NEW YORK--April 7, 2003-- On Demand Conference & Expo - Creo Inc. is replicating a professional printing environment in booth #3223 at the On Demand Expo, April 7-9, in New York. Creo is highlighting new opportunities for professional printers by demonstrating the versatility and robustness of the Spire(TM) color server workflow solutions connected to digital printers from Xerox. Spire color servers are printing to both the Xerox DocuColor iGen3 Digital Production Press and the DocuColor 6060 Digital Color Press on the Creo booth. The Spire servers and Xerox digital printers are also integrated with many Creo solutions that are streamlining today's printing environments. They include PDF preparation, online job submission, remote proofing and collaboration, scanning and proofing. By increasing productivity, reducing turnaround times, and drastically cutting back costs, the Spire color server delivers innovative solutions to the graphic arts, in-plant printers, corporate reproduction departments, and commercial print environments. "Our way of protecting our customers' investment, is by not only ensuring that our solutions fit into every kind of print environment, but helping our customers become more profitable by taking advantage of all the applications that are unique to digital printing," says Ronen Cohen, Creo corporate vice president, digital printing. "We will continue to introduce new, innovative products designed to increase business volume, and meet professional printers' needs for greater efficiency and flexibility in their print on-demand production workflows." Spire Features New Functionality Creo is previewing version 3.0 of the Spire CXP6000 color server for the Xerox DocuColor 2000 series and the DocuColor 6060 Digital Color Press. This new feature set will also be part of the upcoming Spire version for the Xerox DocuColor iGen3 Digital Production Press. It offers new levels of productivity and workflow integration as well as groundbreaking color management features building on Creo's expertise in the commercial print market. Spire now leverages technology developed for Creo Profile Wizard(TM) color management software for creating and editing ICC profiles. The Smart mode of the Creo Color Management Module (CMM) produces excellent color emulation. The Creo Smart CMM creates finely tuned ICC DeviceLink profiles from source and destination ICC profiles and uses them to transform the jobs' colors while preserving the black separation and keeping pure colors untouched. (For more information, see press release, Creo Incorporates Creo CMM DeviceLink Technology into Spire Color Servers.) Version 3.0 significantly improves Spire network connectivity. It enables remote monitoring using the Spire Web Center as well as remote control of the Spire using the Spire Remote Admin tool. In addition, Mac users can now benefit from a much faster connection to the Spire with the new Mac TCP/IP support. Hot Folder functionality is introduced in this version to enhance job submission from both PC and MAC clients. Document printing is one of the key differentiators and volume-building applications for digital printing. Spire includes robust support for printing documents enabling the user to print finished documents that consist of various page sizes and require imposition. This can be used, for example, for printing booklets with tabs while still benefiting from Spire's enhanced imposition capabilities. Moreover, Spire now supports dynamic page exceptions, which means that commands for using different paper types can be embedded into the incoming file. Using standard PostScript 'setpagedevice' commands, Spire users are now able to print complex VI jobs with a different number of pages per recipient, and printed on a variety of different paper stocks and sizes. Another highlight of the new Spire version is the 'rush job' functionality, for inserting an urgent job while other jobs are being processed and printed. New Darwin Desktop Version 4.5 Expanded design capabilities and functionality of the Creo Darwin(TM) Desktop 4.5 variable information authoring tool are also being demonstrated at On Demand. The Darwin tools uses a new 'color rule' feature to enable designers to vary the color of text and image boxes based on database criteria. Version 4.5 also offers additional data handling with the 1000's separator, an automatic data-cleaning function that is essential for financial and data-centric applications. The Commercial Printers' Environment The new functionality of version 3.0 of Spire color servers demonstrates even greater productivity by integrating with Networked Graphic Production(TM), the Creo initiative that is streamlining the print production process through automation. One of the powerful tools, the Synapse InSite Internet portal into prepress, enables Spire users to export Ready-To-Print jobs for remote proofing, collaboration and approval. At On Demand, Synapse InSite demonstrates how the print provider and print buyer can collaborate online, shortening job cycles, reducing proofing and courier costs, and increasing the printer's control and involvement in the creative process. Synapse Prepare software, also on show, works with the Spire color server to allow print buyers to easily create PDF files that precisely match the technical specifications of a particular print environment. Using special Spire directives, the user can create, check and correct PDF files, reducing the risk of job error during production and minimizing undesirable output results. The new Creo Integris(TM) proofing solutions integrate leading inkjet printers with Creo workflow and color control to deliver color-managed digital contone proofs that accurately predict the final printed job. They provide an ideal solution for printers looking for high-quality, affordable, creative, imposition or layout proofing. The Creo iQsmart(TM) scanners provides top-quality scanning results and high productivity within an efficient, versatile workflow. Offering true optical resolution up to 5500 dpi from edge to edge, as well as XY Stitch scanning technology, the iQsmart scanners assure consistent quality through sharper imaging. The Digital Printers' Environment Creo Spire color servers add great value to digital print environments through support of high quality printing of color and variable information (VI) applications. At the show, Creo is demonstrating closer integration into the Digital Print environment by working with solutions that are already well accepted in this market. Xerox DigiPath Production Software scans and prepares documents that can be edited prior to printing. Managing both content and job programming, Xerox DigiPath provides digital print providers with a consistent, standards-based document workflow. Creo and Xerox have started implementing tighter integration between the Spire server and the DigiPath workflow that will involve automatic conversion of DigiPath programming to the Spire job ticket. This increases the efficiency of the entire workflow by focusing all operator activity on a single point of job entry/control. In response to the growing demand for fast, high-quality, low-cost printing at data centers, Creo is demonstrating integration with MPI Tech's Blue Server(TM), a workflow solution that supports data stream printing of transactional documents. The Spire color server integrates with the MPI Tech Blue Server, which can be connected to multiple IBM hosts and midrange systems. This solution converts the Intelligent Print Data Stream (IPDS) and Advanced Function Presentation Data Stream (AFPDS) into a format that can be processed by the Spire at very high speeds. By supporting applications that integrate variable data with variable color graphics, the Spire server now offers professional printers a shorter printing process by eliminating preprinted forms to produce full-color print jobs.