Discussion

By Paul Gardner on Apr 15, 2013

Godspeed Efi Arazi! One of the great disruptors of the World of Print. Long will you be remembered!!

By Andrew Tribute on Apr 15, 2013

There are very few people with the vision and skills to fundamentally change an industry. Efi was one of these when he introduced interactive color editing to the printing world, and followed up with a range of technologies and products that continued to drive the industry forward. Efi was one of the three key visionaries and entrepreneurs of Rudolf Hell, John Crosfield and himself who created the industry that allowed others like Steve Jobs, Benny Landa and John Warnock and Chuck Geschke to push the industry into the 21st century.

I first met Efi in 1979 when Scitex introduced their first Rsponse system at the GEC expo in Milan. The presentation showed how offset and gravure would move forward and allow new approaches to color that previously had been impossible. Over the next 20 years I got to know Efi quite well in both Scitex and EFI. I remember visiting Efi when EFI was in its infancy with less than ten employees and before the Fiery became a product. Efi gave me a draft of the first planned IPO for the company, but in my wisdom I turned down the opportunity to invest as I felt there was no real market for the EfiColor color management product. If only I had known about Fiery!

Efi was the founder of the high-tech industries in graphic arts in Israel. Many of those who worked with him went on to either start up or help out with new companies. Without the start that Efi generated there would be no XMPie, HP Indigo or HP Scitex and others. I just hope that both HP and Xerox will not throw away this amazing legacy in their ongoing decisions.

By Greg Imhoff on Apr 16, 2013

Efi was a generous genius and his ideas remain active today, as mentioned. Add to this his active support and investment continuing cool innovations such as (I believe) SCODIX.

I met Efi once at EFI Hdqtrs in N. CA being introduced by his color scientists then working on building FIERY. The team was collecting measurement values for output algorithims of color management tables, from many screened patches and output samples. I contributed bringing in portable Gretag spectrophotometry and in automating the tasks with a custom made xyz table to simplify improve and speed up the process for each color measurement table(s) collected. Efi and his team later allowed me to take photos of this project build and testimfied to its sucess for Gretag Switzerland, which along with Apple and others then led to the SpectroLino SpectroScan innovation today sold as the X-Rite i-1 etc.

Efi and his team were truly innovational and gracious in sharing ideas and knowledge so I learned a lot. Inspiration is always present and open to those who listen. GodSpeed Efi.