Cambridge UK; September 3, 2003 —Pre-press production supplier Esko-Graphics has licensed the latest Harlequin RIP- Eclipse Release for Windows 2000 and NT in an OEM agreement with Global Graphics, a leading developer of technology components for pre-press, digital print and corporate enterprise applications and a subsidiary of Global Graphics SA. The powerful and multi-functional Harlequin RIP will be integrated within Version 5.0 of Esko-Graphics’ FlowDrive workflow and output management system to be launched by the company shortly. Under the agreement, Esko-Graphics has also licensed several Harlequin in-RIP options. These include the new automatic and feature-rich TrapPro trapping solution; Harlequin Dispersed Screening (HDS); plus ProofReady and ColorPro plug-in utilities that provide easy-to-implement color control for accurate proofing and printing applications. “Our products and our customers will experience impressive production flexibility and performance gains as a result of our implementation of the latest release of the Harlequin RIP,” explains Kresten Tang Andersen, Workflow Product Manager at Esko-Graphics. “Its ability to process PDF 1.4 natively, together with impressive new trapping, color management and proofing functionalities, were the main reasons we chose it. There is an increasing demand in the market for high-level color management capabilities as awareness rises about the quality and workflow efficiency that can be achieved as a result. “Global Graphics has been an important and strategic development partner for us since 1988,” says Kresten Tang Andersen. “We would not be able to develop the market-leading products we supply without the technology and support of our OEM partners. We depend upon Global Graphics to provide us with a sophisticated core RIP and other production components to enable us to easily integrate them into our own technologies to produce powerful prepress production systems.” Esko-Graphics supplies a wide range of prepress, computer to film and computer to plate solutions for packaging, commercial printing and quick prepress markets. These include the PlateDriver CTP devices and the Harlequin-based FlowDrive which combines tools for automation and gives full process control at any stage of the workflow. Jim Freidah, Global Graphics Software’s chief operating officer, says, “The partnership between Global Graphics and Esko-Graphics has been a very strong one for the past 15 years. They are a highly innovative company and their commitment to the Harlequin RIP is further endorsement that we continue to develop thehighest quality RIPfor demanding high-end graphic arts applications.”