Mike C. wrote:

> Would like to talk with someone about the Indigo and the rip that comes
> with it. How does it do variable data. Does it sit out on the network like
> any other desktop printer and you print to it.

The Indigos that we have come with an Adobe IP Tech RIP. Now there
is a Harlequin RIP that HP is saying will replace that IP Tech Adobe RIP.
We tried that, it sucks, The Harlequin can't handle high res very large PDF
files. The Adobe based IP Tech RIP is the better all around RIP for sure.
We sent back a Harlequin indigo RIP after wasting months testing/trying.

At any rate, the RIP sets on the network and can be printed into, or can
drop into hot folders, PDF, PS, ot JLT.

> How effective are ICC Profiles.

OK, we find that the Indigo is very accurate on color and don't have to
play with that much. It's very easy and accurate to adjust color at press
also. We don't find ourselves having to do much with ICC really.

> Mostly how does it crunch variable data. Do you send the unchanging part
> of the job to the printer as a template then merge the variable data to
> the template to speed up ripping?? Or is that a dated way of doing things

A JLT, or J Layout is a file sent from say Quark Xpress using an Indigo
Xtension called Yours Truly Designer, or "YTD". That file contains the
postscript, and data, or image linking data, and step and repeat or imposition
data. The RIP reacts to that JLT file to actually put all the VDP together
from components in the most efficient way possible at the RIP.

--
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Regards,
--
alias, JoePostscript

freelance custom programming
http://www.software-robotics.com
Columbus, Ohio
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*this anonymous user account is used to post prepress forums user and customer inquiries for others to see and respond to.

Yes, Indigo prints very accurate to offset and once you nail the color, you won't find much need to be profiling allot. The IP-Tech adobe Rip has great color control using curves that you can easily modify and hit color when needed.

This RIP technology of using a JLT as outlined by JP above is covered under a law suit over patents held by RR Donelly. They are suing Quark and Kodak/Creo over these patents and how variable is executed in the RIP. This lawsuit potentially could bring the Variable Data Printing (VDP) and Print On Demand (POD) industry to its knees. There's another post about this from a few weeks ago. You should read that.
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Interests: adobe acrobat 8 pro, acrobat 8 professional, acrobat 8 standard, acrobat 8.0, acrobat 8.0 professional, acrobat connect, acrobat exe pdf forum, graphic design forum.

OK, we find that the Indigo is very accurate on color and don't have to
play with that much. It's very easy and accurate to adjust color at press
also. We don't find ourselves having to do much with ICC really.

> The Indigos that we have come with an Adobe IP Tech RIP. Now there
> is a Harlequin RIP that HP is saying will replace that IP Tech Adobe RIP.
> We tried that, it sucks, The Harlequin can't handle high res very large PDF
> files. The Adobe based IP Tech RIP is the better all around RIP for sure.
> We sent back a Harlequin indigo RIP after wasting months testing/trying.

Hi Joe,

I'm curious as to those comments. Certainly when I was at Hqn, the RIP was far superior at handling high res files (PS or PDF) than Adobe (or any RIP) was.

What were the problems/issues you encountered?

Was this with just one particular file? Or a particular type of file?

Was it to do with transparency?

Or was is just to do with the way the Harlequin RIP is integrated with the Indigo?

What version RIP was it too? Was it an early release?

I have plenty of large PDF files that I throw at my Hqn RIP in testing FirstPROOF and Lightning TIFF and the RIP chews them up no problem (apart from jobs with transparency in them).

Regards,

Andy.

Andy Cave,
Chief Executive Officer,
Hamillroad Software Limited.
www.firstproof.com
www.hamillroad.com

The Harlequin rip that is included (indigo 3050 in my case) leaves a lot to be desired. It actually supports PDF 1.2 witch is pretty old. I usually open the PDFs with Adobe acrobat 8 and then I Ctrl+P (print) from there, using the S-engine driver. By doing that, most unsupported features like advanced transparency are "flattened" by Acrobat and the resulting Job is 99% of the time usable and correct. You can actually see Acrobat "Flattening" while printing and this gives you a clear indication that the file had features not supported by the indigo rip.

This however doesn't work with variable text, as you have to use JLT files. Indigo's Variable text engine actually renders bitmap copies of the requested font at any size you need and stores the rendered output for future use.