticism of the printers inksets but another observation that RIPs, as expensive as they are, often do not deliver what they promise. That's not new but gets more clear with any advancement in printer technology.
Ernst Dinkla
try: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wide_Inkjet_Printers/
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You could have a look at the ColorGATE ProductionServer/PhotoGATE RIP (
www.colorgate.com), which I've been using for the last six years or so with a variety of printers including very recently a Canon iPF8000. The price of the full wide-format ProductionServer version is somewhat eye-watering, but the raster version of PhotoGATE for 24" printers isn't too bad as professional RIPs go. A fully functional demo DVD (it watermarks the output until licensed) is available to order from their web site.
I've not used it personally with a Z3100, but I know it does have good support for that printer. It will certainly drive the Canon in either CMYK or RGB mode and, I assume, also the HP; and, at least with the additional ColorGATE profiling module, can drive the Z3100 spectro directly. Its Z3100 support also includes a print monitor function so that it can access the print log directly, rather than having to go via HP's own monitoring software.
Edit: At least with the iPF series, it uses Canon's own half-toning module; I'm not sure what it does with the HP.
In its latest (v5.0x) incarnation it uses a 16-bit colour engine and internal data path, though it currently only outputs at 8-bit (at my suggestion ColorGATE are looking into whether they can output 10/12-bit data in a future release to match Canon's Photoshop plug-in for the iPF series - their tech. support department is very responsive to registered users).
I went for an extensive demo of the Z3100 and the iPF8000 at my dealer, both driven by ColorGATE ProductionServer, and also had a long discussion with their tech. expert who said that they are getting excellent results out of both printers with this RIP. They had tried profiling the machines as CMYK or CMYK + N, but were actually getting better results by profiling and driving them in RGB mode. I'm currently only in the very early stages of experimenting with the IPF8000 (my spectro died as I went to profile the first roll of paper and I've only just got it back from X-Rite), but the initial results using ColorGATE's default RGB target and profiling module look pretty good so far, with very neutral B&W output with little bronzing on glossy media, no obvious metamerism and none of the nasties that Ernst reported from the Wasatch RIP.
Disclaimer: I have no connection with any of the above companies, other than as a satisfied professional user of their products.
