Will i need rip software?

[toggen]

High!
I´m gonna buy an Epson 7880 when available....
i do fine art photography for exibitions (colour)

My setup will look like this:
Mamiya ZD 645AFD II
Macbook pro 17"
Photoshop Cs 3
Lightroom
Panthone huey
Epson UltraSmooth Fine Art Paper (not shure yet)

I am not so shure about this RIP software thingie though...
Do i really need it? Seems to be pretty complicated stuff!
(AND expensive)
Until now i have had my prints made by Photophono in Norway,
but it´s getting dammed expensive.  

   Regards,T

[wesley]

High!
I´m gonna buy an Epson 7880 when available....
i do fine art photography for exibitions (colour)

My setup will look like this:
Mamiya ZD 645AFD II
Macbook pro 17"
Photoshop Cs 3
Lightroom
Panthone huey
Epson UltraSmooth Fine Art Paper (not shure yet)

I am not so shure about this RIP software thingie though...
Do i really need it? Seems to be pretty complicated stuff!
(AND expensive)
Until now i have had my prints made by Photophono in Norway,
but it´s getting dammed expensive.   

   Regards,T
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=133705\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Hello,

Honestly, it's depends:

1. On volume of printing
2. Size and type of prints. Traditionally, RIP works great for big prints.
3. The Epson drivers. If we take can take cue from the Epson 3800 + driver + quality custom profiles (even the canned ones are pretty good), the difference might be very small. At this point, nobody knows how the printers will perform out of the box.

The RIPs are expensive but if they are well worth the cash spent if you really need it in your workflow. Some of the popular ones are from Colorburst and Colorbyte. A good RIP will actually makes your printing work simplier.

Btw, getting the Eye One Spectrometer might be a better buy than the Huey. For one, it can profile your camera, printer and computer.

I am sure more knowledgeable members of this forum can fill you in.

Best
Wesley

[Geoff Wittig]

Epson ultrasmooth fine art is a beautiful cotton rag paper, and I would suspect that Epson's canned profile will work just fine. I've put this paper through an Epson 7600 using Bill Atkinson's excellent profile with consistently good results. I believe Atkinson consulted for Epson after the 7600 came out, and Epson's subsequent profiles benefited from his expertise.

If you plan on standardizing on this paper and are printing for yourself, I don't believe a RIP will yield much benefit. If you anticipate printing on multiple different paper types, the high cost of a commercial RIP like Image Print may be worth it for the very high quality profiles it provides. It probably makes sense to see how things go with canned profiles at first; you'll know pretty quickly if you're going to need a RIP.

[budjames]

I currently own an Epson R2400. I've been using Colorbyte Software's ImagePrint since version 5.0.  Earlier this year I switched from PC's to Macs and upgraded IP to v7.0 for the Mac.

Although the Epson-supplied profiles are excellent for their papers, printing the same images using IP and their profiles yields improved details in the shadow areas of the print. The big advantage of using IP is that I use a lot of fine art papers from Hahnemuhle and Moab and IP provides custom profiles for just about any paper you can image for free. IP also offers profiles for B&W printing which are awesome.

IP for the R2400 is about $500 which is expensive for an amateur user like me, however, it costs a lot more for the larger pro printers. If you use non-Epson papers, I think that buying IP will be a good investment over the long haul for the access to their profiles alone. It could be cheaper that paying for custom profiles or by saving time creating custom profiles yourself.

Tech support for IP is very good too. I usually get to talk to the programmers on the first call.

My 2 cents.

Bud James
North Wales, PA

[toggen]

Thank you so much for the input guys, it was REALLY helpfull!
So i guess i can live happily withot RIP,then...

   T

[Brian Gilkes]

"
Although the Epson-supplied profiles are excellent for their papers, printing the same images using IP and their profiles yields improved details in the shadow areas of the print. The big advantage of using IP is that I use a lot of fine art papers from Hahnemuhle and Moab and IP provides custom profiles for just about any paper you can image for free. IP also offers profiles for B&W printing which are awesome."


ImagePrint is relatively cheap for a RIP, but it is a "solution in a box", i.e. you can't do much tweaking. The profiles are still canned, although usually better than ones from paper manufacturers .
Despite Epson claims offactory linearisation , we have found considerable difference between printers by careful inspection and analysis of profiles.  
I think you would be best to commission the building of custom profiles for a careful selection of papers that you wish to use. Be very carefull about who you choose to build the profiles.
A lot of custom profiles have a lot to be desired, especially in the shadow areas.
Perhaps you could find out who builds profiles for the most critical users in your area- maybe a National Gallery ?
Don't worry about a RIP at this stage. Spend the $ on a decent monitor eg Eizo or Quato
Your MacbookPro does not have a screen capable of accurate image editing.
Good Luck
Brian
www.pharoseditions.com.au