Hi All,

New to this forum, WOW, very informative!

I have a small dilemna, hoping to get some feedback, my boss wants a smoother workflow through our shop, we're currently running Xenith from Xitron, I think this is the best value for money system available, we have built-in IRT and zone trapping from Xitron (OS 9 only), going through a tiff catcher(raster blaster) connected to our Eskofot DPX System.

My question is, should we upgrade the Xenith to be OS X compatible or shall we investigate the other alternatives, ie: Agfa Apogee or the Heidelberg Prinect system.

We are about 18 months away from upgrading our press as well, so we want to be JDF compliant from start to finish. So would upgrading Xenith be the answer or would this be a stop gap measure or should we just bite the bullet and go all out with the others?

Thanks in advance!

Scott

Hi Scott,

Welcome to the group. You are correct that Xitron Xenith is the best solution for the money. The short and fast answer in my opinion is to stay with the Xitron, but upgrade to the latest versions/server. Are you saying that your Xitron runs on Mac OS 9? If so, yes, that must be upgraded IMO. OS 9 is completely dead at this point and it's past due for end of life. I have no OS 9 in service right now and took OS 9 off the line about a year and a half ago.

I myself am upgrading my RIP system from a Creo/Scitex Brisque. Kodak has decided to kill off Brisque (thousands of users) and try and force us all to Prinergy. So, I have been evaluating and testing all the new systems I was interested in. The Xitron Xenith was by far the best value and best performer I thought. I would have went with Xitron were it not for one fact. The Xitron traps at point of rasterization/screening. So, if I wanted an inkjet proof WITH trapping to verify, I would have to do screened dot proofs from inkjet. That would be a step back in color fidelity and speed for my proofing. So, I had to move on. If Xitron had trapping applied into the normalized PDF, I would have gone with it.

Apogee and Prinect Printready are more expensive. If you are looking for a step up in features and capability, check out SCOPE by esko-graphics. We are going with SCOPE backstage server for our new system and it tested out to be the most powerful, feature rich, and compatible sytstem we tested. I ran RIPs through very vigorous tests in terms of hard to trap and rip files, most RIPs trap engines will not handle all scenarios with Adobe's layering, transparency, and slicing of PDF files. Adobe IRT, and Esko Scope's trap engine were superior to others tested. I will be posting another follow up soon, just short on time. I intended to outline the differences in the RIP systems and why we went with what we decided upon. Here is a link to some RIP Upgrade stuff I've worked on lately.
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JoePostscript -- support administrator

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Thanks for the advice!

We've talked with our local supplier and he confirms that the latest upgrade of Xenith 6.5.3 is one of the best RiPs available, they've actually worked closely with Adobe to address the major issues regarding tansparencies and drop shadows native to Indesign and illustrator.

Now, from a professional perspective, should we purchase a copy of PDF/X Robot to use in conjunction with Pitstop and Xenith?

Just heard from a customer, a stroke was tagged as a Pantone colour, but the weight of the stroke was 0pt. I made a PDF proof for her from our Xenith RiP, emailed her a low Res PDF, the PDF showed the line/stroke, but it didn't print, for obvious reason. How can we prevent something like this from happening again?

Why did it show up on the proof? and would PDF/X Robot have caught something like this?

Cheers
Scott

Yes, I can confirm that the most current Xitron Xenith RIP handles all the MOST COMPLEX problematic transparencies and layer issues perfectly. We took some major bad files to Xpedx NTC (national technology center) here in Ohio and the Xitron performed perfectly with no modified settings or hassle. It did great. Actually better than all others tested as far as straight ahead performance with no need to configure special settings. Xitron was quick, simple, effective.

Yes, PDF-X-Robot will be the best way to feed PDF to any RIP system. You should not need PitStop much because PDF-X-Robot is a first time right PDF workflow. It's based on making good PDF, not repairing bad PDF already made. If you use robot, there's not a need for PitStop much.

OK, this sounds strange. A 0pt stroke is not a stroke and should not display OR print at all. It should not display in the layout application, the PDF, proof, or the plate. 0pt is by definition not a stroke at all.

What is the authoring application? Was this a placed eps with a stroke, or an element in a layout application with 0pt stroke? What was the source of the low res PDF proof? Here's the deal with Robot. Robot streams the High res and low res at same time. So, the Low res PDF is the same generation as the Plate ready PDF. Your PDF files are bullet proof BEFORE they ever get to the RIP. I can recall not a single case of this happening in a low res and hi res PDF from PDF Robot. Now that spans approx. 40,000 pages a month across all users, worldwide. So, yes, I guess whatever may be happening there will not happen with PDF-X-Robot.

The only difference in plate output and a low res PDF is going to be trapping, and of course graphics resolution, the low res proof for emailing is at 72dpi, the CTP PDF is at 600dpi. Here's some info about PDF-X-Robot to check out as far as functionality etc.
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JoePostscript -- support administrator

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Wind Turbine Buyer's Guide


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Hey Sam,

My Boss and I are sold on PDF Robot and for the price we're willing to try it!

I'll still need Pitstop for customer made PDF's from there Office programs though, unfortunately.

Will let you know in the next few weeks as we're getting quotes from everybody first to decide, but me thinks that we're just gonna upgrade Xenith.

So back to the "Stroke" issue. it is a placed freehand 10 eps into Indesign, saved as a ps file then distilled with the standard high rees settings in distiller.

Thanks for all your input on this matter! Awesome site and forum!

Cheers
Scott

Hmm, yes, that's the only time that I need PitStop is PDF files that it's just too late to do it right. Like that RGB black courtesy of Microsoft...

OK, on this stroke issue, you make the two PDF files with PDF-X-Robot and these will yield same result as each other. Freehand is a wildcard there, but I am sure Robot's high and Low res PDF will be same. You never know, the files my have a problem like I haven't seen. But, In my plant, I bet 50% of our approvals are done by low res Robot PDF, the other half still get a high res inkjet proof. But the Low Res will be same as High res unless there's a trapping anomally. Both are very accurate to each other and prepared accurate.

I'm looking forward to helping you guys automate your workflow.
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JoePostscript -- support administrator

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Wind Turbine Buyer's Guide


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JoePostscript -- support administrator

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