(May 29, 2008) Dainippon Screen Mfg. Co., Ltd. has recently begun promoting a new workflow concept known as EQUIOSNET. Created to meet the needs of today's printing industry, which is undergoing a paradigm shift due to innovations in the inkjet technology field, EQUIOSNET incorporates Print on Demand (POD) into an even more advanced version of Screen's Trueflownet. EQUIOSNET will be introduced at the drupa 2008 International Trade Fair, which will take place in Dusseldorf, Germany between May 29 and June 11.

As awareness of the need to protect the global environment has grown in recent years, the printing industry has undergone a major transformation, and it is now increasingly focused on creating value for increasingly personalized segments of the market. Dainippon Screen has applied the printing and prepress technology it has refined through years of experience to inkjet technology-which is the focus of high expectations in the printing industry-and is actively working on the development of POD systems that can create added value and meet the changing needs of printing businesses, including the need for more environmentally friendly production. Screen looks forward to expanding on its role as the world's top vendor of CtP equipment and becoming the number one vendor in the digital printing equipment business, which is so important for POD, as it continues to strengthen its image as a leading company in the world prepress and printing industries.

The newly announced EQUIOSNET has Trueflow SE, which features Adobe PDF Print Engine, at its core, and it adds POD and TransPromo capabilities to Screen's CtP workflow solution. EQUIOSNET is a new concept that uses POD to increase environmental friendliness, create added value, and make it possible to employ a mixture of media, to create a printing business solution for today's era of personalization. It combines the CtP workflow offered by Trueflow SE and the TransPromo workflow offered by the SV-110 with the newly developed EQUIOS RIP, which was developed specifically for use with the Truepress Jet SX sheet-fed inkjet printer. Offset printed products, for which prepress was completed using Trueflow SE, can be overprinted with customised information using EQUIOS and the Truepress Jet SX-just one example of the type of personalization that is possible with a hybrid printing solution that uses both offset printing and POD output. In a printing industry that is facing a paradigm shift, EQUIOSNET is the perfect tool for businesses that want to be capable not only of mass production but also of personalization, while creating printed products that offer added value and a whole range of possibilities.

Raman Nagpal, Adobe Systems Inc.'s Director in charge of product management for the Print Publishing Business Unit's Print Technology Department, has made the following statements about EQUIOSNET: "The new EQUIOSNET concept being developed by Dainippon Screen includes Adobe's latest core technologies, Adobe PDF Print Engine 2.0, Adobe Creative Suite 3, and Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional, for its PDF/VT base, and has added to that base a next-generation printing workflow that features personalized printing and supports Screen's business strategy concepts. EQUIOS, the workflow RIP for the Truepress Jet SX, uses Adobe's latest print engine, Adobe PDF Print Engine 2.0. We have great expectations for success in the POD era through the collaborative vision of Dainippon Screen and Adobe Systems Inc."

Through its promotion of EQUIOSNET, Dainippon Screen looks forward to expanding on its role as the top vendor of CtP equipment worldwide while strengthening its existing brand and creating new brand recognition in a printing industry that is using more and more POD. Screen also looks forward to helping businesses operate in a way that is more appropriate for this environmentally conscious century. Screen will be establishing a new core business in media technology through its POD equipment solutions, while working towards a shared future with its customers under Screen's "Creating a Future in Print" theme.