Who is using this system?

[MacDan]

Okay lets hear the Good, the Bad and any Ugly about this system. I have looked it over and am about to pull the trigger on changing to this system from Scitex PSM/7 and Scitex in general. So help me out with what you know about the Xitron Xenith Extreme. Thanks

[geozinger]

We are. Our shop is a general commercial printer. We do lots of short run color. Plus all of the other crap that any other printer does. Lots of junk files, some good ones, plus the ones we create. (They can be junk, too.)

We evaluated probably all of the systems available in the last 2 years. It seems to me they all do the same thing. I was looking for an Adobe Extreme RIP with the in-RIP trapping. I figured that way we could be compatible with PDF's and transparency. Those were the things that were hurting us with the old RIP. Someone else on this board posted a similar question not too long ago, and I told them to go for it. I still feel that way, you can't beat the price and the training and support package.

Since then I have run into two odd events and one issue that I hope they can resolve. I had a customer supplied "press" version InDesign 3 file that when run through the RIP, developed 'artifacts' (stroked, unfilled boxes in the middle of copy) that I was not able to edit out with PitStopPro. I figured out a workaround, but have not had time to contact the folks at Xitron to discuss this yet.

The other concerns my proofer (Epson 9600 & Best RIP XXL) and it may not relate to the Xenith, I have to call and find out. The other issue I have is with (spot) colorized grayscale tiffs in Quark, we were told to convert the file to a monotone .eps file using the spot color as the color in the monotone. This is OK if you have the source files to work with, but what happens with a PDF from Quark with this setup?

But those are my only gripes other than the OS9 and the Win 95/98/Me
clients being a little flaky. But with the release of version 6 Xenith, I hope these issues will be resolved.

[repro_boy]

Just my 2 pennies

Xitron as a whole (No nonsense products and easy integration)

Scitex Proprietry systems at their best but why do we need to be proprietry any more boltons for these systems are always expensive.

[Litho9745]

I have been using this system for one year now. For the most part I give it a B+ I looked over several workflows and decided to go with Xitron. I love the fact with this system, you can run pretty much any platesetter. Currently I am driving a Creo Trendsetter. The learning curve is not hard at all and production has increased substanually. Linked up to an Epson 7600 with Best Color Rip, we make quality proofs to run on press. I recommend the system.

[LadIndy]

We've been running with this system for 1 month. I couldn't be happier. The learning curve is great, not hard at all. I was pretty much up and running after the initial 5 days of training. The software is very intuitive to use. The workflow is logical and once everything is set up, works beautifully. We run press proofs to an Epson 7600 with Best Color, even two sided perfected jobs using cut sheets. I've been sending jobs with no problems so far. I like the fact that preflight is built in(pitstop preflight). Usually if a job fails initially, I get a report and it's the usual suspects, fonts and/or images. Otherwise, this all pdf workflow is quick and easy to use. I have all the tools I need, remapping colors, trapping and the ability to easily customize if need be on a job to job basis. We're running to a Presstek Dimension 400 platesetter and even have our pressmen making plates. We've seen a great production increase even in the short time that we've been up and running. I would highly recommend this system and if there is anyone out there shopping for DTP workflow systems, take a look at this one in action. By the way, we're using Dynastrip for our impositions and it works beautifully with this system! :lol:

[LadIndy]

Originally Posted by geozinger

The other concerns my proofer (Epson 9600 & Best RIP XXL) and it may not relate to the Xenith, I have to call and find out. The other issue I have is with (spot) colorized grayscale tiffs in Quark, we were told to convert the file to a monotone .eps file using the spot color as the color in the monotone. This is OK if you have the source files to work with, but what happens with a PDF from Quark with this setup?

I think this is a common problem for all rips, ?colorized .tif files? in Quark. I have a Quark extension from Agfa called ?CTIFF? that allows Quark to ?see and rip? colorized spot color tiff files (these are fake duotones). When our Xitron rip was installed I asked if we should keep this extension in Quark and was told yes. That may be why I haven't run into the colorized .tif file issues. Also, if you have a press ready pdf file (images hi res) with one of these colorized tif files you can edit the image in the pdf by using the object edit tool in Acrobat. It will launch the image in photoshop where you could create a real monotone, duotone etc. and then when you save it, it should come back into the pdf as monotone etc. In this case you wouldn't need the original source files. Hopefully this works for you.

[Litho9745]

If you are using OSX, Quark 6.5, instead of sending composites use the device N option and your colorized tiffs will work.

[LadIndy]

Will printing to Device N work with colorized .tifs with clipping paths or just plain colorized tifs.

Appreciate the info. Every little bit helps :P

[LadIndy]

By the way, we just went DTP with this system and, guess what? They laid off the stripper on Friday! I'm now running prepress ALONE, designing, typesetting, proofing, preflighting, imposing, ripping and making plates all at the same salary

Where does it end!?!

[Litho9745]

Device N works with paths and tiffs with no problem, so far.