EFI (October 21, 2008) , the world leader in customer-focused digital printing innovation, will showcase its industry-leading portfolio of solutions in its largest trade show booth ever at Graph Expo (Oct. 26-29, Chicago's McCormick Place). EFI solutions, which continue to lead the industry's progression from analog to digital and increase customers' automation efficiency, cost savings, and revenue stream opportunities, will be demonstrated in EFI's booth 2000 and in partner booths, including Canon U.S.A., FUJIFILM Graphic Systems U.S.A., Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., Pitman Company, Ricoh Americas Corp. and Xerox.

The newest versions of EFI solutions will be on display including Fiery(R) digital print servers; EFI VUTEk(R) superwide digital inkjet printers; EFI Rastek UV wide format printers; EFI Jetrion(R) industrial inkjet printing systems; and print management, Web-to-print, proofing and workflow solutions. A special CIP4-sponsored "JDF Print Shop Live" product area will also be hosted by EFI.

"In today's tough economic climate, print service providers attending Graph Expo will be looking for every way they can to become more competitive, efficient and profitable. The award-winning solutions on display in our expansive booth can help providers accomplish all three," said Guy Gecht, EFI CEO. "Graph Expo offers an unmatched opportunity for us to meet with existing and potential new customers, a great number of partners, and to showcase our entire product portfolio, which is designed around the latest technology innovations to make our customers successful now and in the future."

Fiery Platform

In the company's booth and in partner booths, EFI will highlight Fiery innovation in color management, ensuring accurate color from input to output including Color Profiler Suite (CPS) profiling solution and Graphic Arts Package, Premium Edition, designed to ensure total color quality control in the printing workflow for graphic arts professionals. Fiery is also fully compliant with PDF-X3 and supports the PANTONE Goe System. (EFI will be providing interested visitors with CDs of its Color Profiler Suite demo software.)

Productive Document Workflows will be on display as well, featuring an interactive visual workflow that allows complex documents to be produced quickly and with fewer errors. These demos highlight the most open, powerful VDP workflow capability, including seamless integration with EFI Digital StoreFront(TM) for web-to-print, creating an efficient, profitable way for EFI customers to handle the increased business VDP makes possible. EFI will also demonstrate the power of EFI Splash RPX-iii, a unique Mac OS X-based workflow software option recently launched; EFI Fiery Central, EFI's production workflow, management and sophisticated make-ready solution; and EFI MicroPress, the industry-leading, raster-based production B&W and color workflow solution.

For the first time in North America, the booth will feature a technology demonstration of the forthcoming version of EFI Command WorkStation(R) (CWS), which unlocks the powerful features of Fiery digital print servers by centralizing job management via an intuitive, flexible interface. The new version has been tailored to the unique needs of quick print and commercial print providers, enabling these users to successfully manage huge workloads and complex job requirements in both PC and Mac environments. In addition, there will be a demonstration of Fiery integration with the Adobe(R) PDF Print Engine (APPE) and Microsoft(R) XPS support newly developed by EFI. The Fiery's APPE integration augments existing Fiery PDF support, adding choices for customers to natively support PDF transparency across their workflows and to precisely print PDF files that match what they see on the screen during the content creation process.

Lastly, CIP4, the industry organization responsible for JDF, will sponsor a "JDF Live" demonstration area in the EFI booth. These JDF workflows show advantages of JDF-enabled devices and systems, such as letting customers handle more jobs with the same equipment and staff by letting operators focus on more productive tasks. Fiery, Digital StoreFront and EFI Pace are the featured EFI products.

Digital Inkjet Printers

EFI will be demonstrating award-winning UV, solvent and dye sublimation superwide printing solutions, giving show attendees a first-hand look at the industry's leading product portfolio. Specifically, the VUTEk QS3200 and VUTEk QS3200r UV-curing printers, and VUTEk 3360 solvent printer will be on display. The VUTEk systems will also have connectivity to Fiery XF, the EFI BestColor(R)-driven production workflow and color management solution.

The innovative VUTEk QS3200r roll-to-roll UV printer will be shown with a new heavy-duty media handling option, as well as a kit that enables two-sided printing, both designed to increase the productivity of this already outstanding printer. The versatile VUTEk QS3200 3.2 meter printer offers superior image quality on both rigid and flexible substrates up to 126 inches (3.2 meters) wide and up to two inches (5.08 cm) thick, with changeover from flexible to rigid substrates in less than a minute. Pitman Company will also feature a QS3200 in their booth (3846).

The versatile VUTEk 3360, a three-meter roll-to-roll solvent printer, will be shown with its Fusion option which enables a clean and rapid changeover between traditional solvent and textile applications in about two minutes, without the need to flush the entire system.

EFI will be showing two printers from newly acquired Raster Printers, the Rastek H-700, a hybrid roll-to-roll/flatbed UV wide format printer that prints photographic image quality at up to 320 square feet per hour at up to 1,200 dpi on materials up to 73 inches wide and 1.8 inches thick; and the T600 UV flatbed printer, a stationary vacuum table that prints photographic image quality at up to 240 square feet per hour on a variety of rigid and flexible media.

In addition to these wide format printers, the Jetrion 4000 will be demonstrated in the Pitman booth 3846. The Jetrion 4000 UV Inkjet System offers label converters an affordable, full-color narrow web alternative to toner-based digital printers for label runs of up to 50,000 labels. With speeds of up to 30.5 meters (100 ft) per minute at more than 1000 dpi with greyscale technology, the Jetrion 4000 delivers full-color label printing up to 13.9 cms (5.5 inches) wide. The printer was recently named best product of the year in the industrial (specialty) printing solutions category of the European Digital Press (EDP) Awards for 2008.

Advanced Professional Print Software

EFI's line-up of Print MIS, Web-to-Print and proofing and production solutions will be on display.

EFI will highlight the newest versions of its MIS solutions, including EFI Monarch, EFI Pace, EFI PSI Flexo(TM), EFI PrintSmith(TM), EFI Prograph(R), EFI PrintFlow(R) Dynamic Scheduling and EFI Auto-Count(R) Direct Machine Interface.

For the first time at Graph Expo, Monarch and Pace will be on display. Monarch is EFI's JDF-certified end-to-end workflow and management solution for large single and multi-plant operations, featuring advanced visual planning, dynamic scheduling and direct machine interface. Pace is EFI's fully integrated, scalable, browser-based print shop management solution which includes modules for estimating, production management, inventory and fulfillment, purchasing, data collection, integrated accounting, along with integration with PrintFlow and Digital StoreFront. The upcoming new release of PrintSmith will be demonstrated, highlighting new FSC certification fields, advanced superwide capabilities, Fiery XF integration and more.

The latest versions of Auto-Count and PrintFlow will be shown. New Auto-Count features include support for shared scales, improved sampling, office copy support, improved run list, and advanced integration including the new AC Paper Monitor for Monarch. The PrintFlow demo will showcase advanced Monarch and Auto-Count integration, new "To Do List" options, simplified user interface and more.

Also on display for the first time is the forthcoming new version of Digital StoreFront (DSF), the company's award-winning web-to-print platform. DSF provides a customer onramp into both the printer's digital production workflow and the printer's business management tools. In addition to streamlining workflows, DSF enables printers to add value to their product and services via online cataloging, VDP, and full e-commerce shopping tools. The demonstration will highlight the new advanced VDP capabilities including integration to XMPie and FusionPro, integrated fulfillment functionality and optimized superwide file handling.

EFI will show the entry level software RIP for Proofing to Go, EFI Colorproof(TM) eXpress, and the versatile EFI Colorproof XF solution for proofing, large-format production and photographic printing. The production printing solution EFI Fiery XF will be on display, as well as the XFlow option, a powerful prepress and production workflow tool for Colorproof XF and Fiery XF.

Additional EFI product highlights at Graph Expo 2008

In addition to demonstrations in the EFI booth, industry-leading EFI technology will be featured at several partner booths:

--  Canon U.S.A., booth 3000, next-generation Fiery color digital print servers driving Canon digital output devices and connectivity to Fiery Central, Digital StoreFront, MicroPress, Colorproof XF and Colorproof eXpress;

--  FUJIFILM Graphic Systems U.S.A., Inc., booth 4404, industry-leading Fiery technology driving Xerox digital press;

--  Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., booth 4816, Fiery digital print servers driving Konica Minolta digital output production devices and connectivity to MicroPress;

--  Mimaki USA, booth 4882, Fiery XF connected to Mimaki output devices;

--  Pitman, booth 3846, a Jetrion 4000, a VUTEk QS3200, and Colorproof XF and Fiery XF connected to inkjet printers;

--  Ricoh Americas Corp., booth 1775, Fiery servers driving Ricoh digital output devices and connectivity to the newest versions of Digital StoreFront and Fiery Central;

--  Xerox, booth 1219, Fiery servers driving DocuColor output devices and connectivity to EFI Splash(R) RPX-iii;

--  xpedx, booth 654, Colorproof XF connected to an inkjet printer.