Big problem with the latest versions of Quark i.e. 6&7 is that it tends to rasterize any placed illustrator files when printing to my epson 9800. Only way round is to PDF from Quark and then send from Acrobat but why does it do this??

Hi magosman,

Welcome to the forum. Well, that's what is apparently happening, but not actually. Quark Xpress output is postscript output. Most every application is postscript output. In this case, being output to a non-postscript device.

What you are seeing from Quark will also happen from virtually every application that prints placed vector eps graphics. That graphic has a preview image, that is all that is printing out, because there's no postscript RIP to interpret and rasterize the high resolution vector images. You will also have no decent color control without a postscript RIP in front of the printer.

So, all you need is a postscript RIP on your inkjet printer and it will then RIP that art to a high resolution print like you want/expect. Or, as you have found, run that postscript to a PDF, now is interpreted and will usually print nicely. A 9800 is a very large device not to have a postscript RIP, we use the GMG Rip for litho proofing, or the ColorBurst RIP for customer proofing set-up. ColorBurst is easy to use and setup and Epson sells it bundled for a few hundred dollars.
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Thank you joepostscript for your prompt reply, very grateful for your knowledge. trouble with the printing from the pdf is that the colour is totally out, dont have the time to try out the hundreds of profiles that you can choose from, though my colleague has had a go and there are some very similar ones and some extremes, but it is where to start!
We actually have a very powerful Blackmagic RIP which is part of our "workflow" which I have always believed is highly underused. Basically we send to a Harlequin RIP, which was initially installed to output to a ECRM Stingray filmsetter (we then made waterproofs). We needed to go digital so the Blackmagic RIP was purchased so we could send to our then poster plotter a Designjet 5000, supplying our customers with an average looking proof. We were not happy with this quality so requested a better output device and thats where the 9800 came in. Very little thought had gone into any of this as we are limited by the limits of the Harlequins initial setup to output to film. Also the file was being Ripped twice to produce a proof! Then along comes a ECRM Mako CTP device, which has also been squeezed into our odd "workflow". We send everything to the Harlequin then change the output device within the Ripped file. As film is becoming more and more redundant we need to just keep the Harlequin to outputting film. We ideally need to print directly to the Blackmagic then choose which ever device we want to go to from there, I presume this is feasible we just need to know how to go about doing it??
Magosman

Oh Boy! Yes what a nice little mess. OK,

step one: Migrate to a composite workflow. You make one PDF of each page, a good PDF that is repeatable and will pass through all your various devices. I bet you are in a separated workflow as most film era prepress, right?

step two: Don't reinvent the wheel, Colorburst RIP is a bundle option with a 9800 . Epson has this tuned in pretty well. For a few hundred you should put the epson on ColorBurst, set to the SWOP profile it comes with, hot folder only. Drop composite PDF in there for your proofing. I have this RIP and have tested the output for color, is a very good quick solution out of the box. Use what Epson has tuned and selected for that printer to be sold with, that's ColorBurst.

step three: Set the Harlequin rip up for a composite input of PDF. Let it separate the files in the RIP. Now you have one file that outputs everywhere by hot folder. Make all PDF single pages, so you are using best practice for corrections and troubleshooting, no multi-page files and no printing direct into rips and devices. The goal is a common PDF that works across the board.

Now you can go film, plate, proof, same file. Your proofs will be a decent match without going into allot of color management stuff.
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JoePostscript -- support administrator

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