Wow! I think I found my Software?

[Suz]

JM, well then, it sounds like I may not be missing much by not choosing Wasatch. I have never heard of EFI Color proof XF, but there are lots of RIP programs that HP does not seem to list as Certified for the L25500 on their webiste. I only went after the ones they listed. Good to know there is another one that you feel can produce great color. I'm a color freak!

So glad that you like Caldera. I appreciate all the people who posted pushing me to keep going with the Caldera idea. We're really looking forward to setting this up and me and hubby can go back to earning our first million and quit getting stressed over trying to decide between PC, LINUX, MAC, LOL!

There will be peace!
Thanks for your post


Thanks dypinc, that sounds pretty simple to me! Yay, I like it!

Color wise I'm not a fan a wasatch. Caldera and EFI Colorproof XF have both produced great color for me. Ran EFI at my old job on a Epson solvent and aqueous printer. The canned profiles for the solvent produced excellent color, but used custom profiles on the Aqueous.

 

[Suz]

Shiraz Signature Solo RIP Software

Well, here is an update.... I'm trying everything! LOL

My Onyx software timed out, but I kept using it as it was still running as long as we did not turn the computer off!

Still unsure about what we wanted to do (hubby and me) as far as our choice of software and operating systems, my computer suddenly shut down on Saturday and rebooted. It just overheated. Then, my magical trial Onyx Postershop program went capoot! End of trial!

So, waiting impatiently for my new mini mac computer to get here and lots of banner and sign work to do, I went forward (to hubby's dismay) set up the Shiraz software on our new quad core monster PC!!! I didn't tell him I was going to do it, I just did it! Haha!

Well, it is working great!!! Out of the starting gate, my prints look the best I've seen so far. The program is very easy to use, and by the time I talked with my hubby later, I had several banners printed out. After his day at work, he came down to the shop to check it out. He is actually happy about it, loves the program and ran a couple prints himself. Customers came in while we were working, got a couple "OOoh's and Aaah's" over the prints. I love it!!

So, he says, "I'm going to update the firmware on the printer"... I tell him I did that already. How'd you do that? Well, the Tech at HP helped me, honey! Well then he says, how did you set the IP address? the Tech at Shiraz helped me honey. Well then, he says... What do you need me for? Well, lotsa other stuff, honey!!!

Our mini mac will be here tomorrow, I think we're still going to try the Caldera though, on the Mac. Don't know if that is going to cause some conflict with the IP addresses or extra work there, but I want to do this.

Just wanted to give you all an update. John Butto encouraged me to try the Shiraz, he says that the Caldera and Shiraz work pretty much the same and he uses both softwares. So far, great advice! Thank you John, I know you read everything here, even though you are no longer posting. I appreciate the good advice.

 

[Suz]

More on Shiraz...

So yesterday I printed about a dozen banners and a couple of larger poster prints. I Have lots of sewing/hemming and grommets to do today! I had no problems with any of the banner prints that I made, but some issues with posters. My computer with the Shiraz software ripped the files within seconds, it seemed even my warm up time for the printer was faster. I got so much done yesterday! So far, Shiraz is great.

Colors are vibrant, overall I am really happy with the way the prints look. Ink dried no problem.

I did think of a few things I should check on today with Shiraz. Need to see if it has a contour cutting module you can add to it, I plan to add a larger format cutter in the future. Currently, I have a smaller cutter that will suffice for stickers and smaller products.

Another thing I should check is custom profiling. The canned profiles I used yesterday to print banners worked great. When I printed to poster paper using another profile though, I did notice the head scraped over the prints, ruining them.There must have been some buckling that I didn't see when the paper was getting printed. Can't think of any other reason why this would happen. So, I should probably turn the heat down a bit if possible.

So, this is just an update to document my experience so for with Shiraz, if anybody cares!

 

[Tim Aucoin]

Thanks for all the information and the update Suz. This is a very interesting thread for sure! I am (still) running Onyx with tremendous success, but you have my interest piqued on this Shiraz RIP. I'd never heard of it before. Wonder what $$$ it would be? The fact that it runs on Mac interests me very much, but it would need to run my cutter as well! I will keep watch to see how you make out with it!

 

[Suz]

Hey Tim! Thanks for your interest. Onyx Postershop is a great program! But I'm enjoying the experiments and trying different software.

Shiraz is one of the (5 - I think!) softwares that HP mentions on their website that work as a RIP for the L25500, and are certified by HP. It is at the bottom of the list, but it has very high marks considering. I did find out today for sure that it won't work your cad cutter. Bummer! I think I'm going to want to have the ability to cut, will probably eventually get a Summa Cutter, since they have such great review and just over in Seattle, nearby.

A Technical person who works for the Company was in touch with me today to answer a few questions and he said although they do plan to have this feature available in the future, right now it is not. The price is pretty reasonable, the trial version that I have is "Signature Solo" to run just one machine.

I printed all day long today with no problems, lots of banners. Colors it produced had made my Customers going "OOoh and Ahhhhh?!" So, it does impress. It is so very easy to run, I really like the look of the layout table. You drag and drop whatever you want onto it, resize the graphics however you want to, or nest them on the page, and just print it all.

 

[Suz]

This thread is getting kinda long, but it's my thread so I guess I can add to it. Haha!
More on Shiraz... Love the speed at which I am able to layout and organize my print jobs. Love the color too. But I'm wondering about the sharpness of the prints. I'm trying to decide if I like the degree of detail I'm getting from my prints. I'm wondering if my prints looked somehow sharper or clearer in when I was printing with the Onyx Postershop. I have not printed the same files though, so I think it's a good idea to try to go back and print those files with this RIP. Will try to do that during my testing.

My mini-Mac came today. Disappointment there, seller did not include the Software or any of the documentation that he advertised came with it. So, just the computer. Sending that back. So, more delay on trying the Caldera software, as my new plan was to just put that program on the mini-Mac when it arrived.

This is all taking time, and I'm looking forward to getting it over with and moving on with the RIP program I settle with. I just still don't know which one.

 

[Suz]

Noticed lastnight when printing with Shiraz that there is an option to set my printer to cut after the end of the print job. So, I checked it.

It did cut, but didn't work on banner material. It never works on banner material anyway though, guess it is just too thick. Figured it would just cut at the end of each job after that, so when I loaded poster paper next, then sticker material, I figured it was set to cut.

After running a couple of jobs and running over there when they were done and hand cutting it off the roll, I remembered (Oh yeah!) I did set the cutter to do it's thing. But it defaulted back to not cutting. Guess I have to remember to just set that check box with each new job I want to cut at end of print cycle.

Interesting, Onyx Postershop just cut everything at the end. But it was set up that way when I installed it and if I could have changed that, I never did.

 

[jhanson]

Jennifer at Wasatch just confirmed yesterday that Wasatch does not have the monochrome driver needed for making film positives on my HP Latex L25500. They told me that they felt that in the past, they did not have reports of HP users having any success making color separations with HP printers. I told her I thought that was sorta funny, I was doing it 20 years ago with an HP post script laser printer. The halftones dots were not 85 line, but they worked for what I was doing. Anyhow, they didn't feel there was enough of a need there to provide the monochrome driver needed to do this. So, now I'm still looking. However, Wasatch is still a consideration. It just won't help me for making film positives.

The water-based DesignJet printers had major issues with feed accuracy causing film positives to become distorted. The L25500 is built on the same type of chassis as the older DesignJets, and on top of it, the heaters induce MAJOR distortion in many materials.

If you're doing single plate film positives for spot colors, you may not notice. But if you are trying to align more than one plate, and you need any sort of accurate color registration, forget about it and get yourself an Epson.

The HP LaserJet works on a totally different principle -- it's a laser printer with a Canon engine inside. Trying to compare a LaserJet to a DesignJet is like comparing a motorcycle to a personal jet ski. They both achieve the same end results, through totally different means.

As far as the cost difference between Wasatch and Caldera, I would imagine it would be a lot closer if Wasatch included an ICC profiling suite. Caldera, as of version 9, licenses X-Rite's i1Profiler engine. With Wasatch, if you want to build your own profiles, you need to get a separate ICC profiling package like i1Profiler. Both also require you to get a spectrophotometer to make profiles.

A shortcut around this is to get the i1 bundle, which includes the spectrophotometer and the basic version of i1Profiler for (I think) around $1500-2000. The instrument itself is about $1000, while the full i1Profiler package runs around $2000 IIRC.

 

[jhanson]

And I noticed that apparently I replied before reading an entire page of posts... oh well.

One thing I've noticed about the HP Latex printers is that most profiles are made for either Onyx or Caldera. If you're using anything else, you're pretty much stuck with the canned profiles it comes with, unless you can build your own, or if the media manufacturer suppliers profiles for the other RIPs.

 

[iSign]

...how'd you do that? Well, the Tech at HP helped me, honey!
...how did you set the IP address? the Tech at Shiraz helped me honey.
...what do you need me for? Well, lotsa other stuff, honey!!!

entertaining post Suz...
informative, and entertaining...
but if I were hubby, I wouldn't let the promise of drinks fool me...
I sense a 'honey-do" list coming

 

[Suz]

Hello JH, thanks for your input. Yeah, you are right about the Latex printer and the heat warping film positives, why didn't I think of that? I did find some pretty stable films and papers to use on the latex printer, but my images were fairly small and the halftone pattern pretty choppy, so not much to worry about when I was doing my film positives that way. Yes, I believe that Epson is the way to go. I have the Epson 4800, got it used and need to buy ink and a rip just for it. Another expense, not the most important thing for me to focus on. But I will do that one day if I continue screenprinting. Been doing it a long time and sometimes I wonder if I should continue. I just enjoy it, but don't get so many screenprint orders anymore. People seem to prefer embroidery, at least where I am at.

I-Sign, you are right about the "honey-do" list, haha! How did ya figure that out? Tee hee! He's such a great fixer of all things! Lucky me.

 

[Stafford Cox]

Hi Suz. This is a really interesting post and it's great to read how you're steadily getting to grips with it. Have you tried the tiling function in it? It's so much easier than previous versions and completely WYISWYG (Do you guys use that term? What You See Is What You Get). Did you know that Shiraz can drive your Epson too? If you want to go all out, you could use Signature Server and add a second queue to your setup and run them simultaneously.

Anyway, as mentioned in our emails, if I can help you at all, please let me know. And keep the thread updated, it's great to see Shiraz getting some much deserved recognition across the pond

Stafford

 

[Suz]

Hi Stafford, thanks for posting.

I've appreciated your e-mails and find the staff at Shiraz very helpful too. Yes, we use WYSIWYG here. I'll have to try tiling, been so busy checking out everything else. Anyhow, way back before Adobe Illustrator became what it is now, there was a program called Aldus Freehand, it had tiling feature. Cool! I have tiling in my Illustrator program and in Corel. It's a handy thing when you need it. One of the things I'd really like to learn though, is repeat patterns like in wallpaper and in textiles. Have to figure out how to do that!

Yes, I did see that if I got a higher version of the Shiraz software, it would drive my Epson too. I'll wait on that though, the budget is not going to allow that for now. Just doing the trial right now, want to test out what I can before deciding. We have been pleasantly surprised though how easy Shiraz is to use, how great the colors look, and how smoothly it process images and sends to the printer. The workflow is very enjoyable. So far, like it very much.

I do wish though, as mentioned in our emails, that it Shiraz had some profiles I could use for Fisher Textiles. I do want to experiment with some fabrics. However, nobody here so far seems to have much luck printing outdoor banners and flags with the L25500, no matter which software. Perhaps I'm overlooking something, but I have not seen good news about that yet. Still looking and reading.

When I get all settled with the Latex printer, I'll then have to invest in either a Dye Sub printer too, and more than likely a direct to fabric type.

Unfortunately, we had to return the Mac Mini we bought, there were some problems. But we found another Mini Mac today, it will be here about Thursday. Then we can get the trial of Caldera up and running and see which program we really like the best. I think the two finalists are Shiraz and Caldera. Both within my price range/budget. Both will run on the Mac. Hopefully we can try printing some of the same files from each program to see what we get. Stay tuned!

Thanks again Stafford!

 

[Suz]

Yesterday, I had to run a banner quickly for a Customer who had approved her artwork. She was coming to the shop in about 1/2 hour, the banner was small, a 3'x6' and very simple, just a .jpg at 150 lpi.

This is usually pretty fast and no issues to run a file like this. Half way through the print though, it just stopped and my printer started going into sleep mode. Read the notes that were sent to the computer and I think it said "connection error" and not sure exactly what that meant. I don't recall bumping the computer or shaking anything lose. In fact, I watched it run the first 6" or so, then just walked away and let it go. I thought it had stopped, but was taking phone calls, and put that thought out of my mind. Customer shows up and we went to check print, sure enough, it stopped and half way through the print. Darnit!

This is the first time I've had something like this happen, but I don't have a surge protector. Maybe that was the problem? Not sure. Going to have to get a surge protector for sure.

Another thought is that it could be someone in the building shut off the main breaker. Surge protector or not, I doubt if there is much I could do to prevent that from happening if main breakers are not inside my shop. Oh well! Annyoing it is!

Sent print to printer again, this time it printed beautifully.

Got a new roll of vinyl from a supplier. Was told when ordering it was going to be 13 oz, but when it arrived, it was 10 oz. They were very nice to deal with, even delivered the stuff. Unfortunately though, I'm going to have to send that one back!!! I don't like the 10 oz material, too thin for the L25500 heat, it melts the material enough to make it look sort a like a potato chip! I like potato chips but not with my vinyl. Maybe with some dip, now that would be better.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

This is the first time I've had something like this happen, but I don't have a surge protector. Maybe that was the problem? Not sure. Going to have to get a surge protector for sure.

Another thought is that it could be someone in the building shut off the main breaker. Surge protector or not, I doubt if there is much I could do to prevent that from happening if main breakers are not inside my shop. Oh well! Annyoing it is!

Oh yea, I would suggest a surge protector, all my machines have them.

It may have been someone that was shutting it off at the building or it could be the electrical company doing it. TVA here has a nasty habit of shutting the power off and it always happens to be when the embroidery machines are going full tilt.

It has led to fun situations that's for sure.

 

[ProColorGraphics]

However, nobody here so far seems to have much luck printing outdoor banners and flags with the L25500, no matter which software. Perhaps I'm overlooking something, but I have not seen good news about that yet. Still looking and reading.

I run banner material all of the time with mine and they turn out great. Haven't had any complaints yet anyways. I did find that with my Caldera, the colors come out better when I tell it to use the Heavy Textile Banner profile. With that you have to tell the printer you are loading fabric when you load your roll.

 

[HulkSmash]

i also print banners with 0 issues...

 

[signswi]

We use Jetflex, works very well, they have profiles for the L25500 on their website.

Only problems are on really long runs if we don't watch it the take up will walk and the head will catch an edge as there aren't any media guides.

 

[Suz]

OOpsie, sorry guys, I mean FABRIC outdoor banners. Scrim outdoor banner is working brilliantly! Leaving one little word out really changes the whole thing, doesn't it? Thankl you for checking on me!

Wild - thanks for confirming my suspicions, I do think it was the electricity and not the printer that caused the problem with that print that stopped.

Matt, Colorado, Signswi, thanks for your support! Hey, my new Mac Mini comes today, that is if I don't miss the UPS dude. New delivery guy was hours behind yesterday, had to wait and wait just to get out. Haha! When he finally got there, I had a horse for lunch, MAN I was hungry! Anyhow, can't wait for the Mac, Caldera coming soon! Yay!

Oh, is it okay to call my Mac "Mini Mac?" Sorta like "Mighty Mouse". LOL

 

[Suz]

Oh yea, I would suggest a surge protector, all my machines have them.

Hey Wild,

About how much did you pay for the surge protectors you have. I was looking at them today at Computer store... They start at a couple bucks all the way up to $100.00+ so I was wondering what would be adequate (?) Can you give some info on the ones you used and what features you like? Thanks!

Okay, gotta update... We are still running trial on Shiraz. Still loving it. Really, it is a fantastic program and I think well worth what they are asking for it.

We have the new Mini Mac set up, but have not yet loaded the Caldera. Doing a little reading first, so it's going to be running soon. Yay!!! Hubby is now a Mac convert Makes sense though, since he is sort of an old Hippie. I was telling him that some of you guys on Signs101 say that most Mac lovers are half hippie, he liked that. I asked him if he'd ever heard somebody say, "Once you go Mac, you never go back." He said nope, never heard that before, but he says he can see why someone would say that, he's in love with my Mini Mac. LOL.

I'm getting excited, maybe Caldera tomorrow!