Product Reviews

Makers of A3 inkjet printers often put them forward as inexpensive prepress proofers for the desktop, but only a handful support PostScript. You can always tack on a PostScript RIP, such as the Fiery hardware products from EFI, but the cheapest way to turn standard inkjets into PostScript printers is to buy a software RIP such as iProof's PowerRIP 2000. The launch of Canon's S9000 printer followed quickly by the upgrade to version 6.0 of PowerRIP 2000 was, therefore, too good an opportunity to miss.

Turning the S9000 into a PostScript proofer is surprisingly easy with iProof's PowerRIP 2000 Professional. Unlike such products as Epson's StylusRIP, it isn't restricted to a handful of printer models. On the other hand, you still have to buy the software relevant to your printer manufacturer. However, the list of supported inkjet devices is vast. Check for your model on the iProof Web site.

PowerRIP 2000 Professional runs as an application that can be installed onto your own Mac as a standalone driver or, more appropriately, on another Mac on the network to act as a print server. After installation, PowerRIP 2000 Professional 6.0 automatically searches for local and networked printers available from that Mac and creates Desktop printer icons for them. In our case, it found the Canon S9000 immediately.

In principle, though, you could have several Canon S9000 and S6300 printers around your network and allow PowerRIP 2000 Professional to access them all. For no extra cost, this means you can manage multiple devices from one place, and even set up multiple queues for them, which is something that users in different workgroups would expect.

Right on queue

Queues

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are managed from a plain-looking list interface, letting you hold, reorder and cancel jobs. As well as printing from applications, you can send native EPS, PS and PDF files for print directly by dropping their file icons into an appropriate queue folder on the print server's desktop, or by sending the files across the network.

By printing through this software RIP, you can obtain accurate results for PostScript 1, 2 and 3 artwork intended for final output on a PostScript-driven device such as a filmsetter, platemaker or digital press. A secondary virtual print driver lets you output to PDF 1.3 format from any application without needing a copy of Acrobat Distiller.

Usefully, the package comes with a set of ICC profiles for your printer and paper quality. For better accuracy, though, you'd be advised to conduct your own calibration routines using third-party software. On this note, PowerRIP 2000 Professional supports dot gain input from densitometer measurements so you can push colour fidelity according to intent even closer to your prepress ideal.

However, the software is extremely useful for more tasks than pure prepress proofing. In our tests with the Canon S9000, we were able to print complex vector graphics, both from their original programs and directly as EPS files, with crisp font outlines and no banding in gradient fills.

Page proofs from QuarkXPress included fully rendered vector artwork in picture boxes, where the conventional inkjet driver would merely have printed the on-screen preview. PowerRIP 2000 Professional also opened up the full potential of print options available within such applications as InDesign 2.0 and Illustrator 10.

The results we achieved with the package used in conjunction with the Canon S9000 were exceptional, making it a killer budget combination for designers in a PostScript environment. Our only real complaint is that PowerRIP 2000 Professional and its client drivers run exclusively in Classic mode, so printing from Mac OS X-native applications was a bit fiddly.

As soon as iProof upgrades the software with an OS X-native edition (the company promises this will be available free of charge for existing owners of version 6.0 in April) it will be just about perfect.