Raster image processor

The input can also be or include bitmaps of higher or lower resolution than the output device, which the RIP resizes using an image scaling algorithm.

Originally a RIP was a rack of electronic hardware which received the page description via some interface (e.g. RS-232) and generated a "hardware bitmap output" which was used to enable or disable each pixel on a real-time output device such as a laser printer, an optical film recorder, computer to film, or computer to plate.

A RIP can be implemented as a software module on a general-purpose computer, or as a firmware program executed on a microprocessor inside a printer.

Ghostscript, GhostPCL, and ColorBurst's Overdrive (for macOS) are examples of software RIPs.

Earlier RIPs retained backward compatibility with phototypesetters/photosetters, so they supported the older languages.