# ObscuraRIP Cheap Barebones RIP Software For DTG and DTF Printing Beginning Development Soon



## Johnf1nk (Jan 15, 2021)

Hello,

I've been researching DTG/DTF printing for about 2 months now and find it facinating and am really interested in these garment printing technologies. The only issue I have with the entire thing is the prices companies place on their RIP softwares and that they expect and know you are going to have to choose someones software eventually and pay some kind of rediculous price for what I have learned is actually fairly simple software. 

I saw a project that started on this forum years back called GutenRIP and I read all the way through the forum thread which feels more like a waste of time as they were hit and miss and for what they were saying they were knowlegeable in it's hard to understand how they didn't actually write a RIP and have it done by the end of the thread.

At any rate it inspired me to work out the details and develope a RIP of my own for the company I'm forming that provides inexpensive DTG/DTF printing solutions large and small from small scale consumer hobbyiest desktop printing systems to larger scale prosumer and professional grade printing solutions, supplies, information resources, etc. Well the RIP will be perhaps the greatest offering from my company, as I said I want a super inexpensive RIP out there that performs as well as any of the others certainly as well as AcroRIP, and only add features as they are requested granted at some point I will draw a line and split the RIP into a Basic and Pro version.

So, will take the information I have learned from the GutenPrint/GutenRIP projects and what I have learned about epsons printer commands and I will slowly write up ObscuraRIP and try to get me a couple beta testers to test it out and give me feedback.

Initially the first version of ObscuraRIP will be very simple you will open a png file and select the page size and set some basic page settings and set the output values for each color channel with the option to have custom cartridge configurations with all that information it will print out the selected image with a white backing for DTF or a white base for DTG. I currently have a pretty good idea on how to do the single pass printing to print both colors and white at once, and I think I have a pretty good idea how to get good dense ink output which was an issue the GutenRIP guys got stuck on and stayed stuck for about a year. I've been looking over Epson printer specifications all morning and I think I pretty much got it figured out, I just need to freshen up on my coding and and make a bunch of notes as I think of them and this project should truck along pretty quickly. This this is effectively my job not just a hobby I should make pretty regular progress on it.

Eventually it will be pretty much an AcroRIP clone, mean from the looks of the software it does what it needs to do and isn't functionally missing anything that I am aware of. It wouldn't be the worst thing to want to be at least that good of a RIP software.

While I'mm getting prepared to do this, does anyone have any qustions, comments or, suggestions?


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## into the T (Aug 22, 2015)

do you know the meaning of obscure?

noun: not clear to the understanding; hard to perceive:
verb: to conceal or conceal by confusing

no offense, but that is not a wise choice for the name
english speakers will automatically associate 'obscura' with the closest word they may have a little association with, obscure

before you embark on this journey, change the name

(not many people will associate obscura with camera obscura)


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## transp (Oct 7, 2009)

Johnf1nk said:


> Hello,
> 
> I've been researching DTG/DTF printing for about 2 months now and find it facinating and am really interested in these garment printing technologies. The only issue I have with the entire thing is the prices companies place on their RIP softwares and that they expect and know you are going to have to choose someones software eventually and pay some kind of rediculous price for what I have learned is actually fairly simple software.
> 
> ...


Hello, good idea, tell me, please, if you are ready.


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## TABOB (Feb 13, 2018)

Johnf1nk said:


> The only issue I have with the entire thing is the prices companies place on their RIP softwares and that they expect and know you are going to have to choose someones software eventually and pay some kind of rediculous price for what I have learned is actually fairly simple software.


Well you are right... It is relatively simple software, but
a) not so many people have the required knowledge.
b) Paying $400 for the convenience of not having to do it yourself is not really that bad.

I had a look at it myself a few years back and got stuck in two areas.
1. Printing the white and color in a single pass with an inkjet printer.
2. Desktop laser printers have difficulty processing large amount of data.
The first is not an issue for laser printers because (they print in layers, one color per layer), and the second is not an issue for inkjet printers (they print in rows and can pause waiting for data between rows).

One thing I'm really skeptical about is the implementation of point 1 above in printers with a single print-head.
The only way to do it is by using the top half of the print head for the white channels and the bottom half for CMYK.
That's basically using only half the nozzles available per channel and will substantially reduce the life of the print-head. 
Dual print-head DTG printers don't have this problem because the white print-head is positioned ahead of the CMYK one.
The same apply to DTF printers, but of course the position of the print-heads is reversed (CMYK first).


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## TXCImaging (Jun 13, 2019)

One Big Thing to help solve for, especially with DTF becoming so much more popular, is how to properly print fades, gradients, and glows accurately. I use an epson F2100 and Garment Creator (probably the bigger issue) and have never been able to get faded or gradient colors to not be washed out with a layer of white ink underneath.


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