Printing vectors on a inkjet - RIPS ????

[kpoore]

Hi everyone,
I am experienced in "raster" images - photos, but not in vector art. My graphic designer friend just told me you need a RIP to print vector (he just purchased a Epson 4800 w/RIP at Imaging USA held here in Austin last weekend) on a desktop inkjet.
What's this all about???
Thanks for any light on this subject ... (-:
Karen in Austin, TX

[gwpriester]

Hello Karen

That's not correct. You need a RIP if you are printing Postscript EPS files. But you can print directly from Xara to your desktop printer as long as you have your printer's print driver installed, and I am certain you do.

Gary

[kpoore]

Thanks Gary. Geesh!
So what are Postscript EPS files?
Karen in Austin, TX

[Soquili]

Hi Karen,

Computers use a language to talk to printers. Some older printers only spoke ASCII and could only print the letters and punctuation of the Human language they were designed for. Newer printers use other languages so they can understand how to print many things in addition to letters and punctuation. LaserJet printers use a form of printer control language called PCL. Other printers use PostScript or Encapsulated PostScript (sometimes called Enhanced PostScript). The PS and EPS files simply tell the printer to move to a specific location on the media (paper) and put ink of a specific colour (may require a mix of two or up to four colours) on that location. More detailed drawings would require a more detailed script of the dance performed by the print head to make the image.

The printer driver that is installed for a specific printer is the translator between the computer and the printer so the specific dialect the printer understand is used. Some printers can understand multiple languages and variations of those languages as implemented by different software companies that create the printer drivers.

[kpoore]

Okay guys ... (-:
I gave this dialogue to my friend that works in PS Illustrator and he replied was that "vector art" is Postscript EPS !!! His reply to Gary's statement of being able to print directly from Xara to a desktop was "Xara must be bitmap based".
Grrrrrrrrr
Please advise ... educate
Karen (-:

[kpoore]

Bill,
Are you saying that a more detailed vector based drawing would need a RIP and if so where would you purchase one?
Karen

[kpoore]

Do I understand that Xara is object oriented?
If so my friend states that is bitmap and not vector.

A little knowledge is dangerous ... (-:
Sorry for all my questions.
Karen

[GroWeb]

As I understand it -- and I am no expert at this, and therefore could be completely wrong -- somewhere between Xara's print dialogue and the delivery of instructions to an inkjet printer, the vector art information is translated into bitmap information so that the printer can work with it. However, this does not mean that Xara is a "bitmap based" program; it remains primarily a vector illustration program (that also has bitmap editing capabilities).

Glen

[glenngosack]

If you use an inkjet printer, it can only handle bitmap as an input, as it lays down drops of ink much like a bitmap is just pixels. Xara is a vector drawing program. Your images are stored as mathamatical representations (unless you import or create a bitmap) of your drawing. When you print, the driver turns the image on screen to corresponding pixels on paper (essentially it RIPS the vector for you), no matter how complex the image may be. This is true even if you're using a word processor to print to a color inkjet...

[Soquili]

Karen,

Your friend has the terminology confused. A PostScript or Enhanced PostScript file is simply a text file with commands for the printer. It doesn't have vector or bitmap information. It only has printer commands.

This is a small portion of an eps file for my companies logo:
%%Title: (Adobe Illustrator (R) Version 5.0 Level 2 Emulation)
%%Version: 1.2 0
%%CreationDate: (04/10/93) ()
%%Copyright: ((C) 1987-1996 Adobe Systems Incorporated All Rights Reserved)
userdict /Adobe_level2_AI5 26 dict dup begin
put
/packedarray where not
{
userdict begin
/packedarray
{
array astore readonly
} bind def
/setpacking /pop load def
/currentpacking false def
end
0
} if
pop
userdict /defaultpacking currentpacking put true setpacking
/initialize
{
Adobe_level2_AI5 begin
}
.....
/ci6colortocmyk {
dup /DeviceGray eq {
pop 1 exch sub 0 0 0 4 -1 roll 4 array astore
}{
dup /DeviceRGB eq {
pop aload pop _rgbtocmyk 4 array astore
}{
dup /DeviceCMYK eq {
pop
}{
ci6altspace ci6colortint ci6colortocmyk
} ifelse
} ifelse
} ifelse
}
As you can see it is simply text with some characters in positions that indicate a printer command follows.

.eps files can also contain an imbedded bitmap image of what the output will look like. The print driver for a PostScript enabled printer ignores the imbedded bitmap.

Xara sends print information to the printer through the installed printer driver and the driver translates the information so the printer knows where to put the drops of ink. This is true of laser and inkjet printers. A plotter is a device that uses pens instead of a print head and can draw true lines instead of dots of ink.



If your friend is using a Windows computer system then have them right click on an .eps file and select open with and then choose WordPad from the list of installed applications. They will see the text and the numbers that represent the imbedded bitmap.

A bit if useless trivia. Even the RIP printers your friend mentioned have translators to convert the ps and eps files into information the printer can use. The difference between a RIP and a standard inkjet or laserjet is where the translation takes place. One is in your computer and the other is in the printer.