EFI

Printing Impressions and InfoTrends have recently conducted a survey of Printing Impressions’ readers that focused on their use of wide-format digital printing equipment. The respondents to the survey fell into two main groups: in-plant operations and print-for-pay establishments. Participants were asked various questions regarding their current wide-format equipment and services, as well as future plans for their wide-format business. (See Chart 1.) The results show that while aqueous ink-jet is still the dominant technology, there is a growing presence in the production and commercial printing market of newer printing technologies. More than 67 percent of respondents indicated that they currently own an aqueous ink-jet

ROCHESTER, NY—August 19, 2008—PODi, the Digital Printing Initiative, announced today that a stellar group of industry leaders has been confirmed to chair track sessions at its seventh annual AppForum, January 19 - 21, 2009 in Las Vegas at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino. • Laurie Beasley, President of the DMA of Northern California, will chair the new Direct Marketing Track. Laurie runs Beasley Direct Marketing and has managed hundreds of successful direct mail and online campaigns. She’s been honored with Echo, Summit, Marcom, Pyramid and Caples awards. • Joe Metzger, President of Metzgers Printing + Mailing will be leading the Web-to-Print Track.

LAS VEGAS—The acquisition by EFI of MIS and e-commerce competitor Pace Systems Group for approximately $21 million in cash headlined the announcements made at EFI’s Connect 2008 users conference meeting held at the Wynn Las Vegas this week. The browser-based ePace print management solution will be renamed EFI Pace and will eventually replace EFI’s PSI and Logic platforms (which will still continue to be supported by EFI). The new solution is geared toward the mid-market segment. Targeted toward large single and multi-plant printing operations, EFI debuted EFI Monarch, which combines Hagen OA’s MIS toolset, the capabilities of Prograph for production planning and JDF

Allegra Names Heidelberg USA ‘Supplier of the Year’ Winner NORTHVILLE, MI—Allegra Network honored Heidelberg USA with the Supplier of the Year award at its 2008 Allegra Network convention. Allegra Network franchise members vote to choose the winner. In April 2007, Heidelberg served as host for Allegra Network’s annual summit trip to Heidelberg, Germany. More than 160 of Allegra Network’s top franchise members participated in the event. The Allegra Network consists of Allegra Print & Imaging, American Speedy Printing Centers, Insty-Prints and Signs Now. Multi-City Road Show Deemed a Success MINNEAPOLIS, MN—Buhrs Americas and Lake Image Systems teamed up and headed for the road

FOSTER CITY, CA—July 22, 2008—EFI (Nasdaq: EFII), the world leader in customer-focused digital printing innovation, and Mutoh, a worldwide leader and manufacturer of large format commercial inkjet printers, today announced that Mutoh has named EFI-Inkware® as the manufacturer and supplier of MUBIO inks to Mutoh worldwide. MUBIO inks are a low viscosity version of EFI-Inkware’s BioWare™ inks and are the only inks to be recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) “Design for Environment” program and authorized to display the EPA “Design for Environment” logo. Mutoh General Manager Quote “We are delighted to be working with EFI-Inkware to bring true biofriendly printing to

DRUPA’S STANDING as an international printing exhibition makes it the place to see the course of technological development in the industry laid out for the next four years. As even the following press and postpress wrap-up stories note, digital printing technology had its strongest showing yet. Even the developments in digital workflow were muted by comparison. Many of the product introductions were already covered in one of the Drupa Countdown stories published in editions of Printing Impressions leading up to the show. Therefore, this wrap-up will primarily focus on what was new in Düsseldorf. The event lived up to its billing as The Ink-Jet

FOSTER CITY, CA—EFI says it has reached a settlement, subject to court approval, of all litigation relating to its historic stock option granting practices. Among other things, the settlement provides for the payment by EFI of approximately $3.08 million in plaintiffs’ attorneys’ fees and costs, as well as the adoption of remedial measures, including the cancellation and repricing of certain stock options and the adoption of changes to its corporate governance and procedures. The agreement reportedly doesn’t contain any admission of fault or wrongdoing on the part of EFI or the individual defendants. In other company news, EFI has completed a strategic investment in

DÜSSELDORF, GERMANY—June 10, 2008—EFI (NASDAQ: EFII), the world leader in customer-focused digital printing innovation, today announced the successful debut of the latest version of EFI Fieryâ Central at drupa 2008 (through June 11). Fiery Central, a modular PDF-based production workflow, management and sophisticated make-ready solution, is on display for the first time on the Canon stand (B46, Hall 8A) and the EFI stand (C01, Hall 5). Part of EFI’s Advanced Workstream Solutions, a portfolio of products and services created specifically for solution-driven integration, the new Fiery Central has caught the attention of drupa visitors as a powerful way to increase job volume, decrease turnaround

Perfector Boosts Versatility and Quality CONYERS, GA—After recently installing a six-color, 41˝ KBA Rapida 105 one-over-five perfector with aqueous coating capability, 4D Printing reports that the press is “completely booked” and is running three shifts a day, five days a week. Doug Silsbee, 4D vice president, claims that the Rapida 105 is 25 percent faster in makeready than the printer’s other presses. It is also equipped with automatic plate loaders, auto washup and the KBA Densitronic S closed-loop scanning spectrodensitometer. “Thanks to the amazing automation, we’re putting more jobs through the KBA Rapida 105 than any of our other presses,” Silsbee says. “We

Magic 8-Ball Says ‘Ask Again’ THE POLICE officer who has a car stolen. The fireman with dead batteries in a smoke detector. The magazine editor who sends an e-mail out with typos in it. There’s a special kind of embarrassment that comes with screwing up at something related to one’s own profession. Yet, one of the regrettable truths of the printing—aka graphic arts, marketing services, communications—industry is that many member companies have a poor track record when it comes to sending out self-promotion campaigns to their own customers and prospects. Adoption of digital printing has been a game changer because of the need to