New Printing System Offers Affordable, Innovative Business Color Technology for Entry into Company's Flagship VersaMark Product Family NEW YORK, April 24 - Scitex Digital Printing today introduced its newest digital color printing system, VersaMark Vantage, at On Demand, a major exhibition and conference for printing and publishing professionals. Launched in early April in Europe, Vantage responds to the industry's need for affordable digital color printing using Scitex's innovative color printing technology. The system is fully integrated and upgradeable and priced at under $1 million. The latest model in the VersaMark printing system product family, Vantage is targeted for those users who want the superior performance of 100% variable data, digital color printing, but who need an affordable solution for all types of jobs from commercial, one-to-one direct mailing jobs to personalized transactional applications to on-demand printing for books or catalogs. "Color printing is becoming the norm and it is becoming increasingly affordable for new segments of the commercial printing market," said Gary Smith, vice president, Marketing and Strategic Management, for Scitex Digital Printing. "Now, with the VersaMark Vantage, we have taken a huge step to bring color digital printing within reach of a large and significant portion of the market for which color printing used to mean 'unaffordable.' Not any more. With our new Vantage Printing System, we are offering high-quality, 100 percent variable data color printing with affordable operating costs that make it possible for anyone in the industry to have a competitive edge." VersaMark Printing Systems, first introduced in 1999, feature page-wide, 100 percent variable data printing for black, spot or full process color applications. Characterized by exceptional high speeds and flexibility, VersaMark printing systems offer heavy-duty production (more than 2,000 pages per minute) with a low operation cost per page. VersaMark system configurations allow a choice of controllers and finishing options, 1- or 2-up printing, simplex or duplex, with up to 16 printheads for the ultimate in processing capability. Each system is modular and upgradeable to allow users to add capability to match their business requirements. "Vantage is a VersaMark printing system," continued Smith, "which is an advantage for customers who purchase the system. Its design incorporates our award-winning digital color printing technology packaged with a selection of the most requested configurations, plus additional popular options. In looking at the printing industry, we see many users who are being left out of the digital color printing arena simply because there was no solution that made economic and business sense. If that's been the hesitation for printers, now is the time to take a new look at our VersaMark product family." The standard set of features on the VersaMark Vantage include up to five, nine-inch printheads, a choice of controllers -- either the Data Controller 300 for AFP environments or the System Controller 220 -- with roll-to-roll (standard) finishing or roll-to-fanfold or roll-to-sheet offered as options. Integrated into a sleek design with a small footprint, the VersaMark Vantage has processing speeds up to 325 fpm (800 A4 images per minute). The system is available for immediate shipment.