Wasatch VS Onyx

[LittleSnakey]

We currently use Flexi 8.6 as our rip. We print to a Roland VP-540 and cut with a Summa D-series S140.

Sometimes we get files made with Illustrator, with gradients, and when they are imported to flexi they come in with masks, each shade of the gradients become separate pieces, ect.

I can add the contour cut in illustrator and send to versaworks but it wont work with the summa. I can save as a jpg/tiff from illy then add contour in flexi but resolution suffers a little and sometimes colors shift. Photoshop seems to do a better job at rasterizing the illy eps but file sizes can become so large that flexi wont rip them.


Here is the question... which will work better for me to import Illustrator eps files into, Wasatch or Onyx?
Attached is pic of a job I had this problem with.

 

[HaroldDesign]

I used to use Wasatch, but I didn't really care for it. From what I remember, it was Wasatch 6, and it gave me a lot of "surprises". I use Onyx now, and although it has a few quirks, it does a nice job. No surprises, and the layout feature and quick-sets I don't think I could live without anymore.


Oh, Almost every file I RIP in an Illustrator .eps

 

[FatCat]

I currently run Wasatch 6.6 with my Mutoh and Summa D-140. I do all my design in Illustrator on a Mac and export either a PDF or EPS to Wasatch.

I know there is a common theme of disgust with Wasatch support. NOT that they don't know what they're talking about, quite the contrary, but it's some sort of holier-than-thou attitude they convey when you call them for help. Other than that, I really can't complain about the software itself. Color accuracy is exceptional, the built in tracer is great for doing contour cuts without building them manually in Illustrator. I feel the RIP is designed well, is easy to use and I personally get very good results with it.

*One other thing I will mention is that I come from a sheetfed prepress background so I've used many hi-end RIPS over the last 15 years. (Fiery, Creo, Heidelberg, etc.) As with any RIP your results will depend greatly on how good/knowledgeable you are about setting up your files correctly to begin with.

 

[Jim Doggett]

+1 for Wasatch Uhhhhhmazing output quality

 

[Case]

Onyx all the way...........

Case

 

[Rooster]

I've used both and prefer wasatch. I'd have no issues whatsoever running that job and creating all the contour cuts in illy.

Given the option I'd use colorburst over wasatch in a heartbeat. Excellent quality, superior color control and tech support who are friendly and helpful.

I'm not sure if they support the summa though. They have some cutting options listed on their website. It would be worth it to call them and ask. Especially considering that their rip @ $2K includes profiling software. I spent more than that for my wasatch and it still requires another software package to create profiles. They don't list the rolands as supported on the front page, but they do show them being supported in other sections of the site. I'm not sure if that means it's close to being released, or the website is just out of date.

I've used almost every rip out there at some point and continue to be impressed with colorburst's offerings. It has a simple enough interface that anybody can use it and all the power user features you could ask for.

 

[LittleSnakey]

Thanks for the input.

I added countour cut in illustrator, flexi don't like illy gradients and versa won't print opus marks for the summa. To get the graphic into flexi i had to rasterize it causing it to loose some clarity.


Does onyx poster shop do contour cuts?

 

[Bly]

Thanks for the input.

I added countour cut in illustrator, flexi don't like illy gradients and versa won't print opus marks for the summa. To get the graphic into flexi i had to rasterize it causing it to loose some clarity.


Does onyx poster shop do contour cuts?

Yeah easy peasy.
Give your cutline a spotcolour fill CutContour and it generates a cut file you open in a separate app called Cut server. You can then cut on a standalone cutter while you keep printing.

 

[LittleSnakey]

Yeah easy peasy.
Give your cutline a spotcolour fill CutContour and it generates a cut file you open in a separate app called Cut server. You can then cut on a standalone cutter while you keep printing.

What rip are you using?
How do you get the opus marks on the print?
I am using flexi for rip and cut, save the cut to a .plt file then send the plt file to summa cutter control.

Thanks for all the help.