CHICAGO--Sept. 10, 2007--Canon U.S.A., the market share leader in digital color printing systems(i), and EFI, the world leader in customer-focused digital printing innovation, today announced the newest element in the companies' previously announced strengthened strategic alliance specifically focused on the needs of commercial print customers. The new EFI Fiery(R) Central powerful modular, PDF-based production workflow solution will be available in the fourth quarter of this year to Canon customers and will be demonstrated at Graph Expo (Chicago, Sept. 9-12) in Canon Booth 2400 and EFI Booth 3000. Fiery Central represents EFI's next generation of digital print production workflow technology, leveraging the company's legacy of customer success with the popular EFI(R) MicroPress, Balance(TM), and OneFlow(R) solutions as well as industry-leading Fiery digital print server technology widely used by Canon customers. Encompassing EFI's unmatched expertise, Fiery Central enables print service providers in medium to high-volume print-on-demand environments, such as corporate reprographic departments (CRD), print for pay, and commercial printers, to increase job volume, decrease turnaround times and maximize equipment investment.
"Workflow integration, one of the Critical Six components of our imagePRESS Workflow Solutions program, is necessary in order for commercial printers to fully enjoy a profitable digital printing operation. By integrating the Fiery Central production workflow solution and EFI's high-end production solutions with Canon's imagePRESS C7000VP, users can better manage their end-to-end digital workflow and streamline monochrome and color production printing to further develop and enhance their digital business," said Janet Cain, director and assistant general manager, Canon U.S.A., Inc.
"With Fiery Central, we've extended the Fiery power familiar to many Canon customers and now deliver an unprecedented production workflow solution that optimizes their resources and increases their production," said Frank Mallozzi, senior vice president, worldwide marketing and sales, EFI. "Canon customers will find tremendous value in the newest addition to EFI's robust portfolio of integrated products specifically designed to drive their increased competitiveness, efficiency and profitability."
Readily enabling connection to multiple digital output devices of the print service providers' choosing, Fiery Central is a powerful yet flexible solution that leverages Canon customers' existing investment in Fiery technology and their familiarity with the Fiery workflow. Further, JDF connectivity enables a broadened range of integrated workflows. To address customers' specific needs and expand as their workflow requirements change, Fiery Central comes in three modular components, Fiery Central Focus, Fiery Central Flow and Fiery Central Balance.
Fiery Central Focus, the base module, includes award-winning Fiery applications such as the EFI Command WorkStation(R) (CWS) interface, EFI Hot Folders to automate the job set-up process and reduce errors, and EFI Driver, which simplifies the process of setting up, submitting and monitoring print jobs. Customers are able to add on optional modules as their business grows.
Fiery Central Flow offers advanced digital prepress capabilities in a simple, cost-effective solution. Leveraging Fiery technology that delivers powerful capability via an intuitive interface, this module is icon-based and features a unique Visual Workflow to optimize productivity by providing job progress at-a-glance. Fiery Central Flow incorporates file conversion, preflight, spot color management, approval, routing and proofing processes into customizable workflows that can be edited and managed by users of any skill level to optimize resources and increase production. Fiery Central Flow automates manual tasks and provides print service providers with greater consistency and reliability.
Fiery Central Balance increases productivity by combining multiple devices into a "printer group" for optimized asset utilization. For complex documents, Fiery Central Balance routes jobs to one or more devices within the printer group for load balancing and maximum speed. With this module's intelligent routing function, jobs can be split by volume, color/black and white and deployed to the best engine or combination of engines.
EFI offers several additional options across the three modules. The Compose feature eases job composition and make-ready by allowing users to visually assign and communicate page-level attributes and tabs to any printer. Impose reduces production time and errors by allowing WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) display for nearly any imposition scheme and by creating templates for simple, scalable workflows. EFI Scan improves the job process by scanning black and white and color documents to the workflow. Additional engines can be added individually to accommodate changing production requirements. Collectively and singly, these features, combined with the Fiery Central modules, help print service providers produce complex documents easier, faster and more efficiently.