ColorGate RIP for ColorSpan, HP DesignJet and other large format printers

What RIP to use for your large format printer? EFI Fiery is very very expensive and early versions lacked necessary features. So what about ColorGate RIP? We know Onyx PosterShop, PosterJet, Wasatch and BEST color management RIPs somewhat better. So we asked for ColorGate so we could evaluate theirs.

Professor Charles Spontelli is in charge of testing RIPs at the FLAAR facility at Bowling Green State University. We sent out a simultaneous request to the leading RIP companies: this netted BESTColor, PosterJet, Wasatch, ColorGate, etc. At Print '01 we found out about the new proofing RIP of PerfectColor. Then Prof. Spontelli was provided a complete suite or O.R.I.S. products. So we have been rather busy, especially since we had to scurry around and buy more powerful computers to run all these RIPs. This delayed testing the O.R.I.S., since it liked expensive dual-processor print servers.

Actually our first comparative survey of RIPs was at DRUPA tradeshow in Germany two years ago. There we decided it would be educational to look at a wide variety of RIP solutions. CGS did a poor job on ICC color profiles with the new Epson 7500 and Epson 9500. Best and ColorGate did a far superior job with these two new printers. Then we noticed that PosterJet took a CAD plotter and was able to obtain photo-realistic quality output from it. That attracted our attention since we have that same HP 1055cm printer at our university.

At DRUPA we also got to learn more about ColorGate. As we get to know ColorGate we will issue additional information. In the meantime we wanted to indicate that the company looks solid (helps to know), the people are pleasant and capable, and the ColorGate RIP sure does a great job with the Hewlett-Packard printers. Most importantly, ColorGate has a stable office in the USA for many years, managed capably by Dwight Davis. He recently moved to GretagMacbeth.

It was almost two years after DRUPA before we got ColorGate in our own model studio to find out its full list of capabilities. In the meantime we show these images. That's a FLAAR Photo Archive image of Tikal, Temple I, Guatemala, scanned on an ICG drum scanner (check them out on www.flatbed-scanner-review.org, a site which also includes drum scanners). These are printed at the ColorGate booth at one of the German tradeshows last year.

The version of ColorGate which arrived to be evaluated was ColorGate ver 3.0. One of the first things we did was to upgrade our firmware on the HP DesignJet 5000 (ver 2.1.1). This evidently reduced crackling on economy bond paper.

Spontelli used an X-Rite DTP-41. This evaluation was in the College of Technology, VCT program area, so it's relatively well equipped for prepress applications. Prof. Spontelli himself has an MS degree in printing from Rochester Institute of Technology, with a specialization in color management. So the ColorGate RIP was in good hands.

The RIP report on ColorGate will be issued as soon as possible, but we can definitely say it made a favorable impression. ColorGate did an especially good job linearizing each media (density balance, checks overall lightness and darkness so this can be perfected). The university report will also include comparative review on BESTColor (proofing RIP), ProofMaster from PerfectProof (a new proofing RIP descended from the well regarded Aurelon RIP), Wasatch, and PosterJet.

The RIP landscape in 2007

In past years ColorGate had a large booth at European trade shows, with an equally large staff. During 2006 the company has downsized considerably. They have not established a RIP headquarters in the US; like PosterJet, they are represented by a printer dealer, not by an actual office with software technicians.

In the meantime, Shiraz has maintained itself and is a RIP we like. Wasatch has overtaken several other brands and is now #2 in sales worldwide. PosterJet has worked hard but has a slipping market share in part because they are not fully established in the US. PosterJet is strongest in Europe and with Canon printers. But their newest version has been delayed over and over again. Success is going to RIPs that work with piezo as well as thermal printheads. PosterJet works only with Canon and HP thermal printheads.

In the meantime Wasatch, Caldera, and Onyx continue to grow in market share. Circa 2000 there were over 50 brands of RIP software. Today fewer than 10 would be on our short list (and that list gets shorter every year).

Last updated: May 6, 2007.
Previous updates: Feb. 3, 2003, Sept. 2, 2002,Oct. 20, 2001.