Digital Photographer's Software Guide - Bertemes - Net

Comments
If you happen to use an Epson printer and are keen to obtain the best possible black
and white prints, QuadToneRIP is a natural choice. It is a first-rate product, greatly
admired by black and white photographers who refer to it as QTR. Several accomplished
black and white photographers have written extensively about their use of QuadToneRIP,
including Paul Roark (www.paulroark.com), Clayton Jones (www.cjcom.net), and Ron
Reeder (www.ronreeder.com).
First-time users have been known to use QTR for a printer loaded with color inks rather
than UT (Ultratone) inks. Note: this does not work.
Version: QuadToneRIP 2.6.1 (2008)
OS: Windows 2000, XP Home, XP Pro (recommended), and Vista; Mac OS X 10.2, 10.3, and
10.4, or 10.5 (recommended)
RAM: “A fair amount” (1GB, fair enough?)
Supported file formats: TIFF
Price level: Approx. $50
Address: Roy Harrington, PO Box 3962, Los Altos, CA 94024-0962, United States
www.quadtonerip.com
Shiraz
Chapter 31 ■ RIP Software 365
Vendor: Applied Image Technology
Purpose: Multi-platform client/server RIP for a wide variety of large format printers
Description
Shiraz is a third-party software RIP that has all the features expected of a product for
large format printing: PostScript Level 3 and PDF compatibility, excellent ICC color
management, linearization and ink limiting, support for spot colors, workflow and
queue management, and high-quality screening. It can process and RIP at the same time,
making it fast to operate. Editing functions include layout, tiling, sizing, and cropping.
One of the key selling points of Shiraz is its availability for practically every largeformat
printer on the market, not only HP Designjet, Mimaki, and Canon machines,
but also the Osprey, Phoenix, Spitfire, and Valuejet models from Mutoh. It comes in
three editions—Lite, Server, and Server Plus—in six European languages.
■ Shiraz RIP Lite: For photographers and small sign shops with a single printer.
■ Shiraz RIP Server: For medium-size sign and copy shops; unattended operation;
and batching and nesting facilities.
■ Shiraz RIP Server Plus: For pay bureaus and big sign shops; accepts custom
profiles/spot colors from advanced users.