Qimage Print Speed/Queue Creation vs RIP

inspirique

Newbie

Posts: 3

Qimage Print Speed/Queue Creation vs RIP

« on: May 17, 2014, 09:52:10 PM »

Hi all

I just have a quick question. I have been using Qimage for a couple of years and love it.

However, my print volumes are starting to grow and I am finding the process with Qimage very slow and someone has suggested switching to a RIP instead.

I am not really very familiar with RIPS, Qimage has always done what I have needed it to do but speed is becoming an issue now.

At the moment I am using a 42" wide HP printer and am making my page length 90" long for example. By the time I fill this with images to print it makes the process quite slow and I am unable to do anything else until the software has processed the images to be printed (which can take up to 10mins for that length page).

This means I have to wait until I can visually arrange the next 'batch' of images for printing in Qimage. It has just taken over 12mins to process two 36"x36" prints. I now have 6 images to print on the same size page and Qimage is saying 14mins remaining at the moment.

Does anyone here have experience of using a RIP (Wasatch is what I am looking at)? If so, do they process prints any faster than Qimage?

I'm not really all that keen to switch as the prints are great through Qimage and the RIP is not cheap either Sad

Please can anyone advise if there is a way to speed the process up - it could be possible that I will be printing between 30 > 50 prints per day quite soon and they can be pretty big and slow using the current process with Qimage.

I'm hoping that there may be a solution to be able to speed this up somehow and stick with Qimage but I guess not - I love it for it's other amazing features so I guess it means balancing the speed vs the high quality prints from Qimage.

Is the output from Qimage better than it would be with a RIP such as Wasatch?

Many thanks in advance for any help/advice Smiley

Kirsty


« Last Edit: May 17, 2014, 10:12:19 PM by inspirique »	Logged

Fred A

Forum Superhero

Posts: 5644

Re: Qimage Print Speed/Queue Creation vs RIP

« Reply #1 on: May 17, 2014, 10:08:53 PM »

Quote

I just have a quick question. I have been using Qimage for a couple of years and love it.

However, my print volumes are starting to grow and I am finding the process with Qimage very slow and someone has suggested switching to a RIP instead.

I am not really very familiar with RIPS, Qimage has always done what I have needed it to do but speed is becoming an issue now.

At the moment I am using a 42" wide HP printer and am making my page length 90" long for example. By the time I fill this with images to print it makes the process quite slow and I am unable to do anything else until the software has processed the images to be printed (which can take up to 10mins for that length page), and then it can take the same amount of time (or more) for this 'page' to physically print.

This means I have to wait until I can visually arrange the next 'batch' of images for printing in Qimage and potentially 20mins+ until I can send anything else to the printer.

Am I missing something in Qimage? Is there a way to continue queuing images for printing or is this 'bottleneck' unavoidable with Qimage?

I have been told that with a good RIP I would be able to just keep adding images to the queue and there would not be this downtime in my printing process, the printer would just keep going at whatever print jobs are in the queue.

I'm not really all that keen to switch as the prints are great through Qimage and the RIP is not cheap either Sad

Please can anyone advise if there is a way to speed the process up - it could be possible that I will be printing between 30 > 50 prints per day quite soon and they can be pretty big and slow using the current process with Qimage.

I'm hoping that there may be a solution to be able to stick with Qimage as I love it for it's other amazing features!

Many thanks in advance for any help/advice Smiley

Kirsty

Kirsty,
Assuming that the pages are all different, and the images on the pages are different from each other, the only three things I can suggest would be:
1) A second printer, and while one is printing the other is being fed.
2) A second copy of Qimage where you can make up your next job while you wait for the print job to be created.
3) Make up these jobs before hand, and SAVE the JOB in Qimage.

Recall the jobs all ready to print at the convenient time.

Best I can think of of hand.

Rips are very costly, about what half what your printer costs... so a second printer isn't that far fetched!

Fred


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inspirique

Newbie

Posts: 3

Re: Qimage Print Speed/Queue Creation vs RIP

« Reply #2 on: May 17, 2014, 10:21:03 PM »

wow, that was a quick reply Fred! Thank you Smiley

I have just edited my post a little bit as I had put some wrong stuff in about waiting for the physical print before

Thanks for your ideas:

1) I am looking at getting another printer, and it's whilst buying that there is an offer to get the RIP at a reduced price Smiley

2) Can you run 2 copies of Qimage on one computer and just send alternate print jobs from one and then the other? If so, what would happen if the job from the first copy of the software is incomplete when the job on the 2nd copy has finished processing - would the job just be added to the print queue?

3) Not 100% sure what you mean - I always print different pics (customers own photos) and at the rate things are going I think it's the printing of them that is going to slow things down, rather than the making of the end product! Would saving the job like you say be of any benefit? If so, please could you summarise how to do this for me, or is there a link to some instructions perhaps?

Do you know if a RIP such as Wasatch would actually process the jobs any quicker than Qimage or if the same files are being sent would they be processed at the same speed?

Also, any idea re: quality - is Qimages inbuilt interpolation really that much better?

Thanks again!

Kirsty


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Fred A

Forum Superhero

Posts: 5644

Re: Qimage Print Speed/Queue Creation vs RIP

« Reply #3 on: May 18, 2014, 04:55:32 PM »

Quote

THE ANSWER IS yes!! It lines up and waits.
I am doing it right now to be certain.

Quote

Do you know if a RIP such as Wasatch would actually process the jobs any quicker than Qimage or if the same files are being sent would they be processed at the same speed?

Also, any idea re: quality - is Qimages inbuilt interpolation really that much better?

I know little about a rip other than what I hear.
Try switching from Fusion to Vector to speed things up. You will have to judge ant quality loss for yourself.

Quote

Not 100% sure what you mean - I always print different pics

If you had 25 8 x 10s of the same image to print, you could put one in the queue, and then set the driver for 25 copies.
That would speed it up.

Quote

Also, any idea re: quality - is Qimages inbuilt interpolation really that much better?

Yes, it is... and that's why it has lead and still leads the world for quality prints, and image conversions, and rendering Raw files...
I wish I had a number for how many Photo Shop and Lightroom people open Qimage when it's time to print.

Now if only I can convince them to open Qimage to handle their raw images and check the wuality there as they did on the printing side.

Is your printer setup networked? Sometimes, that's a choke point.

Hope some of this helps...

Fred


« Last Edit: May 18, 2014, 05:43:01 PM by Fred A »	Logged

Fred A

Forum Superhero

Posts: 5644

Re: Qimage Print Speed/Queue Creation vs RIP

« Reply #4 on: May 18, 2014, 05:09:00 PM »

Oh, sorry, I forgot the question on Saving the Job.

You set it all up ready to print.
That includes everything; printer setups, profiles, layouts, images placements, everything. It gets saved as a JOB ready to print
Click FILE SAVE and when the screen opens, click the "J" button.
Give your job a name... "Sarah and Bob's 60th anniversary" and click SAVE.

Make up your jobs when you are in the job making mode. When you feel ready to print, click FILE , RECALL, "J" button, and locate the job name you want, and OPEN.
Now click Print.

You can store jobs and what's even better, you can repeat jobs with the job coming out exactly as it did a week ago.

Fred


« Last Edit: May 18, 2014, 05:42:37 PM by Fred A »	Logged

BrianPrice

Sr. Member

Posts: 265

Re: Qimage Print Speed/Queue Creation vs RIP

« Reply #5 on: May 18, 2014, 07:30:19 PM »

Kirsty

I don't think a Rip will be any quicker than QI, as they have to do more or less the same thing.
As well as being expensive, many Rips require the use of CMYK profiles which have to be custom made and again are expensive, and the one I used (a few years ago now, Fred) was anything but user-friendly.

I think an answer to your problem could be to use a second PC as a print server. It wouldn't have to be high spec, and if you included a huge hard disc you could keep all your print files and QI saved jobs and printer set-ups in one place.

Brian


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inspirique

Newbie

Posts: 3

Re: Qimage Print Speed/Queue Creation vs RIP

« Reply #6 on: May 19, 2014, 02:20:08 PM »

Hi again

Many thanks for your help! I really appreciate it Smiley

So, from what I am reading there doesn't sound like there is much of an advantage to owning the RIP really!

I hope you don't mind me asking a couple of other questions...

1) What would you suggest re: setting the page length - longer and add more images to print vs shorter and less images? If I create a page length of say 96" I can add quite a few prints but then have to wait for it to finish processing.

Does having more data to deal with slow things down or would it not make any difference if I broke it into smaller 'chunks'

2) Re: the page length - if I am using a page length of 96" and only print something that is 50" long the remaining 46" still comes out of the printer. I know I can amend the page length easily but it didn't do this previously. I had to reformat my pc and since doing so the excess all keeps on coming! It used to stop at the end of the print, irrelevant of the length of the page.

I can't find a setting to prevent it from doing this - I am using a HPZ6100 if that makes any difference

3) Is there a limit to the number of installations that can be used at the same time - could I run three or four in order to minimise the processing time? It sounds like it is time to dedicate a pc to this I think as Brian suggests! If doing this, does using a SSD speed things up much as I could do with buying a new machine specifically for this.

Sorry for so many questions - I am not really from a very 'technical' background so sometimes this lack of expertise catches up with me Huh?

Thanks again!

Kirsty


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BrianPrice

Sr. Member

Posts: 265

Re: Qimage Print Speed/Queue Creation vs RIP

« Reply #7 on: May 19, 2014, 05:09:46 PM »

Kirsty

Quote

1) What would you suggest re: setting the page length - longer and add more images to print vs shorter and less images? If I create a page length of say 96" I can add quite a few prints but then have to wait for it to finish processing.

I would use shorter pages, but don't forget you can have as many pages as you want. If your longest print is 50" then I would set the page length to 52" - do this in the printer driver and save it as a Print Setup in QI. If you add, say, six 50" prints to the queue and then two 20" long prints QI will create the seven pages that it needs, and print it all as one job. It is safer to load all your prints onto many smaller pages as it avoids spooler problems. You can also start trimming the first pages while the rest are still printing Cheesy

Quote

If doing this, does using a SSD speed things up much as I could do with buying a new machine specifically for this.

No, a SSD will not speed QI printing up, it only speeds up opening lots of small files. You don't need a high spec machine - A mid-range quad processor and 8Gb of ram with a second 2 or 3 TB hard drive will be fine. You won't need a separate graphics card, on-board graphics will do.

HTH

Brian


« Last Edit: May 19, 2014, 05:12:09 PM by BrianPrice »	Logged

Terry-M

The Honourable Metric Mann
Forum Superhero

Posts: 3251

Re: Qimage Print Speed/Queue Creation vs RIP

« Reply #8 on: May 19, 2014, 09:11:38 PM »

Quote

A mid-range quad processor and 8Gb of ram with a second 2 or 3 TB hard drive will be fine.

I have found in the past that the queue processing speed is dependant on the processor speed too, higher the GHz the better, I use a 3.6Ghz Intel i7 quad processor. The process does work the CPU quite hard so make sure it has good cooling - I found the standard Intel fan unit on the processor was not adequate.

Quote

It used to stop at the end of the print, irrelevant of the length of the page. I can't find a setting to prevent it from doing this - I am using a HPZ6100 if that makes any difference

HP drivers are known to have bugs, check if there's an update for the driver.

Terry


« Last Edit: May 19, 2014, 09:16:13 PM by Terry-M »	Logged

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