FOSTER CITY, Calif.--Sept. 12, 2006-- EFI, the world leader in digital controllers, superwide format printers and inks, and print management solutions, now offers Fiery System 8e, the most advanced, multifunction embedded print server for demanding enterprise and office publishing environments. Industry-renowned EFI innovation drives Fiery System 8e, addressing the exponential growth in corporate print volume and document complexity with unparalleled new features designed to maximize the value of customers' digital output devices and ensure exceptional color, seamless network integration, and exceedingly high levels of productivity, flexibility, and security. New Fiery System 8e capabilities include: driving up to 30 percent more printed pages; easily printing Word/Excel/PowerPoint documents through an email client without a printer driver; and strengthened security, including enhanced LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) support, designed to eliminate unauthorized operation. EFI's in-RIP color management system provides consistent, predictable color; and Fiery System 8e delivers overall greater control by extending Fiery server access to the desktop. Fiery System 8e is part of EFI's robust portfolio of products designed to dramatically increase productivity in high-volume office environments. SendMe(TM), EFI's document capture and distribution solution, readily converts paper documents to digital files and enables unprecedented management of paper documents. Document management solution EFI Desktop SE organizes electronic desktop clutter, helping customers work faster and more efficiently. EFI Desktop Pro extends Desktop SE's capabilities, allowing customers to scan, search, merge, edit, and share files on any electronic desktop, regardless of the different applications involved. Fiery System 8e is well-positioned to be the digital front end of choice as demand grows significantly in the office market. (Note: EFI will present office technology insights at the Office Document Hardware Conference, presented by InfoTrends, leading digital imaging and document solutions industry analyst firm, Sept. 21-22, Boston, Session 5: "The Cross-Over Office/Light Production Opportunity," www.capv.com.) According to a recent InfoTrends report, the total color impressions in office workgroups has grown from five percent of all impressions in 2004 to 15 percent in 2006, and will exceed 35 percent by 2009. Digital output devices, such as multifunction printers (MFPs), driven by Fiery System 8e are the optimal choice for creating and managing this increased color volume. With its high-powered digital workflow functionality, Fiery System 8e bridges the paper and electronic worlds and transforms the digital output device into a document portal. Fiery System 8e provides convenient access to multiple document services, including printing, copying, faxing and scanning, within a single networked device that can be accessed from the desktop or used for walk-up services. Fiery System 8e also enables a seamless connection to document management, cost recovery, and fax and imaging systems. "Leading the charge for complete office publishing capabilities, Fiery System 8e continues EFI's legacy of providing increasingly innovative high-value solutions for our customers," said Frank Mallozzi, senior vice president of worldwide sales and marketing, EFI. "We've further enhanced our Fiery technology and created new powerful tools for exceptional color, productivity, flexibility and security to maximize the value of customers' digital output devices. Enterprise customers who demand consistently high levels of color quality, productivity and security will find exceptional value in Fiery System 8e." Increased Productivity Fiery System 8e is the industry's first embedded server to extend to the desktop, providing capabilities and a convenience that enable an immediate and significant increase in productivity. Fiery System 8e includes the recently launched EFI Desktop SE (standard) and EFI Desktop Pro (optional), powerful new solutions that allow users to instantly organize, manage, find and share all of their paper and digital documents at their desktop. Files stored on the desktop, network or on the user's mailbox on the MFP can be easily viewed, managed and shared with anyone, anywhere - in PDF format, with a simple drag-and-drop operation. While both provide easy-to-use scanning, image enhancement, PDF and document management capabilities to automate a wide range of document processes, EFI Desktop Pro includes additional features that enhance capability and productivity, such as built-in Optical Character Recognition (OCR), which translates scanned text into machine-editable text, and All-in-One Search(TM), a robust desktop search and indexing engine tightly integrated with OCR to enable users to easily find any document - scanned and digital - using a single keyword or phrase. EFI's exclusive PrintMe mobile and Internet printing technology is integral to the Native Document Conversion feature, which enables the printing of Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents through the email client without a printer driver. Fiery System 8e includes the new Fiery Smart RIP technology, which combines intelligent processing with the efficient utilization of the latest hardware to significantly accelerate RIP performance. Smart RIP ensures the fastest possible processing speeds for all hardware configurations, greatly improving the print speed of Microsoft Office and Adobe applications. Smart RIP also makes Fiery System 8e the premier office publishing tool with the industry's fastest "click-to-clunk" - referring to the time the user 'clicks' the print option to the time the printed job appears on the MFP. Additionally, the Fiery RIP-and-Print utility drives up to 30 percent more pages on printing devices, per time period, in the most demanding office environments. Optional applications such as EFI Hot Folders and Virtual Printers further automate printing in the repetitive workflows inherent in offices. Users can "drag and drop" files into hot folders that are pre-configured to print the job for pre-defined, guaranteed results, or to virtual printers that simply appear as network printers that are configured for specific tasks. Brilliant, Consistent Color "Out of the Box" Fiery ColorWise, the EFI in-RIP color management system, delivers consistent color across applications, computer platforms, color spaces, and color file formats, enabling users in demanding office environments to easily achieve undeviating, professional-level color. Fiery System 8e's powerful color features are especially important as workgroups evolve and require a transition from standard office applications, such as the Microsoft Office suite, to more specialized office publishing tools that leverage the finishing and speed of today's color-capable, light production digital output devices. ColorWise includes automated functionality and expert controls for managing color, productivity and automating color document workflow. The optional EFI Spot-On is particularly important when matching corporate branding colors is essential. Spot-On guides office users in matching their corporate brand color one time, and then enables them to print the accurate Corporate Color, in all of their documents - every time afterward. The optional EFI Color Profiler enables finer control over color and print quality. Robust Security EFI Fiery technology is based on an open architecture and adheres to industry standard certification policies and network authentication protocols. With extensive security features designed to eliminate its unauthorized access and operation, reducing costs and down time, Fiery System 8e is readily accepted by the most critical MIS/IT organizations, including the Government and its agencies. Fiery System 8e incorporates strong security utilities ranging from limiting who has access to the controller - leveraging several industry standards including; Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and Internet Protocol (IP) Filtering support, Port Blocking, and LDAP Authentication, to securing the data itself - utilizing SNMP V3 (Simple Network Management Protocol, Version 3), SSL (Secure Socket Layer) support, Certificate Management, Encryption of Critical Information, and the optional Secure Erase feature, which removes all traces of job data from the Fiery hard disk drive. Fiery System 8e also features IPv6 (Internet Protocol Version 6) support and can be readily installed into IPv6 environments. A requirement for Government sites, IPv6 expands on the current Internet Protocol standard, offering better addressing, security and other features to support large worldwide networks. Enhanced Flexibility Fiery NetWise(TM) features an innovative design that virtually guarantees easy connectivity and ensures seamless integration in any network environment including "peer-to-peer" (SMB) support for Windows workstation printing, and LDAP support for directory or a global address book access. As the demand for one-to-one marketing grows, Fiery System 8e also enables digital output devices in the office to produce variable data applications. Fiery System 8e puts variable data printing tools in the hands of corporate marketing or creative professionals, increasing the agility with which changing market needs can be addressed. Users can readily deploy smaller, targeted campaigns that greatly enhance customer response. Availability Fiery System 8e is sold through EFI's OEM partners, including: Canon, with the Fiery-driven imagePASS-H1 designed for the 51/45/40 ppm Color imageRUNNER C5180/C4580/C4080 Series systems; Konica Minolta, with the Fiery IC-405 designed for the 50 ppm bizhub PRO C500 and the Fiery IC-406 designed for the 35 ppm color bizhub C352; Sharp, with the Fiery System 8e-based controller designed for the newly launched 35 and 45 ppm Sharp MX-3500N, MX-3501N and MX-4501N Workgroup Color Document Systems; and Toshiba, with the Fiery designed for the e-STUDIO2500c/3500c/3510c MFPs. Additional EFI product information is available at www.efi.com and at 800-875-7117.