Good Rip software for OSX?

[chocodog]

Hello,
I have been researching rip software to use on my 7900 on the mac.  A few friends have suggested qimage but that only seems to work on windows.  While searching online I came across this video on youtube about a product called mirage that works with epsons. This is the link to the movie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=du-idLkGvMw
 It looks straight forward in its use.  I hear other names popping up like imageprint and colorburst.  What would you say it the best solution for a photographer that prints many sizes and images?

[keith_cooper]

I use ImageNest on our iPF8300 - I used to use it on our 7880

A new version is on the way, adding aspects of functionality that should be familiar to Qimage users

I wrote up some ImageNest notes a while ago

[madmanchan]

What is your expected print workflow? Many software packages (not just rips) can handle printing images in batch, of different sizes, etc.

[Scott Martin]

I hear other names popping up like imageprint and colorburst.  What would you say it the best solution for a photographer that prints many sizes and images?

The best solution is the most elegant one. As Eric said, consider your entire workflow, from camera to print, and all of your printing requirements. Lightroom often fits the bill for it's excellent quality, simplicity and elegance. It's also a forward thinking product that will continue to mature over time. If you're needing features that it, or your current workflow application, don't have, then what are those features? What are you missing? Those questions will point you toward the right solution. But throwing a RIP into the mix without asking those questions will surely complicate things and lead to a more complicated workflow.

[chocodog]

I have yet to use lightroom.  It might just be fear of a new product because I have been using photoshop cs3 for years now.  I'll try the lightroom, imagenest and mirage demo tonight and see what works best.  thank you all for your insight

[digitaldog]

I have yet to use lightroom.  It might just be fear of a new product because I have been using photoshop cs3 for years now. 

You fear a new product but you want to go down the (sometimes) rocky road of using a RIP (the term in this case is probably a print layout utility since it doesn’t sound like you need to rasterize anything)? Lightroom cost less and does more easily then many of the so called “RIP packages” out there. But as mentioned, you really need to define what it is you are looking for in this “RIP”.

[chocodog]

I wanted something that would make it easy to layout a number of different images.  At the same time, I would want something that would create a gallery wrap when i print a canvas.  Over the years i have gotten better at mirroring the image to create the wrap but it is always time consuming. My business consist of print sports portraits, group shots, weddings, and panoramas. A feature that the gentleman mentioned was the ability to buy the product and use it on a larger machine when i chose to upgrade.  from what i have read, imageprint sells you a license for one machine and that is it.  If my venture is profitable, it looks like this mirage software will allow me to add more printers in my workflow without shelling out more cash.

[MHMG]

If my venture is profitable, it looks like this mirage software will allow me to add more printers in my workflow without shelling out more cash.

I took a quick look at the Mirage site, but it looked to me like Window only PS plugin. Maybe I missed it, but I didn't see a Mac OSX version offered.

You mentioned CS3. Do you have the suite or just PS?  Indesign makes a pretty darn good image nesting tool with easy image drag and drop capability, print margin, placement, and frame control, etc. if you don't need other features of a full blown RIP like more advanced ink limiting and linearization.  With a little effort you could probably work out a scalable template for your gallery wrap needs with it as well.  For a 44 inch printer, ID as a standalone purchase costs no more than Imagenest, and as far as I can tell, give's Imagenest pretty fair competition for versatility and speed. Another inexpensive option might be to use Qimage running under VMfusion or Parallels on the Mac, but I've never tried it. Lastly, the Canon imageprograf series of printers throw in a sweet little known utility called "Free Layout". Not quite as robust as Imagenest, but not bad for many Canon iPF owners because it has no additional cost.

[DavorHorvatic]

I took a quick look at the Mirage site, but it looked to me like Window only PS plugin. Maybe I missed it, but I didn't see a Mac OSX version offered.

You mentioned CS3. Do you have the suite or just PS?  Indesign makes a pretty darn good image nesting tool with easy image drag and drop capability, print margin, placement, and frame control, etc. if you don't need other features of a full blown RIP like more advanced ink limiting and linearization.  With a little effort you could probably work out a scalable template for your gallery wrap needs with it as well.  For a 44 inch printer, ID as a standalone purchase costs no more than Imagenest, and as far as I can tell, give's Imagenest pretty fair competition for versatility and speed. Another inexpensive option might be to use Qimage running under VMfusion or Parallels on the Mac, but I've never tried it. Lastly, the Canon imageprograf series of printers throw in a sweet little known utility called "Free Layout". Not quite as robust as Imagenest, but not bad for many Canon iPF owners because it has no additional cost.

Mirage works well on Mac OSX. I´m using Beta 1.5 on Mac OSX  10.4.11 with PS CS4 and with Epson 4880 / 9800. It is quite easy to use and you can test it for 14 days for free. So try it and see if it fits in to your workflow or not.


Supported Applications
Windows:
Adobe Photoshop 7, CS, CS2, CS3, CS4 & CS5 in 32 & 64bit
Adobe Photoshop Elements 6, 7 & 8
Adobe InDesign CS3, CS4 & CS5

Macintosh:
Adobe Photoshop CS2, CS3, CS4 & CS5 (32bit only!)
Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 & 8
Adobe InDesign CS3, CS4 & CS5

System Requirements
Mac OS X 10.4 or later, Windows XP SP2 or later, Windows Vista 32 or Vista 64, Windows 7 32 & 64 bit








Professional Printing New Defined

Now you can enjoy printing without complex printer drivers. Mirage is a professional print plug-in for Adobe® Photoshop and InDesign and is available for the latest Epson Stylus Pro printers.
 
• Fast and simple to use
• Saves time and money
• Supports all colour modes
• Absolutely no length limitation
• Supports USB and TCP/IP connection
• Compatible with Apple OSX, Windows XP
Vista 32 and 64 bit, Windows 7 32 and 64 bit


The Mirage software, the Mirage Quick Start Guide, the Mirage User Guides and the Mirage Datasheets are legal property of din.a.x Digitale Bildbearbeitung, Neuss, Germany.

[MHMG]

Mirage works well on Mac OSX. I´m using Beta 1.5 on Mac OSX  10.4.11 with PS CS4 and with Epson 4880 / 9800. It is quite easy to use and you can test it for 14 days for free. So try it and see if it fits in to your workflow or not.
 

Aah, faulty recall on my part. It was the fact that it only supports Epson printers that caused me to think it wouldn't work on my Mac. I should have elaborated....it won't work on my Mac driving a Canon printer. While I do have epson printers as well, it lack of support for Canon or HP makes it a solution that would force me to use two different workflows. But it sounds pretty neat for Epson only owners.

[David Watson]

Imageprint may be expensive but it delivers the goods.  Why?  It bypasses all of the Mac OS issues and drives the printer directly with profiles that are second to none in terms of quality and the range of papers covered.

I use it on a 3880 and on a 7900 - works well and very reliably.  If you spend $4000 on a printer, $2000 on ink, $20,000 plus on a camera and lenses why quibble about $2000 as a one-off to get the best Epson/Mac printer RIP available?

[ghaynes754]

Imageprint will do exactly what you want.  Setting up a custom layout is easy.  And they do all of the profiling.

[Sven W]

Imageprint may be expensive but it delivers the goods.  Why?  It bypasses all of the Mac OS issues and drives the printer directly with profiles that are second to none in terms of quality and the range of papers covered.

I use it on a 3880 and on a 7900 - works well and very reliably.  If you spend $4000 on a printer, $2000 on ink, $20,000 plus on a camera and lenses why quibble about $2000 as a one-off to get the best Epson/Mac printer RIP available?

+1.
4800, 7880, 9900 and 11880 user. All through ImagePrint.
/Sven

[chocodog]

Thank you all for the useful information.  I'll try out the demo's for the different rips and offer my opinion on them.  Thanks again. Cheers and have a great weekend

[KevinWilliams]

Shiraz RIP is an excellent RIP works on both MAC and PC

http://www.applied-image.com/shiraz-rip.aspx

[photodave]

Keith

What kind of quality are you getting in terms of color with Image Nest on your IPF 8300?  In the past I have used Image Print with a friends Epson 9900 and have been impressed with the quality and color accuracy of that particular RIP. So I guess my question is how does Image Nest compare with Image Print?

Thanks

David 

[dgberg]

 Perfect Resize for the gallery wraps and print through Lightroom,all you need.