Midcomp, the official distributor in southern Africa of PosterJet raster image processing (RIP) software has announced the latest version - PosterJet 5.6.

There are two type of RIP solutions. The first is a hardware solution where the supplier sells a computer where the processing of the RIP is done within the 'firmware' of the machine. This solution, up until about five years ago, had been the most common of solutions, however, it has always been the most costly and upgrade restricting of the two. The second is the software solution. This solution allows the user to load the RIP application onto any of their existing hardware and to upgrade the software via software upgrades quite easily and also upgrade the hardware as and when the technology improves in performance. In doing this, the performance of the RIP increases, thus increasing their productivity.

PosterJet is primarily aimed at the graphic industry for doing high quality photographic posters. However, Midcomp has found that there is a growing need in the CAD and GIS market for software like PosterJet, whereby the user requires to print file sizes ranging from 500 MB to over 1 GB in size.

The processing of these files could take on just over two hours. This is where PosterJet comes in. The new software allows the same image to be processed in approximately 30 min*. The key to PosterJet speed is its ability to process and print at the same time, which means that it would have completed up to four print jobs of A0 size in the same time the printer would have taken to only process.

PosterJet is able to run on either the Windows or Mac platforms, giving the user more versatility on preference of hardware. The user is also able to use PosterJet as a standalone or as a server version, with no additional client licence costs. The user is able to link an unlimited amount of 'client' workstations to the PosterJet server, allowing the graphic artists, the production department and CAD users to use the software all at the same time.

The current version of PosterJet 5.6 is able to print the complete range of Hewlett-Packard Designjet printers, Encad Pro series, Epson 9000 and the Kodak Large Format Printers. In the not too distant future, PosterJet will be able to drive two different types of printer simultaneously.

To arrange a demonstration copy of the software, contact Midcomp on (011) 789 1222 or sales@midcomp.co.za

*Tests were performed on PIII/500, 128 Mbyte RAM, NT4.