Is it safe yet to use OSX to output film/plates???

[MacDaddyDave]

I hope this is the correct forum to address my question?

The Firm I worked for, closed in November just as OSX and DTP was becoming a must have operating system!

We were originaly a trade plate shop which converted to a imaging service center in the Queens, NY area.

We had 4 macs and 2 pc's running to an Agfa imagesetter using Apogee and I guess the final straw came when Agfa wanted something like $7,000 to upgrade all the drivers to run the newest programs.

Yet they still could not guarantee us to be able to output everything in OSX or from XP!

* Is everyone able to output film/plates in OSX in all the major programs or do you still have to resave down to OS9 usable files?

** I'm still looking for work in the New York area, does the prospect for work look any better in 2005?

I have all the qualifications to be a Prepress operator minus the experience in outputting Direct To Plate right now.
Thanks
David

[duck]

We went DTP about 6 months ago with Rampage. I do almost all the work in 0SX, and the Rampage software runs in X or classic.

It is actually an easier workflow than the Scitex system we were using, I don't know much about Apogee, but I would imagine that Agfa would run pretty smoothly on X as well - they would have to to be competetive.

The biggest thing is learning a new workflow. It's all the same basic prepress steps, but a different way to get from A to B. Once you know the workflow, DTP is cake.

Hope you get some work soon!

[DCurry]

My shop has been running OSX for almost 2 years now - never, ever have to output from an OS9 machine. Any legacy files run from Classic just fine.

[Cory]

Same with DCurry.

Been on OS X for 2 years now....only use classic for Quark 4 files that we get..

[cpi]

I was told that when we upgraded from OS 8 to a G5 with OSX, OSX wouldn't output to our 1994 PressMate filmsetter, and that we'd have to spend lotsa $$$ to upgrade to CTP, but guess what.... ole Bessie showed them! She spits out just about everything I send her using all of the newest programs (InDesign, etc.). Not sure if I'm *supposed* to be impressed, but I am.

Tracy

[MacDaddyDave]

Hi All;
Was it just us or theres no one out there that doesn't have any problems outputting PC files from XP?
Bless our Imagesetter, when we were running in windows 2000, we could output anything they threw at us even output Word, Corel and all those other wacky non-prepress friendly programs!!
When we were forced to upgrade to XP because our older program couldn't handle newer files (especially Illustrator) thats when it wasn't fun coming to work anymore!
Seems Agfa still hadn't come up with all the upgrades for XP and OSX files and not to mention color density's!
*** A friend of mine was explaining to me that with Scitex they use the Tiff-it program to create postscript files which are then ripped?
Is that normal for most DTP work flows
Thanks to all for your help
David

[seetomtype]

We don't use it, but we are a small shop, and don't use the most modern work-flow app's or formats. We have no problem with our general work flow without them (Tiff-it), thought that is specific to us and our technology.

[seetomtype]

Sorry...


We are dtp though to finish the answer 8)