Go to EFI’s website and what do you see? The left two-thirds of the site – the most "valuable" territory – is dedicated to servers (complete with picture), proofing and color management tools. A commercial printer, upon arriving at the site, might feel like a fish out of water. So, he or she might ask, "What’s here for me?"

EFI’s current strategy focuses on three key areas - professional printing, corporate printing, and mobile printing.

The long-term objective is to provide the print professional, both in-plant and commercial printers, a full suite of applications that will make their work faster and more efficient, ultimately helping them to make their customers happier. Every component within the suite is standalone, so the print professional only acquires the components they need, but each component will interact seamlessly with the others.

Variable data applications are finally gaining traction, and EFI plans to play a leadership role there too. The goal is to enable more users to easily apply one-to-one marketing by combining all capabilities seamlessly.

Proofing is an important component for professional printers, and EFI solutions will provide the ability to design, proof, reprint, and collaborate with end users, that is, end-to-end capability throughout the shop workflow.

As print moves from a commodity to a service – especially in higher value-add propositions – technology can take more of the work out of the process for the print buyer.

EFI’s strategic initiatives include:
- Identifying new applications for core imaging technology
- Moving to complete end-to-end solutions to increase printing productivity, enhance customer satisfaction and expand the market for digital printing by digitizing the print manufacturing process.
- Leveraging significant research and development investment to expand technological expertise into complementary markets
- Expanding leadership through acquisitions
- Producing products and solutions for the professional printer

Professional Printing Products and Solutions

Fiery
EFI’s Fiery technology provides the digital printing industry with color management and networking technology through powerful servers and embedded controllers.

Fiery Graphic Arts Package
Developed to address the specific requirements of graphic arts professionals, the Fiery Graphics Arts Package is a set of tools to achieve accurate color and print quality. Inherent in the package are industry standards, the ability to simulate the characteristics of other output processes, and enhanced workflow.

Benefits of the Graphics Arts Package include:
- More accurate proofing and simulation of final offset printing through halftone screening
- Better representation of both color and page layouts with accurate on-screen previews of print jobs
- The ability to combine multiple-plate PostScript separations regardless of the applications used to create them
- Modifying spot colors by editing PANTONE tables and defining custom colors
- Automating workflow activities such as job ticketing and imposition
- Automatic correction of mis-registration for composite or separate documents through auto-trapping
- Accurate proofing of print jobs on the target paper stock through paper simulation
- Enhanced calibration method, which uses two reference targets and analyzes 60 measurements per color

Variable Data Printing (VDP) Solution
EFI’s VDP Solution is compatible with an array of VDP languages, including EFI Fiery FreeForm 2, PPML and other proprietary existing languages. Also offered are two Fiery optimized front-end applications, Atlas PrintShop Mail - Fiery Version and PageFlex Persona—Fiery Version, to deliver the complete variable data production workflow.

EFI’s Fast Merge technology, integrated into the Fiery Q4000, accelerates merging variable and global objects and processing of multiple images.

The VDP Resource Manager stores and manages reusable objects and images, already RIPped, on connected Fiery servers.

Best Prepress Software
EFI’s Best print proofing software allows professional printers to accurately and affordably proof color documents before sending them to an offset printing press.

Best Designer Edition
Allows printing directly from QuarkXPress, InDesign, PageMaker etc., supports the most popular desktop printers, and delivers color-accurate proofs through desktop printer screens.

As a stand-alone solution for designers and small agencies, the Best Designer Edition offers:
- ICC Color Management
- On-screen preview
- Reference profiles for selected printing methods like offset or newspaper printing already included
- Paper profiles for Best media and printer manufacturer's paper already included - no need for you to calibrate yourself!
- Support for Best Remoteproof!, which creates and processes Best Remoteproof Containers for the exchange of digital proofs (image and settings data) electronically with other users of a Remoteproof-capable Best solution.

Best Colorproof
A contone proofing system for the production environment combines three components into a digital proofing solution:

- PostScript-RIP
- Integrated ICC color management
- Production and nesting tools (Rotating, cropping, scaling, tiling...)
- Best Colorproof is ready for Best Remoteproof — it imports and exports Best Remoteproof containers with PDF and JDF data.
- Two on-screen previews: fast preview and printing preview (color-accurate representation of the entire printing page)
- HKS spot color support included, further spot colors can be added manually.
- Reference profiles for selected printing methods such as offset or newspaper printing already included
- Paper profiles for Best media and printer manufacturer's paper already included

Best Screenproof
A high-end solution that produces color-accurate proofs using the original print screen, making possible moirés visible.

- Proofs CTP or typesetter RIP data (Tiff G3/G4, Packbit, LZW, Huffman-compressed, uncompressed, Presstek)
- Many standard profiles included
- ICC-compatible color management while maintaining the original screening data
- HKS spot color support included, further spot colors can be added manually
- Includes full functionality of Best Colorproof, an integrated RIP that can also produce contone proofs

Velocity
EFI’s Velocity Workflow Software enhances printing productivity across the production printing job cycle, from prepress activities to digital print production.

Velocity OneFlow introduces advanced digital prepress capabilities in a PDF-based prepress workflow to fit the needs of small to mid-size print shops, trade shops, and corporate in-house operations.

Velocity OneFlow creates customized workflows using an intuitive graphical user interface:
- Integrates tools to convert files to PDF, preflight, trap, impose, and screen.
- Its RIP integrates EFI Fiery ColorWise - EFI’s color management system.
- Provide a complete Normalized Once Rip Many "NORM" workflow
- Provides true "RIP Once Output Many" (ROOM) architecture for proofing on wide format inkjet printers and produces plates and film to be used in final press runs.
- Can be integrated into any computer-to-plate, computer-to-film, direct imaging, or digital printing environment.

Velocity Balance workflow enables up to twelve printers to appear as a single "virtual" printer group on a network. The workflow includes features such as load balancing, splitting of color and black-and-white pages with automated collation and hot folder job submission. Also provides the ability to manage printers of multiple brands from a consistent interface.

Feature highlights include:
- Smart splitting of a single "long job" across more than one print engine
- Smart splitting of color from black-and-white pages in the same document
- Smart routing ensures that the print job is routed to the best available print engine, based on the number of pages and other characteristics
- "Redirect on error" feature sends a job to an alternate printer if the current printer is out of paper or toner, or if there is a paper jam
- Automatically send certain types of jobs to specific printers, based on specified criteria such as media type, media size, and different TCP/IP protocol
- Manage, edit, and print documents with multiple page sizes can now be managed
- Relies on the printing industry’s standard formats, PS and PDF, for workflow processing
- Velocity Balance supports EFI’s Fiery FreeForm variable data print stream

Velocity Build, a complement to the features of Velocity Balance, enables full document preparation for color and black-and-white documents - including previewing documents, merging between scanned and digital documents, editing, and imposition. Can produce imposed documents, such as booklets, brochures, and calendars. For complex jobs that require tab insertion and printing, creates a library and stores different styles of tabs as templates for on-demand printing and insertion.

Velocity Estimate, an optional module that works with Velocity Balance, provides the means to approximate the costs of individual print jobs, as well as track larger price patterns. Velocity Estimate also offers estimates for turnaround time, and a quotation log for additional trend analysis.

Feature highlights:
- Precise print job cost calculation
- Set-up, toner, media, finishing, margin, overhead, and "click" charge estimates
- Allows for turnaround time estimates
- Includes a Quotation log, including database export features

Velocity Scan is a scanning module for production environments to import paper documents into a digital production workflow. Documents can be scanned in via a TWAIN-compliant scanner, automatically converted to PDF format for editing, and sent to the Velocity Balance server for electronic copying and processing. Scans can also be imported into Velocity Build for merging and imposition with other digital documents. Also offered is integrated access to many third party pixel-editing applications.


Wireless Printing Solutions

PrintMe
PrintMe offers two solutions to serve the growing mobile printing market. PrintMe Networks is comprehensive mobile printing solutions that integrate mobile printing with existing heterogeneous public networks of printers and mobile devices. PrintMe Enterprise enables mobile employees to print documents, e-mail and attachments from mobile devices to any network printer in the enterprise, or to any Fax machine outside the enterprise.

Among the features of PrintMe:
- Wireless printing
- Print from any mobile device
- One-driver printing
- Print to any network printer
- Easily locate network printers
- Simplified guest printing


Alliances, Partnerships, and Acquisitions

Alliances
EFI has established key strategic alliances with leading partners including 3Com, 3M, Adobe, Alphagraphics, Atlas, Authentica, Axeda, Boone, Canon, DANKA, DataViz, ENCAD, Epson, Fuji Xerox, GENICOM, Gestetner, Heidelberg, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, IKON, Indigo, Interlink Electronics, Itrezzo, Kinko’s, Konica, Lanier, Marriott, Microsoft, Mimeo, Minolta, Mita, Nashuatec, Océ, OfficeMax, Pageflex, Palm, Panasonic, PictureTel, Pitman, Pitney Bowes, Rex Rotary, Ricoh, Savin, Scitex, Sharp, Singlecast, Sir Speedy, STSN, Toshiba, Troy Systems, Virgin Mobile USA, XANTE, Xerox, and Yahoo!

Recent Partnerships
On October 22, 2002, EFI announced that its PrintMe Networks mobile printing solution enhances the functionality of the new Microsoft Windows® Powered Smartphone. PrintMe provides exceptional benefits to customers who require on-the-go access to printed materials, allowing Smartphone users to print any e-mail or attachment directly from their phone to any fax machine or printer on the global PrintMe network.

On October 7, 2002, EFI announced a new partnership with Heidelberg USA to distribute EFI’s Velocity workflow software for highspeed production printing. The software is now available for Heidelberg’s Digimaster® 9110 black-and-white production engine. The companies will also collaborate to develop a fully integrated Velocity solution for Heidelberg’s new SmartBoard™ technology.

On October 7, 2002, EFI and Xerox announced an agreement to create new powerful controllers for Xerox’s production-level printers, based on EFI’s new Fiery Q4000 server platform and Xerox’s DocuSP controllers. The solution will drive a broad array of Xerox production printers from DocuTech monochrome printers to DocuColor iGen3 full-color digital presses.

On October 3, 2002, EFI and Scitex Digital Printing announced a strategic agreement to jointly develop a custom Fiery server to drive Scitex’s next generation of ultra-high-speed Versamark™ Business Color™ printers. The server is targeted for the transactional document, data center, and direct mail markets where complex variable data printing is increasingly critical.

Recent Acquisitions
February 26, 2003, EFI and Printcafe Software signed a merger agreement providing for EFI's acquisition of Printcafe Software. The acquisition closing date has not been determined, however, the acquisition has brought considerable attention to both companies. Printcafe’s software solutions will round out EFI’s offerings to the graphic arts and professional printing markets.

January 9, 2003, EFI announced that it had completed the acquisition of Best GmbH, a global software company providing market-leading proofing products for the print and publishing markets. The acquisition complements EFI’s strengths in graphic arts and workflow software, adding a range of preprint, prepress and remote proofing solutions for inkjet printers to EFI’s product portfolio.