PUBLICATION CENTER

A: ONYX recently made it a lot easier to do this with its Profile Download Client. Here’s how it works, plus tips on importing profiles from media manufacturers’ websites into ONYX.

By Justin Sherry

If it’s been a while since you’ve checked out which media profiles are available from ONYX, you may be in for a surprise on your next visit to their site. While the new website is much easier to navigate than its predecessor, ONYX has also significantly streamlined the once painful method for acquiring output profiles for your printer.

The new tool from ONYX that makes it all possible is called the ONYX Profile Download Client. You can download the client here, or from the Onyx website, which is www.onyxgfx.com.

Figure 1

After you download the ONYX Profile Download Client, and breeze through the effortless installation, it’s ready to use. The first time you launch the Client, it will be very clear just how easy it is to download the latest media profiles for all of your printers. Finding what you want is as easy as selecting your Printer Brand, Printer Model, and Profile Provider (there may be more than one). See Figure 1.

After selecting your Profile Provider, you will see one or several different Configurations. Next to each Configuration, you will see a check box, and to the left of that, a symbol that consists of a circle with a black horizontal line.

If you click on the check box and click the Download Now button, you will download all of the profiles within the selected Configuration. If you click on the symbol to the left of the check box, it will collapse and display all of the media profiles available for download within that Configuration.

With the Configuration collapsed, you may choose each individual media profile within the profile you would like to download. Once you have finished selecting all of the individual profiles you want to download, click the Download Now button. When you click the Download Now button, the ONYX Profile Download Client compiles all of the selected profiles, along with the current media profiles into a Printer Install file or, PrnInst file.

To install the newly downloaded media profiles into ONYX:

1. Shut down the ONYX RIP Queue.

2. Once the RIP has shut down, double-click on the newly downloaded .PrnInst file.

3. A screen comes up asking you to install a new printer. Check the appropriate check box next to the printer and click the Install button.

4. A new window opens asking if you would like to install a new printer or update a printer. Select Update Printer, then choose the option called Append Media.

5. Under Append Media there are three sub-options: Ignore Duplicates, Overwrite Duplicates, and Rename Media (see Figure 2). If you have made any wanted changes to the existing profiles you have in your media library, choose Ignore Duplicates, so the existing profiles remain unchanged. If you have altered some of the original profiles and are getting less than optimal results, choose Overwrite Duplicates to reset them back to their original state. Simply ignore the last option called Rename Media.

Figure 2

Now your new profiles are ready to use. Simply re-launch ONYX, highlight the printer at the top of the RIP Queue, and select the Change button. Click on the Configuration drop-down and select the Configuration that corresponds with the downloaded profiles. Your new profiles are now visible in the Media dropdown.

While there are thousands of profiles available on ONYX’s website, some profiles are hosted exclusively on different media manufacturer’s websites, like http://www.lexjet.com/lexjet/profiles_list.asp. If you download profiles from a third-party website, you may find the file type is an .oml or ONYX Media Library. The process of importing these profiles is different from those contained within the .PrnInst file.

To import an oml file, highlight the printer in the RIP Queue and click the Configure Printer button. In the Configure Printer menu, select the media tab and click the Import button. In the browser that appears, click on the dropdown labeled “Files of Type” at the bottom and select Media Library Files (*.OML), browse to the OML file, and click the Open button. Upon clicking the OK button and returning to the RIP Queue, the new media profiles are installed and ready to use (see Figure 3).

Figure 3