VANCOUVER, British Columbia--May 8, 2003-- Creo Inc. announces that Koenig & Bauer AG (KBA) has become a partner in the Creo Networked Graphic Production(TM) initiative. The Networked Graphic Production Partner Program brings together leading companies that share the goal of developing and delivering high-value, integrated solutions to printers, trade shops and their print buyers. By joining this initiative, the Networked Graphic Production Partners can leverage combined expertise to deliver JDF-based solutions that help customers differentiate themselves and become more efficient and more profitable at every step in the graphic production process -from idea to delivery. Networked Graphic Production Partners are able to offer completely integrated solutions that offer a new level of flexibility and can be configured to fit seamlessly into a customer's diverse production environment with minimal customization. This presents a new level of compatibility across a wide range of vendor systems and products and thus enables these diverse systems to interact and exchange information through JDF standards. Networked Graphic Production Partners have committed to a new level of development and comarketing that will showcase these integrated solutions through many global marketing initiatives. Alon Lumbroso, Managing Director of Creo EMEA, welcomed Koenig & Bauer AG as a Networked Graphic Production partner at KBA's Radebeul, Germany plant. "We are extremely pleased that KBA -one of the world's leading press manufacturers in terms of both technology and commercial success - has opted to actively support Networked Graphic Production. The goals of this initiative will also benefit existing and future customers of KBA." Networked Graphic Production ensures a smooth flow of data and information, provides a collaboration path for printers' customers, accelerates communication and enhances visibility into the entire print production process. In addition to improving productivity and quality, Networked Graphic Production also provides users with more opportunities for profit and growth. "The chance to participate in the Creo Networked Graphic Production Partner Program is a logical step in KBA's efforts to make the complete print production process more rational, more reliable and more economical. Sheet-fed or web, conventional or digital, presses today can no longer exist as islands," explains Klaus Schmidt, Marketing Director of the Koenig & Bauer Group. "Digital real-time communication with upstream and downstream production processes and management information systems is vital if our aim of maximizing automation is to be realized. With its integrative and open character, this initiative is consistent with our corporate strategy. Creo has served KBA for a long time as an innovative and dependable partner for computer-to-plate (CTP) prepress with conventional sheet-fed and web offset presses; KBA Cortina, the new, waterless newspaper web offset press; and the KBA 74 Karat digital press. We intend to further intensify this collaboration and augment it with additional qualified partners, for instance in the industry software sector." Continuing a Successful Partnership KBA's commitment to the Creo Networked Graphic Production Partner Program will help intensify the long-standing partnership that has been built up between the two companies. This cooperation stretches back to the successful joint development of the KBA 74 Karat digital sheet-fed offset press, the prototype of which was first showcased at Imprinta 1997. The close ties linking the two enterprises are clearly visible to all visitors to the prepress demonstration studio at the Customer Center at KBA's sheet-fed offset plant in Radebeul, which is equipped entirely with Creo systems. KBA joins other leading vendors, including Adobe Systems Incorporated, Komori America Corporation, Printcafe Software, Inc. and Xerox Corporation, as members of the Networked Graphic Production Partner Program.