Wasatch SoftRIP SP TM

INSTALLATION AND STARTUP

System Requirements Installation Quickstart

The faster the CPU, the faster Wasatch SoftRIP will process
your images. Therefore, it is advisable to buy the fastest Contents
computer you can. While more RAM will also help speed System Requirements _________________ page 1
up the processing, it is the speed of the CPU that directly Network Connections _________________ page 1
affects how fast SoftRIP runs. Wasatch SoftRIP requires a Overview ___________________________ page 2
minimum of 512 MB of system memory. Quick Start __________________________ page 4
Wasatch SoftRIP can process more than one image at a Color Separations ____________________ page 5
time and take advantage of multiple CPUs for this purpose, Halftone Screens _____________________ page 7
including new, state-of-the-art hyperthreaded and multi-
core processors. For every additional processor in your
computer, it is recommended you double the amount of
RAM.
It is important to use multi-gigabyte disk drives on com- Recommended System
puters that are intended for use in high resolution printing, Requirements
especially if you plan to keep RIP’d files available in the Wa- Pentium IV 3.06 GHz CPU or faster
satch Print Queue.
1 GB RAM
Displays must be set for a minimum of 1024 by 768 pixels,
and for a Color Quality of “True Color” (a minimum of 24 bit 80 GB or larger Hard Drive
color depth). Windows 2000, XP, or Vista
(SoftRIP will not install on older Windows
operating systems)
Network Connections
A single high-end inkjet printer in an ethernet environment
can demand well over 500 kilobytes per second for long Additional Help
periods of time. Newer printers can demand even more.
This is a sustained data-rate that can seriously impact your
network, especially if you are set up with an older 10Base-T Complete user info is provided under the Help menu on the
arrangement. Data may then fail to reach your printer fast SoftRIP main screen. Help can also be accessed through
enough, causing problems such as pausing of the print help buttons on various screens in the software.
head. The integrity of your network will also affect the per-
formance of the Wasatch ImageNET TM Graphics Transfer
and Management System.
For network printing, we recommend the use of 100Base-
T ethernet cards that install on the PCI bus of the com-
Operating System
puter running Wasatch SoftRIP. We also suggest the use of Operating Systems:Wasatch SoftRIP is compatible only
100Base-T switches (not hubs). with Windows 2000 or XP Operating Systems. It cannot be
You should consider connecting Wasatch SoftRIP to these installed on a Macintosh or other Windows platforms. If
printers on an isolated network with its own switch and you use Apple computers to create your images, you can
cables, and with a dedicated network card in the computer use SoftRIP’s ImageNET feature.
running the Wasatch SoftRIP software. Isolating heavy traf-
fic will improve overall network performance.

Page  Wasatch SoftRIP Quickstart Guide

 Overview

Congratulations on your purchase of Wasatch SoftRIP SP for

Separations Printing. This product represents more than a
decade of experience in the art and science of digital color
separation for screen printers. This startup document was
created to familiarize you with the basics of SoftRIP SP and
guide you through installation of the RIP, Imaging Configu-
rations and Wasatch Precision Rosette Screens. You will also
find a Quickstart section, which describes the basic printing
process, followed by an overview of the color separation
process in SoftRIP SP. More detailed information on these
subjects is found in online help.

SoftRIP SP Overview:
SoftRIP SP has two major functions.
1. Creating digital color separation films using inkjet print-
ers and image setters.
SoftRIP SP provides a complete set of features that al-
low you to optimize performance in your production
environment. You may choose one of several available
workflows, as well as the type of halftone screen that
best suits your requirements. Of particular interest for
more demanding users are new Wasatch Precision Ro-
sette Screens, which provide a large selection of special
halftone configurations.
SoftRIP SP also offers additional controls of such key Post-
Script screen parameters as dot shape, screen angle and
frequency. Dot size controls are provided for FM screens.
See page 4 of this guidebook and online help for more
information about generating digital color separations.
2. Driving inkjet printers and other digital color devices to
produce direct color output.
Wasatch SoftRIP is a full-featured RIP and Print Manage-
ment software package, designed to optimize color re-
production, throughput speed and workflow efficiency
for virtually any wide-format device available today.
Wasatch SoftRIP 6.0 provides interactive previews, con-
trol of size and cropping, color control, streamlined ICC
workflow control and single screen management of job
queues. In addition, the ImageNET graphics transfer and
management utility allows you to move and manage
images from any Mac, PC or Unix workstation on your
network.

Page  Wasatch SoftRIP Quickstart Guide

 For Separations Printing
Installing Upgrades - Important!
If you are installing an upgrade to your previous version of
SoftRIP, please refer to the document located in the \misc\
upgradeinfo\upgradeinfo.html folder found on the SoftRIP
Application CD.
1. Obtain your Wasatch registration code:
There are two options:
Illustration 1: The Setup/Installation screen appears when
• Register Online: Go to www.wasatch.com and select
the Application CD is inserted in the drive
Register Software
• Fax the completed Registration Code form to 801-575-
8075. The fax form is included in the box with your
SoftRIP CD-ROM.
An enabling code that matches your hardware key and a
serial number will be provided by e-mail or fax when we
receive this information. It will be sent during our normal
business hours (8:30 to 5:30 US Mountain Time, Monday
through Friday except holidays). The enabling code not
only activates your software for full production, it also initi-
ates your 180-day free tech support service, available from
our service department by e-mail, fax, and phone.
2. Install SoftRIP/Imaging Configurations:
• Install the Wasatch Hardware Key (also known as “dongle”
or Logic Module) onto the appropriate port on your PC.
Your hardware key will be compatible either with the par-
allel port or USB port. If you are using a USB dongle, you
will be prompted to remove the dongle at some point Illustration 2: Installing Imaging Configurations
during the installation, then replace it after the applica-
tion has been installed. It is important to follow these
instructions. Insert the Wasatch SoftRIP Disk 1 Applica-
tion CD-ROM in the appropriate CD drive. The installa-
tion should run automatically once the CD is in the drive,
launching a series of installation screens on the first
screen (Illustration 1). Click Install to continue.
• On the second screen choose a language (Note: Limited
language editions of SoftRIP do not display this screen)
• On the next screen, choose a destination drive and folder
for installation. It is generally recommended that you in-
stall onto the largest drive (C:, D:, E: etc) available and into
the folder WWRIP6. For example if the E: drive is the larg- Illustration 3: Entering Registration Codes
est on your system, it is recommended that you install
into the folder E:\WWRIP6
• (NOTE: Installation of Imaging Configurations is for stan- 3. Enter Wasatch Registration Code:
dard composite printing) If you know what output de- After installing Wasatch SoftRIP, you do not need to restart
vice you will be driving, you will probably want to install the computer. When you open Wasatch SoftRIP, you will be
the Imaging Configurations for that printer now. To do so, prompted to enter your Registration code (as well as any
insert one of the Imaging Configuration CD-ROMs and codes for Special features such as Cutting or Textiles). En-
check the appropriate choices on the menu, as shown in ter the Application code in the top line of the window and
Illustration 2. When you have completed your selections, Special codes beneath it, as shown in Illustration 3. The
click on the Install Checked Items button. software will mark any images you open as “not registered”
• New Imaging Configurations may be installed at any time, until the code is correctly entered. If you experience dif-
but you will need to have the proper Imaging Configura- ficulty at this point, contact Wasatch customer service at
tion available in order to produce accurate images. 800-683-8214.

Page  Wasatch SoftRIP Quickstart Guide

 Quick Start
To begin printing, follow these steps.
(NOTE: The following steps are for composite printing)
1. Select Setup from the Print menu at the top of the main
screen as shown in Illustration 4. This will launch the Set-
up screen shown in Illustration 5.
2. Choose a Printer Model from the drop down menu. This
menu allows you to select a printer brand, and then to
Illustration 4: Choose Setup from the Print menu select your specific printer. There is a displayed default
resolution and inkset on most printer selections. These
settings will be controlled by your Imaging Configura-
tion (see next step). If you plan on using our preset con-
figurations, you will not need to make changes to these
default settings, as selecting an appropriate Imaging
Configuration will make these changes for you.
3. Choose the Imaging Configuration that matches your
printing scenario from the drop down window as shown
in Illustration 6. Imaging Configurations are installed
from the three cds included with the SoftRIP package.
An Imaging Configuration is an important selection that
sets up pre-configured color and print driver settings
that match your inkset, media, output resolution, and
various other printing conditions. When you select the
Illustration 5: Choose a Printer Model
Imaging Configuration menu, you will see a list of all in-
stalled Imaging Configurations that are designed for the
printer model you have selected. The Imaging Configu-
rations Wasatch provides are produced by our techni-
cal staff and allow you to “automatically” optimize your
printer’s performance for specific printing conditions.
Select an Imaging Configuration that matches the job
conditions (ink, media, resolution, etc) from the drop
down menu.
If no Imaging Configuration matches your media: In
some cases acceptable results can be achieved by select-
ing an existing Imaging Configuration that describes a
similar ink/media combination. If, however, you are us-
ing third party inks or you cannot produce acceptable
Illustration 6: Choose an Imaging Configuration results with any of our existing Imaging Configurations
on your media, you will need to create a customized Im-
aging Configuration for your printing conditions.
4. Make your first print: Open a sample job from the File
menu. The preview image will be displayed on the Main
Screen, and the Info, Size and Tile tabs will be added to
the left portion of the screen. RIP and Print or otherwise
process your job by choosing one of the three options at
the bottom of the Print menu as shown in Illustration 7.
Illustration 7: Process the Print Job
You may also select RIP to process the job without print-
ing, or ADD TO RIP QUEUE to add the job to the appropri-
ate window on the Queues screen for later processing.

Page  Wasatch SoftRIP Quickstart Guide

 Color Separations
Color Separations Using SoftRIP
1. Select Printer/Print Mode
In order to begin making color separations with SoftRIP
SP, you must first choose the appropriate printer and one
of the monochrome modes for that printer (Illustration
8). This selection is made in the Printer Model window on
the Set Up screen. To change from the displayed default
print mode to a proper monochrome print mode, click
“Edit” and then “Properties”. Now select one of the mono-
chrome (or mono for some printer models) print modes.
Inkjet printers present complex problems when they are
used for making color separations. Newer models offer
multiple print modes, which affect resolution, speed, Illustration 8: Choose a Monochrome Printer Mode
maximum density, and banding. Some will be suitable
for making process color separations at high lpi, and oth-
ers will be much faster but suitable only for spot color
separations. The proper mode may have to be arrived at
through testing. Refer to the Printers section of online
help or the Printers PDF document on the Applications
CD for more information on specific models.
2. Adjust/Align Print Heads
The alignment of print heads is particularly critical when
making process color separations with PostScript Screens
or Rosettes. Slight misalignments that are acceptable
when printing color with FM screens will cause moire
and banding problems when making films for printing
process color. Refer to the Printers section of online help
or the Printers PDF document on the Applications CD for
more information on specific models. Also see the printer
documentation or check with your reseller.
Illustration 9: Selecting a
3. Select a Screen Method Halftone Method on the
SoftRIP SP offers a range of halftone screening patterns Color Transforms Screen
to be used with color separations:
• PostScript Screens
• Wasatch Precision Rosette Screens
• Precision Stochastic Screens
Halftone screens are selected in the lower right hand side
of the Color Transforms screen, as shown in Illustration 9.
Further controls for individual screen types are accessed
by pressing the Halftone Properties button under the
drop down menu.
4. Select a Workflow
Wasatch SoftRIP supports several alternatives for creat-
ing color separations within a production workflow. The
two most common are:
• Make the separations in the RIP
• Make the separations in your graphic application
Make Separations on RIP: You can send a composite color
image to SoftRIP SP and let the RIP produce four mono-
chrome prints, one each for the Cyan, Magenta, Yellow,

Page  Wasatch SoftRIP Quickstart Guide


Illustration 10: Select ‘Make Separations on RIP’ on the
Printer Properties Control Panel
Illustration 11: Postscript Screen Controls
NOTE: The Imaging Configurations you selected in Step 2
of the QuickStart sequence on page 4 are for controlling
the color attributes of composite graphic images. They do
not apply to the color separation process. If you have been
using the inkjet printer for color output, make sure to se-
lect none Imaging Configurations from the Setup Screen
before performing color separations.
Page 
Color Separations
and Black separations. To use this workflow, check ‘Make
Separations on RIP’ in the Color Separation controls menu,
a version of which is shown in Illustration 10. Color Separa-
tion control menus are launched by clicking on the Proper-
ties button next to the Printer Model window on the Imag-
ing Configurations Screen. Color Separations options will
be enabled when a monochrome mode is selected.
Advantage: you can configure Wasatch SoftRIP to apply an
ICC color profile to your composite color image before it
is separated. This creates some powerful possibilities for
color management of your printing process. Disadvantage:
you are currently confined to CMYK separations only. This
can be limiting in the screen printing business, where the
need for numerous spot-color plates is common.
SUPPORT FOR POSTSCRIPT OVERPRINT: Making separa-
tions on the RIP often requires support for PostScript ‘Over-
print’. Although Adobe documentation recommends very
restricted use of this PostScript feature (Adobe Tech Note
5145), applications such as Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw,
and QuarkXpress use Overprint to specify trapping in com-
posite color files. Please note that this PostScript feature is
confined to CMYK color only. In Wasatch SoftRIP SP, sup-
port for ‘Overprint’ can be specified as part of an Imaging
Configuration. See details in online help.
Separate in Application Software / Plate Color Identifica-
tion: You may also perform color separations prior to send-
ing jobs to the RIP, with all issues involving separation,
color management and trapping handled prior to sending
monochrome “plates” to Wasatch SoftRIP SP. This workflow
is much more flexible. To use this workflow, remove the
check mark from the Make Separations on RIP box.
Wasatch SoftRIP can generally make accurate plate identi-
fications from Corel Draw, Illustrator and Quark Xpress, and
other applications that are consistent in their use of stan-
dard “PlateColor” comments.
When plates are accurately identified your screen speci-
fications for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black plates are
applied properly in your pre-separated jobs. Spot color
plates get whatever settings you’ve specified for “default”
or whatever has been specified in the PlateColor Table Edi-
tor which is discussed below. When identification fails, the
most common effect is for all plates, not just spot plates, to
be screened with the settings for “default”.
In SoftRIP SP, the Print Queue includes a fourth column of
information, called Separation. This feature helps to iden-
tify the plate, and the halftoning choices that SoftRIP has
made for the rendering of that plate.
Wasatch SoftRIP Quickstart Guide
 Halftone Screens
5. Linearize the Printer
Color separation performance on most inkjet printers will
be considerably improved if you linearize the printer by
performing the calibration step described in online help.
Dot-gain and dot-loss are intimately related to half-tone
dot size. For this reason, you must perform separate lin-
earizations for every screen frequency (lpi) that you use.
When performing this calibration, remember to begin
with the “none” Imaging Configuration (Illustration 6).
You need only to calibrate the black channel for the pro-
duction of monochrome films.
6. Halftone Screens: PostScript Screens
Illustration 12: Select ‘Make Separations on RIP’ on the
Many users are comfortable with the level of quality Printer Properties Control Panel
produced by PostScript Screens. Control for PostScript
screen settings is accessible through the Halftone Prop-
erties button on the Color Transforms screen (Illustration
9). This selection brings up the PostScript Screens menu
(Illustration 11).
On this menu, you may enter the desired halftone screen
Angle and Frequency in the windows provided. If you are
unsure what to enter, simply pressing ‘Default’ will gener-
ate some reasonable numbers automatically. The angle is
expressed in degrees, and the frequency is expressed in
lpi (lines per inch). Illustration 13: Advanced Screen Properties
If the Lock Screens box is checked, these settings will be
used regardless of any attempt by PostScript jobs to set
their own screens. If it is not checked, these settings will
be defaults and will only be used on jobs that do not set
their own screens. Checking the Expanded Tonal Resolu-
tion box can provide substantial improvements to image
quality. Selecting the Dot Shape button brings up the
menu shown in Illustration 12. The Euclidean choices are
the ones most typically used.
The elliptical dots produced by the two Euclidean Ellipse
selections are most commonly used for screen printing,
while the Euclidean Round selection is usually more suit-
able for flexography.
Illustration 14: Stochastic Screen Size
Wasatch Precision Rosette Screens
In order to use Precision Rosette Screens, you must enter
the enabling code as shown in Illustration 3 and install 1X
one or more of the screen sets from the Rosette Instal-
lation CD-ROMs. To access the Rosette Screen sets, go
to the Halftone Method selection window on the Color
Transforms Screen and select Advanced Screens as your
halftone method (Illustration 9). Clicking on the Halftone 2X
Properties button will then launch the Wasatch Precision
Rosette Screens properties window shown in Illustration
13 where you will find your selections in the Screen. This
info is followed by the horizontal and vertical device dpi 3X
for which the screen was created.
Ensure that the dpi for which the screen was created
matches the “addressable dpi” shown in the field just be-
Illustration 15: Effects of Dot Size

Page  Wasatch SoftRIP Quickstart Guide

 Halftone Screens

low the list of screens. Failure to match these up will result

in screens that are the wrong lpi, or that are “squashed”
or otherwise incorrect. Note that the addressable dpi
shown here may differ from the dpi indicated on the
main Wasatch list of printers, which is the “equivalent”, or
“effective” dpi advertised by the printer manufacturer.
Swapping Screens: For additional advanced moiré con-
trol, the Swap Screen utility is available on the Advanced NEED HELP?
Screen Properties menu (Illustration 13). In the illustra- CALL TECHNICAL SUPPORT
tion, the Swap Screens control has been set to exchange 800-683-8214
the Black and Magenta screen angles, a very common Have Your Serial Number Ready
choice to reduce moire in reddish images and flesh tones.
To use this control, simply click and drag the screen you
wish to exchange. See the Color Separations section of
online help for a detailed discussion of Precision Rosette
Screens and moiré control.
Hybrid Screens
Wasatch’s Precision Rosette/Stochastic Hybrid Screens
feature eliminates the “fourth screen” or “yellow” moiré.
With it, Wasatch SoftRIP SP users print yellows and flesh
tones without worrying about moiré or changing screen
angles. Prints made with these separations exhibit the
rosette structure that print buyers expect, while using
stochastic screening to eliminate moiré.

333 South 300 East

Salt Lake City, UT 84111 USA
Phone 801.575.8043
Fax 801.575.8075
Toll 800.894.1544

www.wasatch.com • wct@wasatch.com

Page  Wasatch SoftRIP Quickstart Guide