Help with older imagesetter with Win7

Question

I have an AGFA SelectSet Avantra 25 imagesetter. It is connected to a windows 2000 machine via SCSI. This Win2k machine is our RIP station. The RIP station is networked. The RIP station communicates with the imagesetter perfectly. The RIP software (EagleRIP) makes the imagesetter available as a shared printer.

Previously, I had a Windows XP machine that I used as a work station. The XP machine was on the network, and used the imagestter over the network. I simply used the print dialog from Illustrator or Photoshop, and my art would be output from the imagesetter.

The Windows XP machine can't keep up anymore. From what I can see, the machine was put in when CS5 was still current, and it struggles some even with that.

So we got a new machine. Windows 7 64b, 32G of RAM, nice little machine.

The trouble is that I cannot add the RIP station's shared printer - the imagesetter. My new hardware is for naught if I can't output art!

I have tried the Add Printer Wizard, Local Port, \\RIPstation\sharedprinter, and everything else I can find on the Internet, and these forums. I believe that my trouble is that I don't have a driver. Whomever preceded me apparently did not take the trouble to retain this. I am also reading that Win7 being 64bit isn't helping either.

My question, then, is this. Is there anyone that knows anything about this, or thinks they can help me? It seems like I ought to be able to use the RIP station to do the printing heavy lifting. But Win7 won't have it. I need to be able to use the Print dialog from Illustrator, et al, and leverage all the settings and configurations available therefrom.

Thank you for looking at this.

Dov Isaacs · Accepted Answer

Hi SpenserB,There is not much we can do to help you here. As you are quite aware, the Agfa PostScript-based product you are referring to is probably about at least 12 to 15 years old. Current RIPs from Agra are typically PDF direct, no PostScript involved at all – you directly submit the PDF file (saved from Illustrator as a PDF/X-4 file) to the RIP.The problem is that with Windows, Microsoft distributes drivers for only a small subset of printer models from some printer / RIP manufacturers. For PostScript printers, this usually means an installer that associates the printer's PPD file with a new instance of the Microsoft PSCRIPT5.DLL printer driver with possibly some printer vendor customization plug-ins. Adobe does not distribute any PostScript drivers!In your particular situation, you need to contact Agfa and see whether they have a driver installer that is compatible with Windows 7 x64. Their website is for the United States is at Agfa Graphics US . Doing a search on that website does not yield any results for this device or drivers for same, but it does provide contact information for you to reach out to Agfa to get assistance directly from them. - Dov

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded