DÜSSELDORF, Germany — Canon Inc. and NexPress Solutions, Inc. are joining forces to develop a broad range of digital color workflow solutions that enable seamless conversion between office-document workflows and commercial-printing workflows. At the Drupa trade show, the two companies announced that they have agreed to enter into a strategic relationship to collaborate in the digital production printing market in the future. The companies’ objectives are to accelerate the adoption of high-quality, high-volume digital production printing and to promote the adoption of network-based distributed printing. The alliance marries NexPress’ strength in high-volume digital production color printing solutions with Canon’s leadership in medium- and low-volume color printing solutions. Under the terms of the partnership, the two companies will: • Collaborate on joint-development initiatives that will allow organizations to re-purpose content for cross-media publishing. Specifically, the initiatives will include the development of device-independent, color-management solutions to promote consistent color matching across Canon and NexPress offerings; solutions that assure document integrity and security during transfer and reproduction; and efficient and interchangeable document finishing solutions for in-line, near-line and off-line devices. • Collaborate and cooperate on sales and distribution with the Canon imageRUNNER 110 and imageRUNNER Pro 150+ series in the U.S. and European markets, as well as with the Digimaster 9110 print system for customers in all geographies around the world. • Broaden their product portfolios to increase the range of price and performance options and to include highly differentiated solutions. • Continue strategic relationships with Adobe and EFI to jointly develop best-in-class workflow solutions that provide operational efficiency, bridge the office and production environments and provide more robust capabilities for end users. "Canon is delighted to enter into this agreement because we share NexPress Solutions’ excitement for the enormous opportunities in digital production printing," said Ikuo Soma, managing director, Chief Executive of Office Imaging Products Operations, Canon Inc. "Canon is committed to extending our leadership position in office- and quick-printing environments and to expanding our presence in new markets." "This strategic relationship between NexPress and Canon will benefit both companies and focus on print customers worldwide in the commercial, corporate in-plant, office and vertical markets — who will reap the biggest rewards," said Venkat Purushotham, NexPress Solutions, Inc. President and CEO. "Through this collaboration, NexPress and Canon will jointly deliver state-of-the-art printing solutions, with the intent of linking the office and commercial environments, driving adoption of open standards and growing the use of digital production printing across all business segments."