EFI Achieves New Industry Standard Certification for VDP Workflow Interoperability

FOSTER CITY, CA—May 19, 2008—EFI (Nasdaq: EFII), the world leader in customer-focused digital printing innovation, today announced earning PODi (Print on Demand Initiative)’s newest interoperability certification, an achievement that further reinforces the company’s drive to advance variable data printing (VDP) technology. EFI’s Fiery® digital print servers readily passed stringent new PPML (Personalized Print Markup Language) testing. The certification ensures that Fiery customers have the highest possible levels of throughput and productivity when printing personalized material on demand at high volume. EFI will showcase its Fiery-driven Variable Data Printing workflow at drupa, stand C01, Hall 5 (May 29 - June 11, 2008, Dusseldorf, Germany), with a demonstration that shows customers how to ensure compatibility in all VDP workflows.

Among EFI’s customers benefiting from the Fiery, which offers the industry’s most open, powerful VDP workflow capability, is Honolulu-based Boomerang Hawaii. Combining the best of digital printing and personalization software, Boomerang Hawaii provides integrated, innovative solutions for direct marketing using web-to-print and print-to-web technologies. “Using the Fiery is like second nature to us, and EFI delivers the industry’s most advanced VDP and color features – invaluable as we create visually compelling personalized pieces,” said Boomerang Operations Director Jaison VanDenover, who is among the world’s 15 million Fiery users. Boomerang’s Fiery drive its Xerox iGen3™ Digital Production Press.

“With EFI VDP technology, newly certified by PODi, our customers are able to add tremendous value to their service, with personalized, one-to-one marketing campaigns,” added Kathy Wilson, senior director of product marketing and strategy, EFI. “Their customers realize the increased response rates of these engaging campaigns and are willing to pay a premium for that impact. We’re constantly advancing our VDP offering to help our customers take advantage of this value-added capability that improves their competitiveness and profitability.”

In a recent study, industry research firm InfoTrends predicted 24.8 percent CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) for the Print on Demand Variable Data Market through 2010. PPML is an open, interoperable, device-independent XML (extensible markup language)-based standard that enables the widespread use of personalized print applications in high volumes. The new certification provides a means for PPML “producers” to confirm that output from their products is compatible with PPML “consumer” devices, such as the EFI Fiery platform. Certification boosts PPML effectiveness by ensuring VDP workflow interoperability. This certification follows EFI’s having achieved 100 percent success across PODi’s PPML test suite, published last year.