CHICAGO -- EFI, the world leader in customer-focused digital printing innovation, today launched three new products that significantly improve the ability for the production printer to increase throughput, enhance color accuracy and consistency, and automate their print shop workflow. Combined with Command WorkStation 5 (CWS5), the industry-leading job management and workflow solution introduced earlier this year, a new Fiery server ensures the highest productivity from digital print production engines by delivering up to 70 percent faster throughput than the prior generation server. The company is also introducing updates to its award-winning color management and Fiery production workflow tools, Color Profiler Suite and Fiery Central, to drive more productivity, more cost savings and more profit potential for users. Fiery System 9, Color Profiler Suite and Fiery Central are on display in EFI's booth (#2500) at PRINT 09 taking place at McCormick Place through Sept. 16th.

"As EFI celebrates 20 years of print industry innovation, it's fitting to launch the industry's most advanced print server technology as well as other innovative products that continue to set the standard and enable our customers' success," said Toby Weiss, senior vice president/general manager, Fiery division, EFI. "EFI raises the value of digital printing through productive, intuitive and flexible Fiery solutions that complement our award-winning portfolio of offerings."

"As a long-time customer and reseller of Fiery products, I rely on Fiery servers, software and workflow solutions to drive my business," said Greg Buschman, senior vice president of sales and professional services, International Print Works. "Even in this tough environment, EFI has continued to innovate and provide industry-leading solutions. I am very excited about the new Fiery product offerings coming to market."

Leadership in Integrated Print Solutions
Fiery System 9 brings the next-generation of job submission automation tools and combines them with advanced job management features to shorten turn-around times, provide tighter integration with the printer's finishing options, and enable greater productivity, flexibility and control. This release also introduces embedded JDF technology resident on the Fiery server, enabling seamless and powerful integration with third-party and EFI workflow applications.

Fiery System 9 is the first product to include Command WorkStation 5 print job management software. The software amplifies the power of Fiery servers and centralizes job management tasks via an intuitive, flexible interface that enables job data to be entered with up to 30 percent fewer keystrokes for faster output. CWS5 dramatically reduces operator mistakes, decreases waste, and increases profitability for production printers.

The new Fiery platform has scalable, integrated make-ready tools that are intuitive and visual for quick and effective document management and preparation. The optional Fiery SeeQuence Suite completes the job preparation workflow and includes Fiery SeeQuence Impose and Fiery SeeQuence Compose, which can work independently or in a tightly integrated workflow, allowing operators to accurately set-up jobs of any complexity. Standard advanced queue management capabilities eliminate bottlenecks and minimize downtime, raising the productivity and profit potential on every job.

Innovation in On-Demand Printing
A 2009 BERTL's Best award winner, Fiery Central is a complete workflow designed to centralize and unify digital production. Complementing the Fiery technology, it 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 operator efficiency, reduce costs, and decrease turn-around times. The ability to produce more jobs with fewer mistakes by automating common tasks reduces waste, and intelligent and automated job routing maximizes customers' printer investments.

The upcoming version will utilize the Fiery CWS5 job management software, and provide greater support for submitting JDF workflows into Fiery Central. Version 1.7 will also have IPP-enabled printer support for expanded engine connectivity, and updates to the Image Enhance module that will provide higher quality results for the most reliable image retouching capability. The new version is expected to be available in Q4 2009.

Excellence in Color Quality
Available as an option to the Fiery platform, Fiery Color Profiler Suite offers the most advanced profiling solution for any printing environment. The complete, integrated color management tools ensure total color quality control in the print workflow. The flexible suite is based on EFI's market-leading color management solutions used by the most demanding color professionals. The forthcoming version 3.0 integrates seamlessly into the Fiery server, enabling automatic installation and population of printer profiles including optimized pre-sets that eliminate steps and reduce errors. Version 3.0 will support new automated measuring instruments and has enhanced tools for profile optimizations for conformance to industry standards. The new version is expected to be available in Q4 2009.

For more information on these products and EFI, visit booth 2500 at PRINT 09, www.efi.com or contact 800-875-7117.