FOSTER CITY, Calif. – May 19, 2008 – EFI, the world leader in customer-focused digital printing innovation, today announced earning PODi (Print on Demand Initiative)'s newest interoperability certification, an achievement that further reinforces the company's drive to advance variable data printing (VDP) technology. EFI's Fiery digital print servers readily passed stringent new PPML (Personalized Print Markup Language) testing. The certification ensures that Fiery customers have the highest possible levels of throughput and productivity when printing personalized material on demand at high volume. EFI will showcase its Fiery-driven Variable Data Printing workflow at drupa, stand C01, Hall 5 (May 29 - June 11, 2008, Dusseldorf, Germany), with a demonstration that shows customers how to ensure compatibility in all VDP workflows.

Among EFI's customers benefiting from the Fiery, which offers the industry's most open, powerful VDP workflow capability, is Honolulu-based Boomerang Hawaii. Combining the best of digital printing and personalization software, Boomerang Hawaii provides integrated, innovative solutions for direct marketing using web-to-print and print-to-web technologies. "Using the Fiery is like second nature to us, and EFI delivers the industry's most advanced VDP and color features – invaluable as we create visually compelling personalized pieces," said Boomerang Operations Director Jaison VanDenover, who is among the world's 15 million Fiery users. Boomerang's Fiery drive its Xerox iGen3 Digital Production Press.

"With EFI VDP technology, newly certified by PODi, our customers are able to add tremendous value to their service, with personalized, one-to-one marketing campaigns," added Kathy Wilson, senior director of product marketing and strategy, EFI. "Their customers realize the increased response rates of these engaging campaigns and are willing to pay a premium for that impact. We're constantly advancing our VDP offering to help our customers take advantage of this value-added capability that improves their competitiveness and profitability."

In a recent study, industry research firm InfoTrends predicted 24.8 percent CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) for the Print on Demand Variable Data Market through 2010.  PPML is an open, interoperable, device-independent XML (extensible markup language)-based standard that enables the widespread use of personalized print applications in high volumes. The new certification provides a means for PPML "producers" to confirm that output from their products is compatible with PPML "consumer" devices, such as the EFI Fiery platform.  Certification boosts PPML effectiveness by ensuring VDP workflow interoperability. This certification follows EFI's having achieved 100 percent success across PODi's PPML test suite, published last year.

"For PPML to work smoothly, producers and consumers must focus on the correct way to implement it. EFI is among the first to earn the new certification PODi has developed as a methodology to ensure companies' products fully comply with the documented standard," said Rab Govil, president of PODi. "EFI Fiery customers have the security of knowing that interoperability has been fully tested, and their Fiery-driven PPML workflow will perform as expected today, and in the future."

EFI's work with PODi is an element of the company's VDP Partner Program wherein EFI also collaborates with leading personalization software and hardware vendors to ensure the Fiery's superior workflow. In addition to testing a wide variety of product combinations EFI ensures an open Fiery platform by supporting the Xerox VIPP (Variable-data Intelligent PostScript Printware)  and a host of legacy proprietary languages, in addition to the Fiery FreeForm  VDP language and PPML industry standard. The Fiery server readily integrates into existing workflows and delivers consistency regardless of whether the job is VDP or non-VDP. The EFI Fiery platform also offers unparalleled color quality and production efficiency to enable customers to execute compelling personalized marketing programs.

Additionally, because the Internet is an easy way for EFI customers to work with their customers on one-to-one marketing projects, VDP is incorporated into EFI's web-to-print solutions, including Digital StoreFront and the PrinterSite family of products. EFI is a reseller of technology from XMPie, a standalone business unit of Xerox, as well as an OEM, integrating XMPie personalization technology directly into its line of web-to-print solutions to further help customers produce powerfully-personalized, visually-rich one-to-one communications. EFI's web-to-print solutions integrate with EFI Fiery and Print MIS solutions, creating an efficient, profitable way for EFI customers to handle the increased business VDP makes possible.

To help customers immediately get started with VDP, EFI offers the Fiery FreeForm Kit, which includes examples they can use to show their customers what is possible with personalized marketing campaigns. The examples may be edited to use as the basis for VDP jobs. Also including sample databases and instructions, the Fiery FreeForm Kit offers an ideal way for customers to learn how VDP works. Additionally, EFI offers a free tutorial booklet, "The ABC's of VDP" to explain the basics. EFI's VDP customer success stories, including Boomerang Hawaii's, are published at efi.com, and several EFI VDP case studies are included in PODi's Best Practices in Digital Print database.

Availability

Fiery solutions and Digital StoreFront are sold through EFI's OEM partners. The PrinterSite family of products is available directly from EFI.

More information regarding EFI VDP solutions is available at www.efi.com/products/production/fiery/other/vdp/ and at 800-875-7117.