Ergosoft RIPs are installed with a number of preset parameters that are designed to work well with the largest possible number of applications and technical environments.
This Application Note is meant to give users an insight into different parameters on how they relate to the performance of the RIP so they can be optimized to suit individual workflows.
The first segment, “Speeding up the Raster/Print Process” explains settings which can influence the raster speed and what alterations can improve performance. The second segment deals with how to improve performance of the user interface.
Speeding up the Raster/Print
Resolution
The resolution used for printing has a large influence on the raster speed. The higher the resolution, the longer the raster process will take. Users can evaluate how important a high resolution is for the print job at hand or if it might be more efficient to use a lower resolution and gain raster speed for it, so the job can be produced faster.
Preferred Dithering Method
In the current version of the Ergosoft RIPs, we recommend using the default dithering method.
Digital Printing Applications
An evolution of the stochastic dithering method that achieves a more even distribution of dots than previous dithering methods. Recommended for most applications.
By activating the checkbox Show All, users can access legacy dithering methods from previous versions. When using legacy dithering methods, we recommend the following, depending on the intention/application:
Smooth Diffusion
The Smooth Diffusion raster was the default settings in V14 of Ergosoft RIPs. While it provides excellent results, it usually takes longer to raster when compared with the stochastic dithering methods such as Digital Printing Applications and Stochastic3e.
Stochastic 3e
Stochastic3e raster processes files faster than the aforementioned Smooth Diffusion, but doesn’t reach the same quality in dot distribution as either Digital Printing Applications or Smooth Diffusion. In general, this dithering method works best for large format applications such as banners.
Settings for PostScript
Ergosoft RIPs provide several special settings concerning the handling of PostScript files (PDF, EPS). By optimizing these settings, processing time for PostScript files can be significantly reduced.
PostScript Buffersize
The setting for PostScript buffer size can be found in Tools > Application Defaults > Application > PostScript/PDF Interpreter. This setting determines how much of the memory available to the RIP can be used by the PostScript interpreter to process files during rastering. Increasing the memory percentage can have a very positive effect on the speed of the PostScript interpreter, but a certain amount of caution is advised when setting a higher percentage. A too high setting for the respective system can lead to problems while processing files if there is not enough memory left for the other applications of the RIP. We generally recommend not going above 50% buffer size to avoid such problems.
Raster Resolution Reduction
The raster resolution reduction for PostScript (the setting can be found in Tools > Application Defaults > PostScript/PDF Parameters) reduces the amount of data that needs to be processed at the raster stage by calculating the image down to a lower resolution for the raster process and then calculates it back up to the original output resolution for printout. A value of 2 for the resolution reduction means that the image will be calculated down to half the output resolution both vertically and horizontally. Especially with large and complex image files, this can shorten the raster time significantly.
It’s important to know however that depending on the image file and initial resolution, a reduction value of 3 and above might lead to a noticeable loss in quality. For resolutions below 300dpi, even a value of 2 could already produce a noticeable loss in sharpness.
Therefore, it is recommended to use the raster resolution reduction only with specific jobs where it is actually useful. Alternatively, this can also be automated by setting a specific resolution above which to use the resolution reduction. This allows the user to set a threshold e.g. of 800dpi so any Job that is rastered with a higher resolution than 800dpi will automatically use the raster resolution reduction.
Harddisk Management
Read and write times of the available harddisks also influence the performance of the RipEngine and are used to store data during operation; therefore, access times of the harddisks in use as well as available space should be taken into consideration.
Ergosoft recommends a system with three harddisks: The first harddisk contains the operating system as well as the Ergosoft RIP, the second is used to store temporary raster data and spool data (an SSD harddisk of suitable size can be an advantage here), while the third houses the image files that are to be printed. This setup has the advantage that it minimizes how much the harddisks are simultaneously written to and read from at the same time, which increases speed as well as stability of the different processes.
The folder for temporary raster data can be changed by opening the RipEngine window and going to Tools > Application Defaults, in there the path can be changed in the Temporary Raster Data segment by clicking the Change Folder button.
AntiVirus Software
Constant verification of the data that is read and written by the RIP can also slow down the speed of the rastering process as well as the overall program. To improve the general performance of the RIP, it can help to exclude the program folders of the Ergosoft RIP from live scan. We recommend to configure exceptions for the following folders:
- C:\Program Files\Ergosoft
- C:\Users\Public\Documents\EsRip
If you are using custom locations for your program and userdata folders, adjust the paths accordingly. By default temporary raster data is saved into the userdata folder, but if you are using a custom path for temporary raster data or printer spool folders, configure exceptions for these as well. If you are unsure which path is used for the temporary raster data, it can be verified anytime from the RipEngine by checking in Tools > Application Defaults in the Temporary Raster Data segment. The path for the printer spool data can be found in the PrintQueue Configuration.
Processor threads
Ergosoft RIPs allow users to customize how many processor threads the program can start and run at the same time. The default value upon installation is 1, since this works on all systems. Modern MultiCore processors however can handle more threads at a time, which can be a big benefit since the RIP Software can then split up the workload to improve the performance of the individual program modules and user interface.
To increase the maximum number of threads for the program, close the software and go to Control Center > RIP & Programs.
The setting Threads per Server lets users set the maximum amount of threads for the Ergosoft RIP that can run at the same time. It is however recommended that the maximum amount of threads should not exceed the number of cores (i.e. one thread per core) in the processor to ensure smooth performance.
Accelerating the User Interface
Snapshots
An important factor for the performance of the Ergosoft RIP JobComposer and user interface are the snapshots (also called previews). These snapshots are the representation of image files in the JobComposer. Creating and managing snapshots can have a large influence on the overall performance of the user interface, especially when the number of snapshots that need to be managed gets very high.
To avoid a decrease in performance through piled up snapshots, Ergosoft recommends regularly deleting the stored snapshots. This can be done either manually or automated.
In installations that have been running for a while, it’s a good idea to first manually delete the snapshots that have already been created by opening the main program and going to Tools > Options > Application > Snapshots and clicking the Delete Snapshots button to remove the stored snapshot files (these will of course be created anew when required), then using the Remove folder button to remove folders from the snapshot servers survey list.
It’s also possible to let the RIP automatically clear the snapshots after a set amount of time. This can also be done in Tools > Options > Application > Snapshots with the Delete Snapshots after function. All stored snapshots will then be deleted after the set number of days during the starting phase of the RIP.
Store Snapshots in common local folder
Located in Tools > Options > Application > Snapshots. By default, the Snapshots created by the Ergosoft RIP are saved in the Ergosoft RIP user data folder. This ensures access to the folder where the snapshots are stored so they can always be properly saved and accessed. However when working from several different RIP installations that all access the same image folders, it might be worth considering to uncheck this option. This will cause the snapshots to be saved directly in a subfolder of the image folder. This way, all Ergosoft RIP installations that import an image will have access to the existing pool of previews, ensuring that every preview only needs to be created once. However when storing the snapshots in the image folder, it needs to be ensured that the software has full reading/writing access to the respective folders, as otherwise snapshot creation may fail.
Not displaying Snapshots for Jobs with many images
In some cases, such as jobs that contain a large amount of images, it can make sense t o deactivate snapshot display entirely to conserve system resources. This can easily be done by going to Tools > Options > Application > Snapshots and activating the Suppress Image Display function. The preview of the actual images in the job will then be replaced by simple placeholders with the same size as the images. This can save a lot of resources and greatly improve performance on computers
Hardware
Of course the computer hardware used to run the RIP is the most important factor in how the RIP performs. For information concerning the best possible hardware to run Ergosoft, please refer to the article System Recommendations.