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FujiFilm ESP RIP Solution - part 2 of 1 2 3

by Mike McNamee Published

The Wrinkles

This may not bother many users but you should be aware of the limitations. The system does not recognise RAW files at all, even as thumbnails. Although claims are made for sophisticated colour management, CMYK and Lab files are depicted massively off colour when pages are assembled.

Layered Photoshop files are very slow to open and cache. For example, a typical D-SLR file with a couple of layer masks took between 4 and 5 minutes to cache in ESP compared with just 1.6 seconds to open the same file in Photoshop.

The in-built profiles are made in CMYK mode with 1,520 patches and the output we tried was visually acceptable. In the absence of any FujiFilm paper to try out we used Epson Publication Proofing Paper and ran it with FujiFilm Satin as the profile set up. The resulting print was a little heavy in density but otherwise quite a clean print. The error in the colour was low, the Granger Chart was smooth and clean. Later a glitch in the ftp site had been sorted and we were able to download profiles for Epson papers.

Although this was a slow process, the results were worth the wait and a very accurate print was made onto Epson Proofing Paper White SemiMatte. (There is no longer a paper called Proofing Paper Semimatte as far as we know). The average error was 4.7Lab?E/3.23?E 2000 which matches what we generally find on profiled Epson printers. The highlight data were the landscape tones which were particularly accurate. Overall the print was about 3% too dark which contributed the bulk of the average error.

This is the 'page assembly' interface. Images from the file folder, shown as thumbnails at the base, are simply dragged into the relevant 'box' in the template in the main window. It is very quick and easy to use.

Conclusion

The system is capable of producing really nice looking prints from a very simple interface. Although the spectrophotometers offered by the interface include the Eye 1 and the X-Rite DTP41 and all the right linearisation tables are present in the Profile Edit menu, no hits were returned when we searched the manual, we were obviously trespassing into banned territory! The evidence suggests that FujiFIlm are using the Shiraz RIP, but that it is a cutdown version with no facilities for changing tables, inking levels, etc. This is probably a good thing for the intended users!

An obvious question is whether the ESP offers anything that is not provided by the much less expensive Qimage. The answer is little or nothing and, if anything, Qimage is easier to use and, the required RGB profiles for third-party media are available from most manufacturers' websites. However, if you want an installed and supported system to remove all worries, then perhaps the FujiFilm ESP will enable you to rest easier at night while the printer finishes your day's work for you.

Incidentally the FujiFilm HQ has the latest Epson 7900 printer available for giving demonstrations in Bedford should you wish to avail yourself of the facility before you buy (but phone first there may be a limit on the time this is available for). The ESP system will also be demonstrated at the Convention 2009.

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1st Published
last update 21/07/2022 08:46:24

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