Prinergy Troubleshooting - Outputting hi-res TIFF using G4 compression is slow and produces huge files

Outputting hi-res TIFF using G4 compression is slow and produces huge files


Product		Prinergy 1.0
Platform
Operating system

Error

Symptoms		When writing hi-res 1-bit output (TIFF) to a file using G4 compression, the files are much bigger (for example, 1 sep takes up 10GB) than expected and it takes as much as 7 times longer than expected.

Cause		Normally G4 compression will give the best compression for hi-res 1-bit output. However, G4 compression doesn't compress well with stochastic data; it produces very large files and takes a very long time. Other compression schemes like LZW and RLE handle this case better and don't do any compression if it is not warranted. The stochastic patterns in my output are a result of: 1. FM screening produces stochastic 1-bit patterns 2. The color combiner can produce stochastic bit patterns if the spot its combining has a lot of coverage at or close to 100% tint and if the spot recipe has one or more CMYK components close to 50%. G4 compression is safe only if you have CMYK only, aren't using FM screening, and have no spots that meet the criteria outlined above.

Solution		Use LZW compression. (However, this means that you can't use the Copydot Toolkit, since it doesn't support this type of compression.) Permanent fix:

See also

Keywords		file formats, output

Technical contact(s)		Rob Prior
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