Don’t Call Them RIPs!

There was a time when a “RIP”—raster image processor—was little more than that: a means of converting PostScript data into the dots that an imaging device printed. Today, however, RIPs do far more than pump pixels. From performing design and prepress tasks to automating entire production workflows, these hardware/software combinations have become the nerve centers of the print operation. We just have to figure out what to call them.

What’s In a Name?

“We actually try not to call them RIPs anymore,” said Kerry Moloney, Field & Channel Marketing Manager, EFI Fiery Wide Format. “We call them ‘color management and workflow solutions.’ We use the word ‘RIP’ where appropriate, as in ‘something can RIP at five times the speed,’ but it’s a specific task that our digital front ends do.”

It comes down to thinking about the RIP—or whatever we want to call it—in new ways. In wide-format printing, it’s in terms of the applications the user is producing. “We’re starting to think not about the files, but the work the customer is doing,” said Bryan Manwaring, Director of Product Management at Onyx Graphics. “How do we get beyond just creating a print? How do we help somebody create a pop-up banner, a vehicle wrap, or a billboard?” At FESPA last March, Onyx was previewing its Onyx 12 RIP, slated for release this summer.

RIPs often have modules specifically designed for certain end-use applications, like vehicle graphics or even textiles. RIPs also let users set up templates for jobs with similar specs, kind of like style sheets used in layout programs like InDesign. “Customers can set up a Quick Set [an Onyx template] once for a common job and use it for all future jobs,” said Manwaring. “Customers have told us it’s saved them 15 minutes per job, or hours work each day.”

Textile printing is the hot application du jour, so RIPs and RIP modules are being introduced that are specifically designed to address the unique needs of printing on fabrics. “Crucial, not just important, color management, high-speed production, and being able to manage pattern repetition and color books so they can show the color gamut they’re able to produce with the machine,” said Sébastien Hanssens, VP Marketing and Communication for Caldera Software. “That’s what textile printers are looking for.” At FESPA, Caldera released TextilePro, RIP software tailored for textile printing, be it soft signage, décor, and/or apparel. Also at FESPA, Onyx showed its Onyx 11.1.2 with HP WallArt integration for interior décor, as well as the Onyx Textile Edition.

Sophisticated color management is an essential function of a RIP, especially as hardware vendors tweak their inksets and add colors. “The RIP also controls the order of the colors,” said Hanssens, “such as if you want black coming out first.” Or in those cases when you need to lay down white first, such as on transparent or non-white substrates.

Nesting Instinct

RIPs are also performing more of the tasks that external software such as Adobe Illustrator used to handle.

“You’re seeing more and more prepress features going into the RIP,” said Hanssens. “We saw it with grommets, with composition, with being able to nest things, and to automate tasks. RIPs are part of an automation process.”

Wide-format shops print on expensive substrates, so it’s important to fit as many images on a single board as possible. This can be done by opening the file in Illustrator, manually nesting all the images, then saving a new PDF and RIPing and printing from there. That takes time, but today’s RIPs can handle advanced shape nesting. Identifying grommet holes is another external task that can now be performed in-RIP.

Tellingly, Onyx used to offer Illustrator plug-ins that added tools for creating banners and vehicle graphics, but they have since been integrated into its RIP software. “Customers say to us, ‘I’m not looking for tools that make my designers and prepress guys more effective, I’m looking for tools that let me skip them altogether,’” said Manwaring. “We’re putting those tools right into production where these customers can see the biggest benefit.”

Hitting the Links

Design and prepress tools, as well as templates for specific end products, are important elements of modern RIPs. Another is the ability to connect with other systems in the shop, be it a web-to-print portal or other kind of online storefront, a front-end system, or an MIS. The goal is to get the information from these systems into the production software without it the need for manual rekeyboarding or physical job tickets. Any modern RIP will integrate with these upstream systems, offering bidirectional communication—sales people or customers can get online job status information, for example—or the MIS can get real-time information on things such as ink and substrate usage so that shops can accurately track their costs.

“A lot of new tools we’re adding to RIPs monitor production and costs,” said Hanssens. “People are very keen on that, so they know how much ink and media they’re using, and make sure they’re making money not wasting money.”

The trick is not just telling print shop owners and managers that these capabilities exist, but convincing them that it’s worth the time to figure out how to use them. “We find sometimes that they’re too busy doing the job to learn how to do it better or more efficiently,” said Moloney. At the same time, “people can be resistant to change, but we try to encourage them.” EFI offers many online guides, videos, eLearning courses, and its “World of Fiery” webinar series.

Running on Auto-Pilot

Automation—be it total or partial—has been slow to come to wide-format printing, largely because many wide-format products are not of the standard kind that lend themselves to automation, unlike a lot of general commercial printing. In fact, wide-format shops see a competitive advantage in offering unique, customized products. Where automation works best is with standardized products. “People who do produce more off-the-shelf types of products and are very good at managing online storefronts are the people who are making [automation] a reality,” said Moloney. “They’ve streamlined what they offer online.”

“Wide-format work is inherently more complicated than a lot of small-format work,” said Manwaring. “There are a lot of variables, a lot of different finishing options, and manual assembly of pieces. Shops view wide-format as more custom jobs and custom work is hard to automate.”

Another reason that automation has been slow to come to wide format is that margins are still fairly high compared to commercial printing. “Until margins get a little bit tighter and things have to be automated, there’s really less need,” said Moloney. No one is exactly clamoring for lower margins, but creeping commoditization will likely move margins downward, making automation a necessity. As shops see increases in volume, there will also be a shift from the more “craftsman” approach to wide-format printing to a more “manufacturing” approach. This is not a new phenomenon; commercial printing had to shift its mindset this same way 15 or 20 years ago.

One of the barriers to automation is the common misconception that the entire production workflow has to be automated at once. This is not true—or even recommended.

“You cannot start by automating everything,” said Patrick Zimmermann, Solutions Integration Director at Caldera. “But you can eliminate extremely basic, repetitive prepress actions, which are a massive cost in large-format printing.” Enfocus Software’s Switch has become virtually synonymous with automation in small-format commercial printing, and is slowly moving into wide-format. EFI, Caldera, Onyx and most other RIP manufacturers integrate with Switch. (See the “Switch Hitting” sidebar.)

Whither the Cloud?

As everyone knows, software today is moving to cloud, from Microsoft’s Office 365 to Adobe’s Creative Cloud. Is RIP software headed cloudward? The future looks, well, cloudy. “File size is one big consideration,” said EFI’s Moloney. Especially in wide-format printing, where file sizes can be measured in gigabytes, a cloud solution might not be practical or productive.

“You need a lot of computing power, so if it’s in the cloud, it might be good for smaller files, but on high-production machines, we’re not really going there,” said Caldera’s Hanssens. Even a subscription or “software as a service” model—often related to cloud software—isn’t necessarily suitable for RIP software. “I haven’t seen from the customer’s perspective a lot of excitement around [subscription-based RIP software],” said Onyx’s Manwaring. “We’re finding customers are starting to get more used to it, but I still hear a lot of grumbling about it. It’s something we’re watching.”

RIPing Into the Future

We are fast reaching the stage where a customer can upload a file to an online storefront and the job can pass through the entire workflow untouched by human hands. This is already the case for some kinds of small-format printing, and while there will always be some kind of “hands on” specialty graphics jobs, more and more automation will come to wide-format printing. But even if entire soup-to-nuts automation doesn’t, RIPs now have powerful tools that can automate enough processes to make a difference to the bottom line.

“I think the opportunities customers have by really taking advantage of these tools is huge,” said Manwaring. “Customers used to ask questions like, ‘What is a RIP?’ We’ve moved beyond that. Now they’re asking, ‘How can I get better at my business?’ That’s really the future of RIPs.”

Switch Hitting

Enfocus Software’s Switch—which allows print providers to automate a wide variety of repetitive tasks—isn’t a household name in wide-format printing, but that is changing as shops recognize the need for automation. “I wouldn’t say that automation is their top-of-mind concern,” said Bjorn Willems, Director of Product Management for Enfocus. On the other hand, he added, feedback from Enfocus partners like Onyx and Caldera indicated that there was a real need for automation. “When they talk to their own customers and partners, automation is the number one trend and key success factor.”

Automation isn’t an all-or-nothing proposition. Small, individual tasks can be automated that can add up to significant time and cost savings. If a shop uses a service like WeTransfer for customers to send links to large files, someone has to open the e-mail containing the link, click the link, wait for the file to download, then drop it on the RIP’s hot folder. “All of those are manual tasks,” said Willems. “With Switch, we can monitor a mail address and if a message contains a WeTransfer link, a script will automatically download the attachment and push it to the next step in the workflow.”

Many shops have multiple output devices, and each devices may have its own RIP, color management, and other specs. “Switch can be the glue to all those systems,” said Willems. “Based on the intelligence of the metadata, it can route the files to the correct output device and to the correct RIP with the correct settings.” Operators can also get feedback indicating the job was finished—or if there was a problem—and information can be sent to the company’s MIS.

It’s not a magic bullet, however. “There are a lot of prepress actions which can easily be automated—if you have information,” said Patrick Zimmermann, Solutions Integration Director at Caldera. “The crucial part is having information. If all you have is a file, you can’t automate anything. You need data: how many copies, what size, where does it go, what is the application.”

Information is a must, but so is configuring the automation to begin with, which requires the ability to write Javascripts or Applescripts. “Switch is a very open system,” said Willems. “It can be integrated with a lot of systems, but requires scripting to make all these custom solutions.”

To help customers, Enfocus recently launched an AppStore, where customers can download customized scripts written by Enfocus customers. The AppStore has not been live for long as of this writing, but so far the best-selling scripts (or best-trialed; scripts have a 30-day free trial period) are XML Magic, which can update XML and JDF files using metadata, and the WeTransfer link script mentioned earlier.

Still, the initial hurdle is just understanding what can be automated and what the possibilities are. Most shops are better off starting small, and very simple automated tasks become the gateway drug to further automation. “People want to cross the bridge completely instead of going step-by-step,” said Zimmermann.

“The customer starts using [Switch] and then they start adding workflows and automating other side processes,” said Willems.

They just have to know where to start.—Richard Romano

Adobe Launches PDF Print Engine 4

On May 31st, Adobe released its newest version the Adobe PDF Print Engine (APPE). Version 4 has several new features which enable higher print performance.

Of special note to wide-format print providers is the new Tile Parallel Processing (TPP) feature. According to Mark Lewiecki, senior product manager, Adobe, the new TPP feature “brings the efficiencies of the Mercury RIP Architecture to wide-format printing. TPP accelerates rendering for large surfaces by balancing the processing load across multiple instances of APPE running on multiple cores. Also in APPE 4, processing for repeating patterns is 10x faster.”

Additionally, new algorithms developed by Adobe color scientists help to smooth out long gradient blends, especially at inflection points where hue can shift abruptly. Spot color handling has also been expanded—up to 127 color channels can now be specified and used in any given region.

Adobe PDF Print Engine 4 will ship throughout 2016 as it is integrated into solutions from the industry vendors. Many are already on-board with the new AAPE.

“We have a long history of combining Adobe innovation with advanced EFI technologies like HyperRIP performance and ColorWise color management,” said John Henze, VP marketing, EFI.

“Océ VarioPrint i300 and the Canon Color imagePRESS Series customers now benefit from the new Mercury RIP Architecture in PRISMAsync,” said Erik van Deurzen, director of marketing for Océ Technologies.

“HP SmartStream with Crystal Preview, built with the Adobe PDF Print Engine, is a proven success, helping customers boost productivity and improve efficiencies,” said Xavier Garcia, general manager, Large Format division, HP.

“Early on, we decided that the RIP driving the Landa presses should be powered by the Adobe PDF Print Engine,” said Gilad Tzori, VP product strategy, Landa Digital Printing. “Like Adobe, Landa is an industry pioneer, and we welcome the opportunity to work together.”

Since the launch of APPE 3, Adobe’s partners have rolled out major new presses, including: the Canon imagePRESS C10000VP, the EFI VUTEk LX3 Pro, the Fujifilm Jet Press 540W, the Heidelberg Primefire 106, the HP Indigo 30000, the HP PageWide XL 8000, the KBA RotaJET, the Konica Minolta KM-1, the Océ ColorWave 900, the Océ VarioPrint i300, the Ricoh Pro VC60000, the Screen TruePress Jet 520 HD, the Xeikon Trillium One, the Xerox iGen 5, and the Xerox Rialto 900. Hundreds of other inkjet presses, label presses, wide format printers and CTP platesetters are driven by DFEs and RIP systems, powered by the PDF Print Engine – built into prepress systems from Caldera, ColorGATE, CGS, DALIM, EFI, Esko, FFEI, gmg, Kodak, Onyx Graphics, and SOFHA. Today, over 150,000 print operations around the world rely on the Adobe PDF Print Engine.—Denise M. Gustavson