ProductionSuite RIP speed variants

So there are 4 steps that can possibly take time:

1. Submitting the job from Editor to RIP.
   You can see a progress bar appearing in Editor while the job gets submitted from LayoutTool to RIP. As this communication is bidirectional, that bar shows as long as the transfer of the file into RIP takes. Time is specified by combined size of all page elements used in the document in Editor and the network throughput speed between Editor and RIP computers.
2. Preparing the PMM in RIP (happens only if needed)
   If a particular PMM or variant (such as GRACoL with “EcoSave (CMYK)”) has not been used previously for a processing, then the RIP will generate that particular variant and add it into the existing PMM. This can take from 30 seconds to 5 minutes depending on source and destination color spaces and CPU performance. You’ll see in RIP no progressive preview and the progress bar will frequently jump to 0% before continuing. Once that PMM variant is calculated and added into the PMM this step will not occur again for that particular variant.
3. Job processing in RIP
   this is RIP speed and what we would investigate if you send us a report with “slow rip speed”. It is how fast the progress bar moves in the “processing” column of RIP and if you have the preview enabled also how fast or slow the preview builds up.
   This is determined by CPU speed on the RIP, HDD speed on the RIP, complexity of the job and printer output resolution and number of output channels. Network speed has nothing to do with that.
4. Job submitting to printer
   this you can see as a progress bar in the PRINTING column of RIP and is purely the network speed between RIP computer and printer. Obviously the it cannot transfer faster than the job can be ripped, but the progress bar in that column should normally stay maxed out. If the progress bar drops or starts showing times exceeding 5 or 10 seconds then you have a network bottleneck between RIP and printer.
   We have seen situations where the PROCESSING progress bar completely finished and the PRINTING progress bar showed MINUTES to go. In that case the network connection of the printer is the problem and should be investigated / upgraded if possible. Please check with your printer manufacturer if that is the case.