EFI

Company Supports and Furthers the Education of Tomorrow’s Print and Graphic Art Professionals FOSTER CITY, CA—August 22, 2006—EFI (Nasdaq:EFII), the world leader in digital controllers, superwide format printers and inks, and print management solutions, today reinforced the company’s commitment to the next-generation of printers and graphic arts professionals. As the 2006 school year begins, EFI renews its support, in terms of time, product and monetary donation, of industry and university programs fostering the future’s innovative and productive print and graphic arts workforce. “Our customers and partners are concerned about developing the industry’s future workforce, and so are we – as the new school year begins,

New Web Products User Advisory Council Forges Close Customer Relationships FOSTER CITY, CA—Aug. 2, 2006—EFI (Nasdaq: EFII), a leader in digital controllers, superwide format printers and inks, and print management solutions, announced the formation of the Web Products User Advisory Council to facilitate a two-way dialogue with customers of its popular Web solutions, including the PrinterSite suite of products and PrintSmith Site. The User Advisory Council was conceived at this year’s EFI Connect conference, the largest annual user conference in the print industry, and plans were formalized soon after. “Connect provides an opportunity for unparalleled interaction between customers and EFI staff, but we wanted to provide

Quark Out to Make Seven a Lucky Number NEW YORK CITY—Competition is said to be a good thing. To the extent that’s true, these are great days for users of page layout software. Quark Inc. clearly has been tested by Adobe Systems’ challenge to its once near monopolistic position in the graphic arts market. It is responding technologically with the release of QuarkXPress 7 and offering inducements for users to upgrade, thereby keeping them in the fold. Most of the enhancements are targeted to the design community, naturally, but the company insists it kept an eye toward print service providers (PSPs) during development

Digital Printing Gear New to Boston Area LOWELL, MA—King Printing has added a Kodak NexPress 2100 digital production color press, Kodak NexTreme DL-1000 variable data client-server package and Kodak NexTreme DL-100 variable data software. Adi Chinai, joint managing director (pictured), says the installation has helped grow the education and trade book publishing segments of his business by giving customers quicker time to market. Printing Excellence Celebrated by GAA PHILADELPHIA—The Graphic Arts Association (GAA) recently held its 35th annual Neographics awards ceremony and banquet to celebrate quality printing, as well as Ben Franklin’s 300th birthday. Riegel Printing of Ewing, NJ, was the Prisco 2006 Power

Robert Prah, formerly national accounts manager for Screen (USA), has been appointed vice president of sales. Prah oversees the Screen sales force in the United States and Canada. Boise Paper’s board of directors has approved a $72 million capital project to expand Boise’s production of pressure-sensitive paper. The project involves adding new capacity to the existing #3 paper machine at Boise’s mill in Wallula, WA, with state-of-the-art equipment that will increase the company’s pressure-sensitive capacity by 200,000 tons. Eastman Kodak has named Jeffrey Hayzlett chief marketing officer and vice president for its Graphic Communications Group (GCG). Hayzlett has nearly 25 years of international marketing, sales and

Expo Shows Demand for Digital Presses PHILADELPHIA—By all measures, save one, the recent 2006 On Demand Exposition (co-located with AIIM) has been widely judged a success. The exception being that the sponsors apparently found the Pennsylvania Convention Center wanting and have decided a move to the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center is called for in 2007. More than 20,000 registrants and 450 exhibitors were reported to have participated in the 2006 expo. There was a noticeable up-tick in the new product introductions (or U.S. debuts, at least) from the digital printer/press vendors at the show, resulting in further segmentation of the market. A surprising

Stora Enso has announced the opening of its new Southern California regional distribution center in Montebello, just south of Los Angeles. Len Cammalleri is MAN Roland’s new district sales manager in New York and New Jersey. He has held senior sales and management posts with Hell Graphic Systems, Linotype, Polaroid and Hewlett-Packard. Meanwhile, Gerald Whitlow takes over as district sales manager in Georgia, Tennessee and Kentucky. Diamond Holding Corp. has appointed Matt Greene to the position of technical sales representative. Greene will join the telemarketing department and will be responsible for nationwide sales of the Diamond Express product line. KBA North America has named

NOT MANY Americans made the trip to the largest English-speaking trade show in the world in 2006. In Europe, virtually everyone carries a passport for identification, but here in the U.S. a driver’s license is the norm. Because our country is so large and self-sufficient, Americans are generally loathe to travel internationally. So Americans are not expected at IPEX, the once-every-four-years trade show held in Birmingham, UK. But, in many respects, it is our loss. Those who made the trip for the eight-day show saw the latest in printing technology across a wide spectrum of processes and business applications. Although the number of

ORLANDO, FL—Industry change brought about by the growth of the Internet, consolidation, global competition and outsourcing were key discussion points at the NAPL Top Management Conference and NAQP Annual Conference held last month at the luxurious Ritz-Carlton Orlando Grande Lakes Hotel. And even the event itself exemplified change—marking the first time the two industry conferences were conducted as one overall meeting with several combined breakout sessions, keynote addresses and social activities. Andy Paparozzi, NAPL vice president and chief economist, kicked off the NAPL portion of the meeting with highlights from the 2006 “NAPL State of the Industry Report.” Always a crowd pleaser with his keen insight

Editor's note: While not a blog, exactly, Dennis E. Mason, of Mason Consulting Inc., kindly agreed to share some of his first-hand impressions of IPEX 2006 direct from the fairgrounds. IPEX 2006 Day 2: Wednesday at IPEX proved to be a much better day than its opener on Tuesday. Crowds were good, and exhibitors were generally quite pleased with their booth traffic. IPEX veterans say that the second and third days are usually the best attended, so everyone seemed to think that things went according to plan. The day began with a Xerox briefing, featuring CEO Anne Mulcahy talking about where the company is going.