Fremont, Calif. – Electronics For Imaging, Inc. today announced the availability of important advancements in its latest version of Fiery® Color Profiler Suite – integrated color management software that gives digital print producers more power than ever before to get color right every time. Next generation EFI™ Fiery Edge™ color profiling technology launching in the suite delivers out-of-the-box print quality and color improvements in new Fiery digital front ends (DFEs). Plus, a host of new controls within Fiery Color Profiler Suite tune color to meet customer preferences, such as features to intelligently boost color and adjust shadow detail levels.

Fiery Edge profiles are available for selected new cut-sheet digital printers, as well as for many wide- and superwide-format printers that use EFI Fiery DFEs.

Expanded output controls

Users benefit from an increased array of advanced user controls. For example, a key element of the new Fiery Edge technology is the ability to control or manually select a black point that best matches the intent of the item being printed. This maximizes the dynamic range of a print when the darkest printable color is not a neutral black. Users can also control shadow detail levels to best represent a product’s or a subject’s characteristics.

Fiery Edge also gives print professionals the ability to define color-to-black transitions for reduced image peppering, graininess, and smoother transitions, all of which is especially useful in color-critical market segments such as photobook printing.

Prior to using Fiery Edge, Himanshu Pandey, owner of New Delhi-based Avantika Printers Pvt. Ltd., was unable to compete in that segment with his current printers. “The colors were not vibrant enough and the tonal values were not stable enough,” according to Pandey. “The color control provided by Fiery Edge technology allowed us to use our printers to print photobooks containing various images of people and places. Fiery Edge literally opened the photo segment for us!”

Out-of-the-box enhancements

Users of Fiery Edge color profiles will notice much smoother color transitions and blends right out of the box. They will also see more image detail, clarity, and depth. Plus, superior rendering of RGB reds and blues in Fiery Edge technology gives users a more-faithful rendering of RGB images.

“Fiery Edge color profiling technology brings all the excellent results and controls to my Fiery cut-sheet printer customers that I’ve been relying on for several years to keep my Fiery wide-format inkjet customers happy,” said Rob Cawston, owner of Colour Consultancy Ltd. in Nottingham, England. “The smoothness of blends and extra image detail are the things that stood out as benefits of Fiery Edge just by using the default profiles and settings.

“I particularly like the new rendering intent option,” he added. “No more lengthy profile tweaking for customers that want more pop. Having all this control for toner now too is very welcome.”

“Getting the best color and quality from any printer should be the goal for all print producers,” said John Henze, vice president of sales and marketing, EFI Fiery. “Whether it is taking advantage of the maximum gamut of a printer to give prints more color, getting the most detail available to show a product at its best, or producing the smoothest color transitions for photo-realistic images, these new capabilities will help print producers achieve the best results their print devices are capable of, therefore getting the most from their color investments.”

Boosted color to attract attention

Users can produce more colorful, vivid and dynamic-looking output in signage, point of sale, display and other applications because Fiery Edge technology brings the ability to boost color with Fiery Intensify™ – a new rendering intent innovation that can increase color and saturation while maintaining neutral grays and realistic skin tones. The new feature, which is part of Fiery Color Profiler Suite version 5.2, improves color while at the same time maintaining balanced visual results – a difficult goal to achieve with other rendering solutions available on the market. Not only does this enable precise control of chroma, lightness and contrast levels, it also allows users to select the correct source profile for the best possible use of an output device’s gamut and dynamic range.

Fiery Edge technology also supports up to eight color channels (CMYK+ 4 extra colors) further enhancing Color Profiler Suite’s ability to get the best possible color out of any supported Fiery Driven™ printer, including those with gamut-expanding colorants such as orange, violet, blue, and green inks or toners.

The newest version of EFI Fiery Color Profiler Suite featuring Fiery Edge is available now from EFI and authorized EFI resellers. For more information about digital color production printing using EFI Fiery technologies, visit www.efi.com.