Philadelphia - EFI, a world leader in customer-focused digital printing innovation, today launched the next-generation Fiery platform that ensures the highest productivity and most vivid color for digital print production engines with new color tools, support of Adobe PDF Print Engine v2 (APPE) for pure PDF workflows, and improved JDF integration. Named Fiery System 9 R2, the new Fiery technology delivers documents faster than ever before, boasting a 35 percent increase in speed over the previous generation platform driven by new software and hardware innovations.

A new Fiery server based on this technology is powering the just announced Xerox Color 800/1000 Presses, on display at ON DEMAND in booth 601. Xerox customers can now deliver more impactful documents with vibrant colors, including complete support of Clear Dry Ink.

"Building on our history of innovation and our mission to deliver high-value solutions to our customers, EFI has made the powerful Fiery technology even more robust to meet today's demanding customer requirements," said Toby Weiss, senior vice president and general manager of Fiery, EFI. "In particular, the Fiery platform now uniquely supports APPE workflows and the Clear Dry Ink option to bring greater flexibility and profit-boosting opportunities to print providers."

System 9 R2 Brings Greater Performance, Color and Workflow Advances
Fiery technology performs flawlessly in demanding production printing environments. The new "Spool-RIP-Print Simultaneously" capability guarantees the Fiery server spools, RIPs and prints a single multiple page job or multiple jobs at the same time to ensure maximum throughput and increase productivity.

Fiery servers maximize the engine's color gamut, delivering the most vivid and vibrant colors. The new Fiery Image Enhance feature improves the output quality of digital photos by applying automatic corrections such as red eye removal and tone adjustments. Its automated workflow saves prepress time by eliminating lengthy image editing and file manipulation tasks to ensure photos look their best.

Fiery Color Profile Suite (CPS), part of the Fiery offering, completes the ability to control color quality at every stage of the printing workflow. Integration of profile making directly into the Fiery driving the Xerox Color 800/1000 Presses reduces time to optimize color quality while lessening the possibility for errors, and provides the ability for color matching of multiple engines in a production environment.

With Fiery System 9 R2, the Adobe PDF Print Engine v2 is now integrated into the Fiery server. Users have a choice of a native PDF end-to-end workflow in conjunction with the conventional PostScript interpreter, which guarantees interoperability and reinforces the fact that Fiery solutions' open platform supports the widest variety of file formats and workflows used in the printing industry today. 

JDF – The Next Level
This release also introduces the next generation of embedded JDF technology resident on the Fiery server, enabling seamless and powerful integration with third-party and EFI workflow applications.Fiery JDF integrated technology enables simplified configuration and integration between production workflows, automates data collection and reduces manual data re-entry which significantly improves production turn-around and shrinks waste.

Customers with supported Fiery controllers can be upgraded to the latest JDF software at no additional cost, available via the Fiery JDF Update Utility. Fiery JDF does not require any additional hardware, making the move to an automated JDF workflow cost effective as well.

Innovative Clear Dry Ink Support for Xerox
This is a launch of "firsts" – the Xerox Color 800/1000 Presses are the first in their class to support Clear Dry Ink, while the Fiery server is the first to support this ground-breaking option.

"By using Clear Dry Ink, print service providers have unlimited ways to produce powerful marketing pieces with the widest range of output options," said Kevin Horey, vice president, Production Product Marketing, Xerox Corporation. "They can turn common color documents into eye-catching, high value documents and expand into specialty pieces such as photo books."

Clear Dry Ink adds a translucent layer over entire pages or individual elements to give a smoother, glossier appearance to the printed output. The Fiery option for Clear Dry Ink gives digital printers a competitive edge by offering their customers innovative ways to communicate with high impact pieces. Fiery uniquely supports the classic Clear Dry Ink workflow while also including automatic job element identification for things like spot color elements (such as logos), so there is no need to re-program the job for Clear Dry Ink application. Clear Dry Ink has applications across industries and markets and turns common applications into higher value pieces. For example, by adding security elements to tickets, coupons and vouchers or eye catching details to photos and package designs.