FREMONT, Calif., -- Electronics For Imaging announced today the launch of a new Fiery digital front end (DFE) that drives the next generation of Ricoh's family of color multi-function printers (MFPs) driven by Ricoh's new Workstyle Innovation Technology platform designed to support both enterprise and office environments.

The new EFI Fiery E-23C DFE delivers popular variable data printing (VDP) capabilities with the easy-to-use, built-in Fiery FreeForm. Plus, it gives users the competitive advantage of superior processing performance, with Fiery SmartRIP technology, which quickly and easily processes even complex, content- and image-rich files by intelligently streamlining the processing of queued jobs. Users gain a higher level of performance and speed to process and produce professional-looking prints in-house, such as booklets, brochures, manuals, and flyers on demand, saving time and money.

The new product also extends a longstanding partnership between EFI and Ricoh providing innovative products to customers to improve their print operations. Mary Robertson, a senior marketing coordinator at Navitus, an energy services company specializing in resource conservation strategies for public and private sector clients, uses a previous model of a Fiery Driven Ricoh MFP to produce marketing material in-house. "We achieve superior color quality with our Fiery DFE while saving significant money by doing our own printing," said Robertson. "The convenience of producing booklets, presentations, proposals, and flyers on-demand has made my job easier and I always know the output quality is going to be excellent."

Automated productivity meets robust color management
John Brophy, Vice President, Product Marketing, Ricoh USA, Inc., said the new DFE will help customers gain even more improvements in their high-end digital color printing. "Our four new Ricoh color MFPs are affordable, versatile and highly productive systems that have been designed to help seamlessly support the color intensive workflow requirements for busy office workgroups and enterprise environments. The Fiery E-23C provides our customers with the power to quickly and efficiently produce high-quality finished prints with accurate and pleasing color."

The Fiery E-23C DFE is available with optional tools that drive even greater performance with automated job submission and streamlined document workflows. Optional and standard features with the new digital print workflow products enable users to print with confidence and ease without expert knowledge to achieve:

Superior color quality: The new DFE delivers high-quality color images right out of the box with Fiery ColorWise technology. Companies also can use optional Fiery Spot-On software for color-critical jobs to ensure brand colors are reproduced correctly and to achieve the best match for PANTONE colors.

Easy-to-use booklet making: Fiery VUE, a visual print application for in-house booklet creation, is available via a free download at www.efi.com/fieryvue. It provides an instant 3D visual preview of the finished product, so users can quickly produce professionally finished documents on-demand without outsourcing costs and long lead times.

Extended job processing capabilities: The optional Fiery Productivity Package offers a set of tools that enable last-minute image corrections, advanced queue management functionality, and automated job submission and preparation. It also includes free Fiery JobFlow Base software, which allows users to build essential workflows that eliminate the repetitive setup of frequently printed jobs by automating the required job preparation steps.

"Once again we have partnered with Ricoh to drive their next generation of multi-function printers with our industry-leading Fiery technology, to provide customers with exceptional out-of-the-box color and high performance," said John Henze, vice president of Fiery marketing, EFI. "For more advanced users, additional optional tools like the Fiery Productivity Package now enable more integration and automation that can further increase productivity."

For more information about Fiery Driven digital production printing, visit www.efi.com. For more information about the RICOH MP C3004, C3504, C4504 and C6004 MFPs, go to www.ricoh-usa.com.