Colorbus Cyclone newspaper proofing RIP for Hewlett-Packard 1055cm
 |
By the time I visited with the company at DRUPA trade show May 2000, it was noticeable that they had no RIPs for six color printers at that time.
ColorBus seems to be aiming for color copiers rather than large format inkjet printers. Since we are beginning to evaluate color copiers, perhaps this will provide an opportunity at least to test ColorBus RIP on that platform.
Although
ColorBus RIPs are mainly for controlling color copiers, the
Colorbus Cyclone PostScript RIP works with Encad, Hewlett-Packard, Mimaki,
and Xerox wide format printers. The RIP that got most of our attention,
however, was the ColorBus RIP for the Hewlett-Packard DesignJet
1050 and 1055, since that is precisely the printer that
we have in Guatemala.
At DRUPA printer trade show in Germany we were especially
interested in the ability of Colorbus RIP to handle newsprint.
This requires that the RIP lay down precisely the proper amount
of each color to handle such an economical paper. With Colorbus
you can actually print on normal everyday untreated newsprint.
This means you can cut your paper costs down to practically
zero.
Colorbus sells this RIP for newspapers to use to proof their editions in full color at a reasonable price. But we see all kinds of opportunities for simply making low cost throw-away prints, such as maps. Another RIP which can do that is SeeColor, which is a different company. We don't yet have experience with SeeColor products.
At Print '01 tradeshow I saw another RIP which could proof for newspapers; can't remember which of the countless RIPs it was. Either Compose or O.R.I.S. or one of those.
ColorBus still exists as a company; indeed they finally updated their web site several months ago. If you do newspapers or magazines, check them out. However you might find one of the larger RIP companies a better bet for the long haul. There were definitely a few times we thought ColorBus had disappeared; at least they abandoned regular updates on their web site for quite a while.
If you wish information on Wasatch RIP, contact [email protected].
We are currently evaluating a wide variety of RIPs for large format inkjet printers. It has turned out to be easier to update our FLAAR Reports version of these reports, where everything is in one report (rather than scattered across three web sites on dozens of separate pages).
Last updated Jan 22, 2002, last revised May 14, 2002