FREMONT, Calif. - Electronics For Imaging, Inc. has partnered with OKI Data Americas to bring to market an EFI™ Fiery® digital front end (DFE) driving OKI's leading-edge C900 Series digital production color printers for the graphic arts and specialty printing markets.

The new Fiery C9 Server drives six models from the C900 Series Multimedia Production Platform. These OKI printers provide a low cost of entry and deliver high value output for graphic designers and print shops seeking to expand print applications across a wide variety of media sizes, types and thicknesses. Customers can now take advantage of an industry-leading Fiery-powered workflow that delivers advanced job and color management capabilities and outstanding performance. The Fiery C9 DFE also includes support for OKI's clear and white toners found in the C941 and white toner found in the C942 leveraging these printers' unmatched capabilities to:

• Apply clear toner to selected design elements to make them pop, or coat the entire page for a high-gloss finish
• Produce print jobs that incorporate crisp white toner, as a spot color, or intelligently apply white under CMYK to create captivating high-contrast color graphics on dark media
• Leverage robust variable-data support, combined with Fiery specialty color features, to apply white or clear toner to envelopes to affordably create sophisticated, attention-demanding mailings  
• Produce high-impact prints using an unprecedented range of specialized media types such as colored media, transparent film, magnetic media, synthetic substrates, extra-heavy card stock, and more
• Offer a wide range of higher-value printed products varying from 3" x 5" cards all the way to 13" x 52" banners.

"OKI Data Americas is excited to offer advanced EFI Fiery technology to support our expanding line of C900 Series professional series digital color printers," said Fabrizio Soto, Vice President, Marketing — Production Printing and Wide Format Products for OKI Data Americas. "The C931 from OKI with the EFI Fiery C9 Server delivers one of the most price-competitive, Fiery Driven™ production systems on the market. Together with OKI's patented printing technology within revolutionary C900 Series devices, the complementary Fiery C9 server provides even greater advantages and enhancements to create professional-quality output — whether in-house or within the print for pay arena."

"This new Fiery offering brings a high-value, performance-enhancing set of features like specialty-color support, advanced job and color management, and workflow integration capabilities that help OKI customers expand their unique print offerings using a 5th color on select models and various types of media," said John Henze, vice president of marketing, EFI Fiery.

Industry-leading functionality
More than just a DFE, Fiery technology is known for its many industry-leading capabilities, including:

• Consistent job management across all Fiery Driven™ printing devices using the latest version of EFI Fiery Command WorkStation®, the powerful, intuitive job management interface that lets users manage their printers locally or remotely from a single user interface.
• Best-in-class color management tools with Fiery Spot-On™ for reproducing and adjusting critical must-match spot colors and Image Enhance Visual Editor for providing time-saving image corrections within print jobs, such as red-eye, sharpness, contrast, saturation without the need to go back to edit the original document.
• Advanced color and file processing functionality with the optional Fiery Graphic Arts Package, Premium Edition that provides powerful prepress features to print the job right the first time. Users can also produce color-critical jobs with confidence and achieve consistent color precision with the optional Fiery Color Profiler Suite and ES-2000 spectrophotometer.
• Workflow automation tools such as Fiery Hot Folders, Virtual Printers and server presets that come standard with the Fiery C9 Server and increase operational efficiency by automating a variety of processes and creating custom workflows.
• Short-run, personalized printing, a high-demand service that the new Fiery C9 Server facilitates through its support of leading variable-data printing (VDP) industry standards, with additional, included capabilities such as Fiery FreeForm™, an entry-level VDP product that does not require specialized software applications.

The new Fiery DFE for the OKI C931e, C931DP, C941e, C941DP, C942 and C942DP digital color printers is available immediately from OKI Data Americas. For more information about Fiery Driven digital print production, please visit www.efi.com or call +1 800-875-7117. For more information about OKI printing technology and the C900 Series digital production printers, visit www.okidata.com.