Harlequin RIP
The Harlequin RIP has long been the foundation for an entire industry, being sold through the vendor's OEM partners who use its flexible architecture as the basis for their own products. It has gone through several generations, and is now the Harlequin PLUS Server RIP, "PLUS" because it also has numerous prepress capabilities, not always found in a RIP.
Features of the Harlequin PLUS Server RIP include PostScript interpretation, native PDF support, JDF-enabled workflows, and integral color management, trapping and imposition.
Harlequin technology is used for driving 100 different output devices, from vendors such as Agfa Gevaert, Hewlett-Packard and Kodak. RIPs based on it or integrating with it include the following:
- Express RIP, from Compose Systems
- RipMate, from Esko Graphics
- Fusion RIP, from Fusion Systems
- HQ RIP, from Kodak
- Torrent RIP, from HighWater Designs
- Prediction RIP, from Latran Technologies
- Rampage RIP, from Rampage Systems
- RTI Rip-Kit, from RTI (RealTimeImage)
- JET Rip, from Song & Company
- TorayRIP, from Toray Industries
- Navigator RIP, from Xitron
Comment
You cannot work in the graphic arts industry without coming across Harlequin RIP technology in one form or another. It is listed here for completeness, but if you want to buy a RIP you need to go to the Harlequin partners.
Tech info
- OS: multi-platform
- Price level: on application
Global Graphics Software
Having an extensive patent portfolio, Global Graphics Software is a leading developer of software used by OEMs, system integrators and application developers to create printing, publishing, and electronic document solutions. Its European offices are located in Cambridge (R & D) and Manchester, England; other offices are in the US, Japan and India.
From the same vendor:
- gDoc Fusion
- FREE gDoc Creator (enterprise quality PDF creation)
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