RIP's we use

[Ron Pierson]

OK - I'll start this. We have Wasatch and AccuRIP in the house.

Wasatch is a cool RIP but requires alot of technical know-how. Setup is rather complicated. The cool thing about Wasatch is: you can nest (place) your seps anywhere on the media before you print. This saves a great deal of unused film. We have 76XX units for Wasatch running 24 inch film. RIPing is time consuming - it thinks alot.

AccuRIP is so easy, you don't know it is even operating - simply a pass-thru print device. Setup is a breeze. It is auto nesting - in other words - it will determine where your image is placed on the media. It tends to waste film sometimes. We use 17 inch rolls to avoid this issue somewhat. We use the 4880 and AccuRIP for this printer.

We have 2 76XX series Epsons and a 4880. The 76 series runs 24 inch rolls and the 4880 runs 17 inch rolls. We go thru 2-3 rolls of 24 inch and 4-5 rolls of 17 inch a week. We run an "all black" system using Epson style cartridges. We don't use a bulk system - artists didn't want to deal with changing ink in this way. Everything is networked so an artist has a choice of printers during their day. We have two artists.

I'm not a salesman or rep for either of these systems or Epson printers.

Ron Pierson

[DraginInk]

At the top of the heap at the moment is my Epson 4800 running 4 black carts. I print out to sheet film and run Quick Film(Fast RIP). I've been through most of the "affordable" rips offered in the last few years. I keep trying the trials every so often to make sure I'm not missing something I HAVE to have I'm pretty happy with, and used to FR and tend to not wonder far, for long.
I don't run near as much film as you Ron. I usually average 100 sheets of 8.5x11, 11x17, 13x18 a month and about half that in 17x22.
I've been through the Epsons... 3 or four 3000s, one still in the corner next to the 4000 that may become a D.O.G. someday, HA!

I still have fond memories of the first day I ran my new 3000 with FastRIP and looked at that film!!!! We had arrived!!! My poor little GCC laser printer got sent to do OFFICE WORK! I still have some velum laying around here too I think.... heck, I still have some ruby laying around here somewhere!

[squeezee]

I sell Wasatch, have worked with it since the mid 90's, v2.something.  I like the guys that do it and their attitude.  I can give support on it in my sleep.
We used to sell Harlequin RIPs at Autotype, they were very good but clumpy and complicated, I never liked them, though they do a great job.
The only comparable RIPs that I see these days are Filmmaker (though I'm wary of things labelled v1) and the FilmGate RIP which is OK.
At the end of the day, it's what you are happy with, and what support you get.  Most RIPs if set up correctly will give good films.

[Frog]

Okay, I'm sure that I'm not alone in my use of the free Ghostscript and Ghostview..

No bells and whistles, but it does everything I need so far.

[killergraphics]

AccuRIP  on a 3000

[blue moon]

after going through AccuRIP and Ghost, I am on FilmMaker V3.
AR is super easy, but not high performance (low Dmax and poor quality dots compared to the others, at least on my 1400 and 3000).
Ghost actually produced very good films, but was painfully slow and cumbersome to use. NO bells and whistles.
FM is pretty complicated with many options and is a chore to set up. The pay off is HUGE though. Crisp dots, dark films and options galore! I thought I was done shopping for RIPs until Dave mentioned some of the features offered in the Wasatch (stochastic and lpi mixing, lowest dot limit . . .). It is a little pricey (especially compared to $400 FM), but somewhere down the line it might be an option.

pierre

[Sbrem]

AccuRIP on a 1400, great support.

Steve

[DouglasGrigar]

No one using iproof systems PowerRIP X, PowerRIP ScreenPrint? (Ulano version also)

[Big Frank Sports]

Douglas

I have never heard of those rips.  Can you elaborate more about them?

Frank

[Fresh Baked Printing]

Okay, I'm sure that I'm not alone in my use of the free Ghostscript and Ghostview..

No bells and whistles, but it does everything I need so far.

Do you use it with PS or Corel?

[Frog]

I use it mostly with CorelDRAW along with Corel's option to output as a device Independent bitmap file without the dummy printer driver.

For Photoshop, there is also another option, Easyart

[prozyan]

I use it mostly with CorelDRAW along with Corel's option to output as a device Independent bitmap file without the dummy printer driver.

For Photoshop, there is also another option, Easyart

I have pretty much the same set up here. 

[DouglasGrigar]

Douglas

I have never heard of those rips.  Can you elaborate more about them?

Frank

Simple easy to use RIP for positives, even has the first order stochastic dot feature available.

[Chadwick]

SimRip ( ala photoshop ) which has a slight calibration curve aimed at the old Epson 3000, which I set up
with the easily accessible print driver settings. Dark films. Good exposure. Stock ink.
My only drawback is I rip at 600dpi, but I have gone nuts on a few occasions and made it 1440 dpi.
( BIG FILE! )
720 source file works just great, 600 source file just speeds up output a bit.
I wish the 3000 had some internal RAM..maybe it does, but I don't think so.

Did I mention, I spend a few minutes looking at the dots ( and adjusting if needed ) before I hit print?
( not just the greys )
I remember doing the postscript thing years ago, and I always seemed to hate something in the dots
on at least one screen after output.

I'm sure all the expensive RIP's do wonderful things.
I bet I'd still do the manual thing before output though.

Dark Age Dweller signing off.
 

[screenxpress]

Okay, I'm sure that I'm not alone in my use of the free Ghostscript and Ghostview..

No bells and whistles, but it does everything I need so far.

Do you use it with PS or Corel? 

I made a write-up to use Ghost with PS, COREL and Illy.

Oh, and I'm on the low end of the food chain so I use Ghost.