ArtSystems is offering three versions of the RIP, including Onyx RipCentre Epson Edition, Onyx PosterShop and Onyx ProductionHouse. Of the three RIPs the Onyx RipCentre Epson Edition is the only one to have been priced at a discount, while ArtSystems has looked to "add value" to the other two by bundling some £1,200 of extras for free.

These include an additional RIP enging to allow two files to be processed simultaneously, one year's membership to the Onyx Advantage upgrade and update programme, and one day's RIP operator training at the ArtSystems Academy in Nottingham.

Pricing for the Onyx RipCentre Epson Edition is £1,070, a discount of around 25% on the standard RipCentre enabled by the fact it only has drivers tol support the SureColor 30600, the four-colour SC 50600 and the eight-colour SC 70600, rather than the full set of drivers that comes with the standard edition.

Onyx PosterShop costs from around £2,500 and can run up to two printers at once, while ProductionHouse costs from £4,000 and can drive up to four printers simultaneously.

Andrew Edwards, Sign & Display divisional manager, ArtSystems, said: "To get the most from your new Epson, anything less than a good quality RIP is a false economy.

"The SureColor has been priced aggressively and there is a danger the people will think it's a value printer and therefore they only need a value RIP, but the problem with that is that it will compromise the image quality if you go for budget output software.

"The Onyx RIP provides high quality output and comes with a large profile library - we would always advise people to ensure that they are not limiting the output quality of the printer by the value of the software."