Printing vectors on a inkjet - RIPS ????

**kpoore** · 26 January 2006, 09:24 PM

Okay guys ... thanks.
So say I have an Epson R800. Can I print illustrations from Xara/Illustrator to it or do I save it as something else first or purchase a RIP to print vector?

Does Xara have a driver that converts the vector to bitmap? Does Illustrator?

Goosh, it is after 3 here that's when my brain shuts down for the day. (-:

Karen in Austin

Thanks for all your time on this ...

**jens g.r. benthien** · 26 January 2006, 09:38 PM

Can I print illustrations from Xara/Illustrator to it

YES, definitely.

And please do yourself (and us) a favor:
NEVER EVER LISTEN TO AN ADOBE USER ! ! !

Reason: they **always** turn a nice world into a very complicated one.

BTW, I'm running several CAD applications with NURBS (=3D vectors), and all of them print excellent on any lousy printer connected to my machine.

To print an *.eps or *.ps file, you can get GhostScript and GSView, open the *.eps or *.ps or *.pdf file and print it to your printer. GhostScript is free, GSView is a shareware around 30 US$. (But rest assured: with xtreme you definitely don't need an *.eps or *.ps file!)

After that, you can tell your advisor to go and pick some flowers in his garden - a much better gift for you than his weird, Adobe infested advice.

just my two cents.

**sunland** · 26 January 2006, 10:06 PM

Karen, I print directly from XaraXtreme to my Epson Stylus Photo 1280 frequently.
Choose Print from the Xara File Menu, click Options. On the Ouput Tab set the Print As: radio button to Anti-Aliased Bitmap. On the Print Layout tab make sure your drawing fits on your current Printer Layout choice. If not select Best Fit. Click OK. Then click Printer and make sure all of your Printer Options are set up correctly.
I get excellent results and you will also, with that new Epson printer.
adios

**GroWeb** · 26 January 2006, 10:55 PM

Originally Posted by jens g.r. benthien

turn a nice world into a very complicated one.

Boy, you sure got THAT right, Jens!

To get back to flower garden-like simplicity:
I use an HP Deskjet 832C by simply selecting File>Print>OK, just like any other program on my computer (image editor, word processor, e-mail, spreadsheet, web browser, PIM, etc., etc., etc.). Any adjustments can be made in the print dialogue box -- or the printer properties dialogue -- just as in any other program.

[One caveat for Xara: leave your printer's page orientation set to portrait, no matter which page orientation you want to print to; make the adustment only in the Xara print dialogue.]

Glen

**kpoore** · 27 January 2006, 12:55 AM

LOL
Okay, no more mention of Adobe.
It was my friends last day with us. He quit today for a job at twice his current salary.
Has anyone seen the new advertisment to Corel Draw? It sure looks a lot like Xara!!!!!
Thanks everyone.
Karen in Austin

**jens g.r. benthien** · 27 January 2006, 06:53 AM

Glen,

Boy, you sure got THAT right, Jens!

Yes, definitely, when I consider my experience of the last years alone:

Mac users with Adobe products told me that you can't produce a brochure with a PC. But I already had my first annual reports, brochures and flyers printed with Corel 1 - purchased in Hong Kong, only capable of black and white, but we just specified the colors according to the grey values.

Later Adobe users on the Mac and PC told me, that I have to consider a million things, have at least this and that before I can produce an offset print job. But I already had many printed materials in my portfolio.

Then they told me I need a color calibration, otherwise I'd end up with wrong colors. Huh? Seems to me they have bad eyes. Never had a problem with 'wrong' colors.

They keep telling me I need 'the standard' to reach 'the workflow', including at least 4 Adobe products. I still didn't use Adobe products but produced nice results.

Adobe users kept telling me I can't print from a TIFF. Which I did, because a TIFF is a TIFF is a TIFF and any RIP in a printing company can turn it into printing plates. So I already delivered brochures to several spots in this world and had them printed on location - without Adobe, without the hassle of missing fonts and all the nine yards.

When I started using Linux as a print server, they told me 'this won't work'. Funny, it worked, and it worked great. I've even equipped several printing companies with Linux printing servers, handling all PDF and EPS jobs (connected to a Linotype with a RIP).

Later it continued in the industrial design area: people started telling me that I can't seriously develop any objects without AutoCAD or SolidWorks. But I already had fantastic products in my portfolio.

Just recently a company called and complained about the data set I delivered: to precise - 16 decimal digits. They could only handle 4 decimal digits and insisted I should use 'the standard'.

What none of those nobrainers realized: I've always been ahead of 'the standard', because I can think and apply some sort of logic instead of performing endless discussions with no output.

I could write books about this topic because we have too many babies who feature themselves as being the popes of a certain industry or standard...

Screw them! I'd never dare to tell them driving a car other than a Merceds Benz or Rolls Royce won't get you to your destination... Just recently Toyota proved that Daimler Chryser and Volkswagen are far behind their productivity...

We don't need the 'I know better' guys in this world, we need creative people who just do it and come up with results.

just my personal experience.

**gwpriester** · 27 January 2006, 02:32 PM

It was my friends last day with us. He quit today for a job at twice his current salary.

I hope your friend is not going into tech support :-)

Karen

To your former friend's defense, in the past, and we are talking about 5 maybe 10 years ago, applications such as Illustrator could not print directly to a non-Postscript output device and required an intermediary bit of software (RIP) to print the image. But advances over the years in quality of output have made this all but unnecessary. Today, all applications can output directly to a desktop printer with no need for RIP software.

If you want to output your files to a Postscript device such as some special high end printers or Linotronic devices, then your files need to be in a file format these output devices can understand such as EPS, AI, and PDF. These files are then rasterized (RIP) and sent to the output device.

In a sense, I suppose you could say that all graphics applications have a kind of built in RIP which is what translates from what you create on the screen into instructions your printer uses to output (print) your file. But there is no need today for you to have RIP software to print from any graphics application to a desktop printer. Your friend just is a bit CONFUSED! :-)

Does that make sense?

Gary

**jens g.r. benthien** · 27 January 2006, 04:04 PM

Ah, Gary, the logical consequence: I don't use Adobe products, so I am not confused.

Thanks for the compliment and final confirmation

**williamdruid** · 27 January 2006, 04:45 PM

Hey Jens, Willy here. I agree totaly about Adobe complicating things. What is a good alternative to Photoshop? I do a lot of photo restorations and compositing
and I'm ready to ditch my CS Suite except I have three and a half years of files done in Adobe products for ongoing clients. Thank's Willy

**Doug** · 27 January 2006, 07:27 PM

Originally Posted by jens g.r. benthien

Glen,

Yes, definitely, when I consider my experience of the last years alone:
<snip edit!>

We don't need the 'I know better' guys in this world, we need creative people who just do it and come up with results.

just my personal experience.

Oh is that all?