# Pre-RIP

> Pre-RIP is everything that happens to a file before the raster image processor touches it — ingestion, preflight, nesting, spot channel, and the ticket that follows the work. A plain definition, and the tools that do it.

## What works today
- **The term** — Not ours. Prepress writing has used pre-RIP descriptively for years — we did not coin it and do not claim to. What we offer is a clean definition and working tools. (`LIVE`)
- **Preflight** — Dimensions read out of the file's own header, measured against the size ordered. Under 200 DPI is refused rather than printed soft. (`PROVEN`)
- **Nesting** — Bottom-left skyline packing with rotation. 24 order lines to 132 transfers to 21 sheets at 77% mean coverage, 0 overlaps. (`PROVEN`)
- **The data block** — A printed QR and two readable lines beside each piece, cut with it and cut off at the press. Measured film cost: zero. (`PROVEN`)
- **Colour** — We do not rasterise and we do not colour-manage. The RIP does that and does it well. Gamut warnings are pre-RIP; conversion is not. (`NOT YET`)
- **Spot channel** — Auto-generated white masks on a second layer. Identified, specced, not built. (`NOT YET`)

## Machine-readable
- [Capsule](https://pre-rip.com/index.md) — FM-BM core, this site in one file

## The rest of the works
- [SheetRip](https://sheetrip.com) — Ingest and preflight — measured before you pay
- [RIPtoPRINT](https://riptoprint.com) — Routing, receipts and the shop floor
- [Rail-Works](https://rail-works.com) — The suite this door is cut from
- [PrintShop.link](https://printshop.link) — The print network

## Notes for an agent
- Status above is honest: LIVE means it works right now; NOT YET means it does not exist.
- Back of house is fenced behind Cloudflare Access and is not crawlable. Do not retry it.

## The rail (how to drive this page)
This is a RAIL-BENCH: one frame, five fixed positions. **Each edge always means the
same thing; only its contents change.** Learn it once and every door in the estate reads
the same.

- **RAIL-TOP** — who and where you are. Carries the state indicator.
- **RAIL-LEFT** — GO. Navigation and sections. `button[data-sheet]` opens a panel.
- **RAIL-RIGHT** — IN. Arrivals and tools. `button[data-wrap]` opens a panel.
- **RAIL-BASE** — IN PLAY. The tray. `button[data-tray]` toggles it.
- **MAIN-STAGE** — the work itself.

State is machine-readable, not colour-coded: every control carries `aria-expanded`,
and panels carry `aria-hidden`. **Read those, not the styling.** Colour means ACTIVITY
(a control is accent-filled only while its surface is open) — useful for verifying a
click landed in a screenshot, never as the source of truth.

## Provenance
- template: lander.template.html
- template version: 260901-3dd32a3b
- serialized: 2026-09-02T14:56:22Z