Lyon, October 1, 2007 -- Alwan Color Expertise reports that its formal debut in the American marketplace has been bolstered by the experience and credibility of its founder and president, Elie Khoury .  Khoury, renowned for his landmark work in establishing and progressing color technologies and standards; is the guiding force behind Alwan's rapidly increasing acceptance as a color standardization and control resource of choice. The company received its most recent honor earlier this month at Graph Expo 2007 in Chicago, where Alwan CMYK Optimizer garnered accolades as a selection in the prestigious Must See Ems program. CMYK Optimizer is a key component in a new bundle announced by Alwan, HutchColor, Chromix, and IDEAlliance.
In just a few days, Alwan will bring its award-winning technology and news of an important new partner that will benefit the European marketplace to exhibit A765 at IFRA, scheduled for October 8-11 in Vienna.  The IFRA exhibit follows Alwan's successful North American debut at Graph Expo, where attendees lined up to see demonstrations of the latest version of CMYK Optimizer.
"The true influencers in our industry know Elie's work, and they are referring their own contacts to Alwan, as a result," says Patrick Van Dam, Worldwide Marketing and Sales Director for Alwan. "It made our official debut at Graph Expo much busier than we anticipated. Of course we are very pleased about this."
Prepress, Print, and Color Professionals Crowd Exhibit During Graph Expo
"Traffic at the Graph Expo booth where we were conducting demos was brisk throughout the 4 day event," says Van Dam. "We were very pleased by the welcome we received in Chicago."
In addition to existing customers like Sandy Alexander, which has installed CMYK Optimizer at two client sites thus far; a number of veteran color graphics experts  -- including Don Hutcheson, Chairman of GRACoL and owner of HutchColor, and consultant Jim Rich -- stopped by to see the latest developments from Alwan. Famed color experts Taz Tally, RIT's Michael Riordan, and Pilot Marketing's Dave Hunter gave copies of Alwan products away to selected attendees of their color-oriented seminars at the concurrent conference. Van Dam says that the experts' positive references to Alwan drove many attendees to the booth for demonstrations.
Distribution and Reseller Partners
Several industry distributors and resellers also expressed interest in working with the company, which is already well-known throughout much of Europe. "We're focused on expanding in the Americas, and by the reception we're getting, it looks like we picked the right time to entertain inquiries," Van Dam says.  "We've started with Pilot Marketing and some of their resellers here in North America, and now we're carefully assessing the capabilities of additional, potential partners."
IFRA will Mark Debut of Important ISO 12647 Solution
The IDEALink Curve and Alwan CMYK Optimizer bundle announced at Graph Expo makes G7 proof and press calibration within reach of the majority of, if not all, prepress and print providers. Van Dam says that Europeans will enjoy the benefits of a similar concept in an announcement to be made at IFRA.
IDEALink Curve and Alwan CMYK Optimizer together do the complex color calibration and conversion work needed for standardized print quality and faster production.
"By combining products designed specifically to make G7 proof and press calibration as easy and affordable as possible; prepress and press professionals will be able to achieve printing and proofing consistency easily and at very low cost," says Dianne Kennedy, Vice President Media Technologies for IDEAlliance, the 200-member strong industry association and a center of influence for the industry in the Americas.
"It's been, and will continue to be, a busy year; and we won't have much downtime before we're up and running for drupa," says Khoury. "Alwan is at an exciting, and pivotal, point in its growth; and we are genuinely gratified to be bringing good technology and sound color education to increasing numbers of organizations in the world."