LOD, Israel, Sept. 19 NUR Macroprinters, a leading supplier of wide-format and superwide digital printing systems and consumables for out-of-home advertising today announced new and enhanced models of its popular wide-format, screenless digital production printers, the NUR Fresco(TM) HiQ series. Their debut takes place at Visual Communication France 2001 in Paris. The NUR Fresco range of products, including the new NUR Fresco HiQ series printers, provides a digital alternative to conventional wide format screen- printing. The new NUR Fresco HiQ models are intended to replace the original versions of the machines in the company's product line. The new NUR Fresco HiQ printers, available in both the 1800 (6 foot or 1.8 meters wide) and 3200 (10.5 foot or 3.2 meters wide) models, are designed to provide substantial enhancements to the original NUR Fresco machines in the areas of image quality, color gamut, text sharpness, operational ease, improved uptime and productivity. The NUR Fresco HiQ printers also offer double-density printing for printing backlit graphics. Foremost among the enhancements to the machines is a new full printhead warranty available to NUR Fresco HiQ customers. All NUR Frescos in the field can be upgraded with the NUR Fresco HiQ enhancements. "The new NUR Fresco HiQ series is exciting because of its enhanced feature set and above all because customers need no longer concern themselves with printhead life as a semi-consumable. The printhead warranty reduces our customers' variable operating costs considerably,'' says Erez Shachar, President and CEO of NUR Macroprinters. Shachar continues, "The new software for the machine -- PrinTop 1.3 control software and the new NUR Flash RIP 1.0 -- offer additional functions and greater ease of use. And more importantly they are part of our ongoing efforts to standardize and make more consistent the software we provide with all of our printer models. Common software for all of our products makes both operator training and machine operation much easier for customers who own multiple NUR printers. It also simplifies our own customer support efforts. And lastly, the hardware modifications in both the ink and the electronics systems ensure improved text sharpness, eliminate over-spray, and provide an overall improved reliability.'' What's New in the NUR Fresco HiQ Series? * Quality enhancements: A new ink set specially formulated for the machines is designed to improve the overall color gamut of the printers and also enhance printhead life. * Performance and reliability: Customers who participate in NUR's new Ink Partnership Program and who subscribe to NUR's Gold-level or higher customer service plan receive a full warranty on the NUR Fresco HiQ printheads. * New control software: Version 1.3 of the NUR Fresco PrinTop printer control software is designed to provide speed enhancements, resolution of open system issues, and add the ability to output jobs with double- density printing for backlit graphics. * Improved ink system and electronics: Improves text sharpness by eliminating over-spray. * New NUR Flash 1.0 RIP: New raster image processor (RIP) software is designed to enhance ease-of-use of the machine and improve the way operators handle output tiling, color management and additional RIP related functions. * Availability: The NUR Fresco HiQ models are expected to be available for shipping in November 2001. * Field upgrade available: An upgrade kit for original NUR Fresco machines is priced at $35,000 and can be installed at the customer's site "To date, we have shipped and installed over 100 NUR Fresco units at customer sites worldwide,'' says Ron Michael, Vice President of Marketing at NUR Macroprinters. "The enhancements now included in the HiQ model will undoubtedly ensure the NUR Fresco's ongoing popularity for the broadest variety of wide-format printing applications.''