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Author Topic: Shiraz RIP  (Read 6958 times)

sunnyone

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Shiraz RIP
« on: March 09, 2015, 03:29:58 pm »

So I downloaded the Trial version of the Shiraz Signature V8 RIP. I was dumfounded at first because the manual doesn't do a good job at all informing one as to how to use the software. (I thought I was pretty tech savvy, but . . . )

Well I finally broke down and sent an e-mail to their contact on Saturday. I received an e-mail from them this morning asking me to e-mail them back my Trial ID# and Password that were installed with the program. They told me how to get that info and then they would link with me via TeamViewer to show me how to use the software - pretty incredibly cool if you ask me. I sent the e-mail and they contacted me IMMEDIATELY - I noticed my cursor moving around the screen and moving open windows and clicking on the Shiraz icon on my desktop. (I might add I also installed the trial version of ColorBurst Overdrive - which has a four page manual. After much trial and error I was finally able to get that software to work but when I sent an e-mail to their support stating the manual was virtually useless and the software was not intuitive at all I received a reply e-mail from them that they have, and I quote "thousands of users that have had no problem with Demoing and using Overdrive. There is also two YouTube videos from a reseller - search for " ColorBurst Overdrive YouTube " and you'll find these.")

So Shiraz has a tech personally go online with me to show me EXACTLY how to use their RIP step by step and ColorBurst tells me to search for videos one of their resellers has made? Which do you think I'll seriously consider?

In any event, the Trial version of Shiraz Signature V8 is for 15 days AND it provides full functionality including printing. One of the most valuable options I see is they also provide access to their library of custom icc profiles. I've been using Ilford Premium Photo Pearl paper (this paper is no longer available as far as I can tell and there are NO Ilford icc profiles available anywhere either that I have found). With Shiraz I was able to go to their site and enter in Ilford and a page came up with ALL of their Ilford profiles.

I just selected the Ilford Premium Photo Pearl profile and selected download and the profile was installed on my computer - simple as that. They also do custom profiles, though I didn't think to ask about pricing. They are located in London but said they have a 2-3 day turnaround, which sounds hard to believe.

I haven't yet printed from Shiraz as I actually just got off TeamViewer with their tech 15 minutes ago. I was so impressed with this support I wanted to post to Luminous Landscape - and I really don't have any association or investment in Shiraz - I'm just extremely impressed with their support. (Their tech did say their manual was "lacking" and that was why they preferred that users contact them via e-mail for support.)

I hope someone at Luminous Landscape will do a full review of the Shiraz RIP software. I believe the price for Shiraz Signature V8 is reasonable at $975.00 for up to 25" printers and $1,495.00 up to 50". By comparison, ColorBurst is $1,095.00 for up to a 24" printer and $1,395.00 for up to a 44" printer - and you can search YouTube for videos one of their resellers has provided when you need tech support (sarcasm intended).
 
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Phil Indeblanc

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Re: Shiraz RIP
« Reply #1 on: March 10, 2015, 05:08:01 am »

I wish there were more user reviews on rips, but I only remember 1 user for Shiraz, and it wasn't so positive. But that's just one. I think it was about the profiles, or how it wasn't able to adjust a color ink level. I hope someone can give better feedback here, other than my faded neg memory of it.

On another note, you also have EFi as an option. These are all under 2k. Otherwise GMG, Oris and such are options.
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Richard.Wills

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Re: Shiraz RIP
« Reply #2 on: March 10, 2015, 05:12:19 am »

In the UK, we got EFI Express bundled with the 8300 and 8400. Saves an absolute stack of time for running prints. Tech support from Velmex has been via email and phone, with almost instant response.
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Landscapes

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Re: Shiraz RIP
« Reply #3 on: March 10, 2015, 11:25:35 am »

I don't know about what others think, but to me, this testimonial reads like a well placed advertising campaign.  This is the poster's first post and he sounds so delighted... he can't wait to tell the world!  Its a bit of a turn-off to be honest.
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Bart_van_der_Wolf

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Re: Shiraz RIP
« Reply #4 on: March 10, 2015, 11:44:42 am »

I don't know about what others think, but to me, this testimonial reads like a well placed advertising campaign.  This is the poster's first post and he sounds so delighted... he can't wait to tell the world!  Its a bit of a turn-off to be honest.

My first thoughts as well. We could be wrong, but we could also be right...

Cheers,
Bart
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jferrari

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Re: Shiraz RIP
« Reply #5 on: March 10, 2015, 04:18:03 pm »

Landscapes said: "I don't know about what others think, but to me, this testimonial reads like a well placed advertising campaign.  This is the poster's first post and he sounds so delighted... he can't wait to tell the world!  Its a bit of a turn-off to be honest."

Then Bart said: "My first thoughts as well. We could be wrong, but we could also be right..."

+3 - My gut reaction exactly. Drive by commercial poster. I didn't even indulge him the visit to the website.   - Jim
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sunnyone

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Re: Shiraz RIP
« Reply #6 on: March 10, 2015, 06:18:59 pm »

Well I guess I shouldn't be surprised by the negative reactions to my post. It seems most people assume the worst of everyone, until proven otherwise. (I'm sure this post will elicit some colorful responses.)

Since customer service is generally a joke nowadays, I thought it appropriate to praise a company that provides, what to me is great customer service for a product I haven't even purchased yet - and I didn't even need to buy an extended warranty or service contract. 

Unfortunately, I'm not a commercial poster. My Name is Andrew Herman and I live in La Pine, Oregon - a small town roughly 24 miles south of Bend, Oregon. I'm semi-retired having spent almost 40 years in the Aviation consulting business.

I've been into photography since I bought my first Asahi Pentax Spotmatic F around 1973/74 - way before the public had ever heard of the internet, forums, etc. I moved up the Pentax chain and eventually switched to the Canon - AE1. That system got stolen on a vacation in Seattle @ 1982. Years later I bought a Canon EOS 20D when my job enabled me to go to Juneau, AK for six months (an incredible experience and probably one of the best I've had), which I still have and use constantly. Alaska is everything it's made up to be and more (I'd previously been to Anchorage working on their Airport Master Plan and took some time on one of my trips to spend a long weekend on the Kenai Peninsula - taking the tour of Kenai Fjords National Monument - again awesome.)

Needless to say I've owned a lot of cameras over the years and eventually bought a Contax 645 system, which I had always dreamed about. Two years ago I bought the Nikon D800.

My first large format printer was a Canon iPF5000 I bought from ColoHQ back in 2007. I donated the 5000 and upgraded to the Canon iPF 6300 @ 2010.

Yes I was excited about the Shiraz RIP because I'm in the process of demoing RIPs, including ColorBurst Overdrive, and Mirage. Mirage has been the easiest to "learn". My experience with ColorBurst tech support was pretty abysmal - presumably because I'm on the demo? and when I contacted Shiraz support and got immediate one-on-one support I'm sorry but I was duly impressed.

While I just joined Luminous Landscape, I've been a visitor for years. I also frequent Fred Miranda, Ken Rockwell, DPReview, Northlight images, FLAAR, RonMart blog and any number of other sites that have information, reviews, etc. I find useful.

With regard to some of these replies - no offense but maybe you're getting too old to get excited about anything anymore and have become jaded?

I guess when you joined LL you had already somehow posted tons of threads - before ever joining? To say you wouldn't go to a manufacturer's site because of my post sounds pretty insular. (BTW, I found out about Shiraz via the Canon-Europe web site. I've been a member of the Canon iPF wiki since 2007 and members there often refer other members to the Canon-Europe site for the latest drivers/software, etc. Shiraz is an imagePROGRAF Alliance Partner although USA Canon has never heard of them and suggested I shouldn't use their software - or ANY Canon software from the Canon Europe site stating that Canon Europe software is different from US software, which makes absolutely no sense to me.)

With regard to Mr. Indeblanc, from my limited experience with Shiraz, you can adjust the color ink level, but that is way beyond my actual level of knowledge. Based on my limited knowledge, ink level adjustment is primarily used in offset printing. Shiraz does provide the option of three different icc profiles for each paper - draft, normal, and high. In speaking with the tech I was told that high for LF printers is just a waste of ink.

In any event, if someone doesn't want to try a product, that's their choice. I still believe it would be useful to review Shiraz and any other RIP so the impression wouldn't appear to be so "commercial".

I've included the content of the e-mail I received from Shiraz after I downloaded the trial of their software below (notice that it states they will provide a one-to-one remote session, which is what they did for me) -

Hi Andrew

Thank you for downloading a Shiraz RIP product and hope that you have managed to install and run the software. Your software should now be fully enabled and include full printing access.

Please note after the installation of the software to enable the 15 days free trial, you have to activate a trial license through License Manager by selecting Activate option at the start of the program. If for any reason you are not able to activate the trial to print and test the software please let us know and we shall do our best to make it work.

If required, we can also offer a free online introduction session through remote Internet connection to demonstrate the software and provide basic initial training.

If you would like to have a one-to-one remote session with one of our product specialists or need any additional information about Shiraz Software products, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Kind Regards

Monika
Online Sales Executive

info@shiraz-software.com
www.shiraz-software.com

*******************
Shiraz Software
www.shiraz-software.com
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digitaldog

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Re: Shiraz RIP
« Reply #7 on: March 10, 2015, 07:24:54 pm »

Welcome Andrew. Please don't take some of the comments here to heart, it's just that with a site of this size, we have seen our share of shill's. Having the ability to post here (and elsewhere) anonymously isn't IMHO a great idea.

I agree 100% it would be great to see someone on LuLa do a review of this product. I'd love to know why you decided to use a 3rd party driver too. I've used ImagePrint (till version 6) but with Lightroom for printing, I haven't seen the need. Didn't find PrintTAO to do anything the Epson driver couldn't do. Been years since I played with ColorBurst products.

Bend, great part of the country, my mom lived there for years. A great beer town if there was one!
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sunnyone

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Re: Shiraz RIP
« Reply #8 on: March 10, 2015, 08:03:31 pm »

I guess I just wasn't expecting those negative responses.

I haven't for certain decided to go with a RIP, I just want to see if they make any discernible difference.

It's ironic that while the Mac has for years usually always been identified with the graphic arts, there now appear to be more options for Windows than for the Mac. Many of the RIP options are restricted to Windows only OS or Epson only (ImagePrint). I've done a ton of searching to try to find reviews about the various options and have found very little useful information available. So my next choice was to search for those options applicable to my situation - Mac OS X and the Canon imagePrograf.

Since this is currently a "testing" phase, I also wanted demo versions and the only options I could find that met my requirements (OS and printer) were the Mirage, ColorBurst Overdrive, and Shiraz RIPs.

After initially trying all three, I really wanted to applaud Shiraz for their support on a product I haven't even purchased yet.

In contrast, I was just reading a rant about the Wasatch RIP (http://www.signs101.com/forums/showthread.php?63420-Caveat-Emptor-%28Thinking-of-buy-Wasatch-Softrip-%29) posted on another site that seemed typical of where most companies' customer service is heading.

As for this area of Oregon, it is an awesome location. I used to live in Seattle and had always thought I'd "retire" there, but it's become so humongous I just can't imagine dealing with the congestion. I typically only go into Bend to shop - the traffic there is getting worse all the time.

I moved here after almost seven plus years in the Dallas area - no offense to those from Texas but I definitely wanted to get back to the mountains and the rural lifestyle - and being close to Canada and AK.
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digitaldog

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Re: Shiraz RIP
« Reply #9 on: March 10, 2015, 08:09:02 pm »

I haven't for certain decided to go with a RIP, I just want to see if they make any discernible difference.
That's a reasonable approach. First off, some products really are RIPs, others are really just 3rd party print drivers. When you mention products like Wasatch, keep in mind it's designed for a very specific use and audience. People who have to deal with CMYK data to proof, people who have to really RIP (deal with Postscript data) etc. In the old days, I used ImagePrint to make a good B&W print. Just not possible with the older Epson driver pre Advanced B&W mode. It also had some layout functionality that today exists in Lightroom for a lot less money and issues. Some people want custom ICC profiles for lots of exotic papers. Some products do produce superior dither and output but my experience is, you have to have a loupe close by. But testing the products with the same images to examine output advantages is a good idea, certainly before you spend the money!
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jferrari

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Re: Shiraz RIP
« Reply #10 on: March 10, 2015, 09:13:56 pm »

Well I guess I shouldn't be surprised by the negative reactions to my post.

Andrew, If your second post was your first you could've eliminated the negativity. No one likes getting duped by trolls, shills, drive by's, etc., that's why the cautious skepticism. Welcome to LuLa.    - Jim
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Phil Indeblanc

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Re: Shiraz RIP
« Reply #11 on: March 12, 2015, 12:17:54 pm »

What? You don't like drive by's Jim?  Hehe

As far as
Quote
It's ironic that while the Mac has for years usually always been identified with the graphic arts, there now appear to be more options for Windows than for the Mac
,

Thats because identified does not equal real use. Windows for 20 years has had the same capabilities as Apple, and in many instances when we got into 3D, much more.

Don't let the voice of free computers to educational and other institutions for decades run your critical thinking. Smart marketing on Apples part.
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digitaldog

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Re: Shiraz RIP
« Reply #12 on: March 12, 2015, 12:19:56 pm »

Windows for 20 years has had the same capabilities as Apple, and in many instances when we got into 3D, much more.
Not system wide color management, not for 20 years. Just one example of course.
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Phil Indeblanc

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Re: Shiraz RIP
« Reply #13 on: March 13, 2015, 12:36:33 am »

True,pc's did have some color limitation, management issues. I think my first graphics Mac was a 9800 before I got a G4 :-) After the G4 with processor restrictions I went PC and never looked back.....Sort of like my Nikon to Canon experience. Both great systems...Same with Epson. I was all Epson up until 5 or 6 years ago.

Some flaw or at the time a limitation, sets some people off into a different system. So far so good.
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