What is a RIP Software and What is It Used For
Digital label printing incorporates many moving parts to get the high-quality product you are looking for. From the media you select to print on, to the ink chemistry, all these separate facets come together to have an impact on your final product. One often overlooked component is a systems RIP Software and color management tools. RIP or raster image processor has been in the printing industry for years, it allows for a created vector file to be translated in a way that the printer can interpret. RIP software does not just act as a translator though, it has the ability to edit pantone colors to achieve more accurate colors. Whether you do wide format printing, digital textile printing, or digital label printing, your RIP software is detrimental to your success. The process by which RIP software translates images to the system is a fine art in itself. RIP software takes a designed vector image from Adobe Illustrator and breaks the image down into small pixels that the printer driver interprets and prints. A correctly formatted file will allow for a technician to make a designated file bigger or smaller without distorting the image. This is important to keep in mind as sometimes files that are not in a vector format can create an issue in the printing process. Different printer manufacturers use different RIP software’s on their systems. Thus, it is important to do your research before you jump into a system. Just as important as the printing system itself, is the RIP software incorporated in the system itself. This is pertinent in the digital print industry because it allows for color management to be done on the fly. Technicians can stop printing mid-job if colors seem askew and edit the color profiles and continue the printing process. In any business, consistency is key. If you want to keep customers coming back or take on new customers, you need to have a high-quality consistent product. RIP software is directly associated with the quality of your product. If you are having a problem matching colors during the digital printing process, you might be implementing a sub-par RIP software in turn disrupting your color accuracy. High quality RIP software will allow you to have full control of color profiles to enable you to offer customers consistent colors. When taking on new customers that may have used a previous printing service to create their labels or flexible packaging, it is important to get physical copies of their previous prints. This will allow you to utilize the color gamut and color measurement tools on the RIP software to match their previous pantone colors as best as possible. People do not like change, thus when trying to take on new jobs, the ability to match colors is of upmost importance. Anytron RIP software has been on the forefront of the digital label printing industry. This software was designed specifically for label and flexible packaging applications. It implements a trap function for color registration increasing job quality by having jobs automatically trapped by Workflow. Anytron RIP allows you to measure consumables and even goes further to detail the number of jobs you can print before your consumables run out. Anytron RIP was built with the operator in mind. Thus, such tools like cost calculation allows for digital label printers to quickly estimate jobs on the fly, saving you time and money. Variable data is another concept Anytron had in mind when developing this printing software. Variable data allows you to create custom QR codes, barcodes, and supports random numbering. Every business likes saving time and money. The merge print function in the Anytron RIP software allows you to nest several smaller jobs into one, saving time and money on consumables. Spot color change allows you to easily control color output to exactly match specific pantone colors. Color correction can be achieved through this feature on the fly. A built-in preview feature allows you to see what specific jobs will look like on your computer screen prior to the printing process. This eliminates misprints and wasted materials and labor.