Specifications

The Digital Fine Print Course

Printing a Fine Print

RIP Profiling

4. Once the printer has been ink limited and linearized for the new media, and the new

linearization settings have been saved in the media specific 'environment or preset' in the

RIP software, the printer can then be 'profiled' by printing a CMYK profiling test chart.

The resulting CMYK profile therefore describes that 'current state of the printer'. It can

then be used within the print production workflow to ensure accurate and consistent

colour output, either selected in the RIP software and applied to the image data as it is

being rasterized and sent to the printer, or applied to the image files in the image creation

software (eg. Photoshop) before being sent to the RIP.

The above is how a traditional RIP is set up, with many subtle variations depending on

the RIP manufacturer's particular options.

Note that unless the RIP has a spectrophotometer built into it (such as a Fuji Frontier

mini lab) a supported measuring instrument such as a GretagMacbeth EyeOne Pro

Spectrophotometer will be required to linearize and profile the RIP. If the RIP does not

support linearization, then the CMYK profile not only has to describe the printer’s colour

gamut, but also grey balance (linearization) and sometimes also control total ink and

black ink limits. This is not an ideal solution, but can still result in acceptable images.

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