PosterJet version 7.5 was more advanced than version 6. This photo was taken several years ago. PosterJet has evolved considerably and version 8 is now available.
Evaluation on the PosterJet RIP phased out.
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FLAAR had been using PosterJet RIP at our facility in Latin American for the last several years. This PosterJet RIP was selected by the FLAAR lab technician over all the other RIPs he had available. Then we were waiting to receive PosterJet version 7.5 RIP at our former facility at Bowling Green State University of Ohio. But in the meantime the university tore down the building which housed our 4000 square foot research facility. In the smaller building that replaces this, we have switched to Wasatch because of the need to have one RIP that works both with Canon, with Epson, and with HP. In the past PosterJet did not work with Epson piezo printheads.
PosterJet 7.5 works on the old Hewlett-Packard DesignJet series of printers, on Encad, and on the Canon BJ-W9000, Canon imageproGRAF W8200, W6200, W8400, and W6400 wide format inkjet printers, among others.
By the time the new version arrived the lab manager, Brent Cavanaugh, had switched all the printers to Wasatch. This was because it was easier to train all the new students in one single workflow on a software that worked on all three brands of printers in the lab (Epson in addition to Canon and HP). But in the meantime there is plenty of comparative reviews of PostScript RIPs for large format printers in the FLAAR Reports on RIPs.
There are many features about PosterJet RIP to like, but what we notice the most is its ease of use. You don't need a PhD in nuclear physics to operate PosterJet RIP. Frankly some other RIPs are so overburdened with excess "features" that the real purpose of a RIP software gets lost in the maze of confusing options.
The easiest way to decide is to get your hands on the complete series of FLAAR publications on RIP software. Read about each kind of RIP, and then decide. This way you benefit from our years of experience. Don't worry that we evaluate previous versions because the core is basically the same. We do update our RIP evaluations, but it is the general review of the RIP brand per se that counts.
There are many RIP products to chose from (over 70 brand names), but most of these don't make the cut. We tend to accept for evaluation on the RIP software that we feel is worth the time of our university lab to handle. Currently (2009) the RIP we continue to evaluate is Caldera. This RIP was selected because it is a heavy-duty software for grand format solvent printers and for the new breed of sophisticated UV-curable flatbed printers.
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Most recently updated Feb 2, 2009.
Previous updates: Jan. 16, 2006, June 29, 2005, May 2002, November 26, 2001.