EFI’s GRAPH EXPO Offerings Fuel Print Service Providers’ Success in Print
GRAPH EXPO visitors can learn how they can benefit from the power and precision of EFI (Booth 1902) integrated solutions at GRAPH EXPO. The booth features new EFI MIS/ERP and web-to-print, Fiery® digital front end (DFE) and inkjet products that fuel print business success.
Most of EFI’s workflow software offerings at the show are part of the company’s new Productivity Suite, a comprehensive portfolio of integrated, automated smart software. The primary focus of the Productivity Suite is to help printing companies generate new profits from existing and new clients. It is available for enterprise commercial printing and publishing; enterprise label and packaging; and mid-market commercial, digital and hybrid printing business segments. In each segment, the suite has 15 or more certified workflows based on the product and process mix required.
Within the suite, EFI’s advanced technologies on display include EFI DirectSmile Cross Media, a top technology selection for GRAPH EXPO attendees serious about advancing into lucrative marketing service offerings that can drive their revenue growth and establish greater customer loyalty. DirectSmile Cross Media, which received a 2015 PIA InterTech Award, is a fully featured, all-in-one solution for multi-channel campaign design that requires no HTML skills. The new version 7 of the software provides the significant convenience of Marketing Portals, making multi-channel campaigns easily accessible by allowing users to adapt, localize and personalize content. The portals support the upload of data, launch and tracking, reducing campaign costs while increasing marketing productivity and profitability.
The new version 3 of EFI PrintSmith Vision MIS software at GRAPH EXPO makes small commercial print businesses more competitive in terms of workflow management, production efficiency and sales capabilities. The software includes new dashboards that centralize and streamline management of the many moving parts needed to meet deadlines, use equipment more efficiently, control costs and deliver outstanding customer service. Plus, new mobile views in the software extend users’ operational visibility. PrintSmith Vision also now features advanced integrations with EFI Fiery DFEs and EFI Digital StoreFront Web-to-print software to further eliminate touches, improve communication, speed production and reduce costs.
EFI Digital StoreFront software has also received a significant update: a new entity model that introduces support for complex hierarchies. With the entity model, a typical Digital StoreFront Web-to-print site can include an unlimited number of branded sites, each managed/administered by the parent site.
Now, commercial PSPs working with large organizations and/or in-plant operations of large organizations with multiple business units or subdivisions can meet complex and unique Web-to-print needs without difficult-to-maintain custom solutions. The entity model also facilitates print service provider (PSP) client ordering from multiple print and finishing servicing organizations. Plus, PSPs can engage with partner organizations such as photographers and graphic designers into a single, multi-faceted marketplace Web-to-print offering for content creation, design and production.
A new, .Net release of EFI PrintStream fulfillment software at GRAPH EXPO provides an improved user experience and several value-focused enhancements. Plus, a retail campaign fulfillment capability in the software manages the complex distribution of marketing or point of sale materials to hundreds of stores or locations. PrintStream’s intelligent distribution planning tools calculate which items are needed by each location based on store attributes and planogram codes. Additional new features include timed release of orders; selective discounts; a Web API to create recipient attributes; ship date calculations based on service level agreements with alerts; and email triggers based on inventory requests.
Advanced, integrated productivity in print and packaging operations
Three additional software integrations being shown at GRAPH EXPO offer new opportunities to streamline commercial print operations. EFI iQuote estimating software, a product that was honored with a 2014 InterTech Award, has a new integration with EFI Monarch ERP software that improves users’ end-to-end workflow for virtually all printing processes and all types of products. The integration helps users get the most out of an advanced estimating technology that gains its intelligence from a smart database built for users’ processes and products.
An advanced integration between EFI Metrix planning and impositioning software and EFI Pace MIS software provides users a better return on investment by giving more people in a print operation the ability to generate smart layouts while streamlining planning and production processes. As a result, estimators can now automate the layout for each sheet to achieve the best, most profitable way to produce each job. Plus, with a Metrix standards feature that tracks and reuses layouts for successful past jobs, users can generate plans for complex jobs that were once reserved for only the most skilled and experienced prepress staff.
Another integration being shown, between EFI Monarch Planner and Kodak Prinergy, goes beyond the basics of what can be specified using JDF. GRAPH EXPO attendees can learn how this integration enables near lights-out production of plate-ready PDFs; MIS control of the prepress process based on plant-wide tracking of press availability, paper inventory and other factors; and accurate “content-aware” management of last-minute adjustments to plate-ready files. A single-form submission feature improves throughput for publication work, giving users the ability to send individual forms to press as they are completed without having to wait for incomplete sections.
Several EFI packaging workflow technologies are also making their debut at GRAPH EXPO. The latest version of EFI Auto-Count® shop floor data collection management technology has a new integration with EFI Radius® ERP software as part of the EFI Enterprise Packaging Suite. Now, for the first time, EFI Radius users can have Auto-Count’s best-in-class tools for tracking run quantities, waste, machine uptime and many other production factors. A streamlined interface and advanced business intelligence tools give label and packaging converters the data they need to optimize their businesses.
EFI is also showing an Enterprise Packaging Suite integration between Radius and EFI PrintFlow® Dynamic Scheduling software. PrintFlow has been updated with hundreds of enhancements that specifically meet converters’ scheduling needs, including, for example, automated cylinder, die and tool scheduling settings. The PrintFlow/Radius integration also provides new algorithms and logic for managing custom properties in multi-plant converting operations.
Faster, better Fiery digital print solutions
GRAPH EXPO also marks the worldwide debut of the fastest, most advanced platform in EFI’s industry’s leading Fiery DFE product line. The new EFI Fiery FS200 Pro DFE platform is being incorporated in several new digital presses from EFI partners. The platform is powered by EFI’s proprietary ASIC (application specific integrated circuit) with RIPChip technology, which can process print files significantly faster than alternative DFEs.
Fiery FS200 Pro expands the performance advantage on high-end servers with EFI’s breakthrough Fiery HyperRIP offering. HyperRIP now has a mode optimized for multiple jobs, as well as the previous, single-job mode, boosting processing performance up to 55% compared to the performance without HyperRIP. Now, the Fiery FS200 Pro platform can RIP up to four jobs simultaneously, giving users the ability to print more jobs in the shortest possible time. Plus, the new Fiery platform includes a Rush RIP mode that opens up a fifth RIP to process rush jobs when all four main parallel processors are busy.
The DFE platform also features innovative tools for higher-speed processing and expansion to CMYK+ colors for the growing number of cut-sheet digital print devices offering a fifth process color for improved spot-color matching, as well as for gold/metallic or clear toner options. Unlike most CMYK toners, specialty digital print toners require costs that are typically paid on top of standard click charges. A new Fiery Smart Estimator being shown at GRAPH EXPO addresses that issue by giving users accurate costs for specialty colors based on actual usage/coverage.
New features in the Fiery Graphic Arts Package, Premium Edition for the Fiery FS200 Pro platform deliver more efficient raster image troubleshooting and global color control, as well as more consistent print production. Users can inspect raster files to catch errors before printing, and a new Control Bar Builder in the software ensures that color information is always available. The Fiery Graphic Arts Package, Premium Edition also has a new Tabular Curve Edit feature that allows users to import custom curves and helps ensure visual similarity across all print processes. Plus, users can save and apply custom color curve edits to automate color correction and maintain color consistency throughout the workflow.
Another new product at GRAPH EXPO, EFI Fiery Shop Manager, is a cloud-based solution that provides business intelligence metrics and device management tools for production environments that contain one or more Fiery Driven printers. The product, which includes dashboard, alert/notification, sync and manage modules, also gives users centralized control to monitor and enforce compliance throughout their printer network and get real-time critical status alerts based on user-configured rules.
EFI Fiery JobMaster-Impose, version 4.8, offers smart ways to get digital print jobs done right, with new functionality that predicts the optimal print settings by getting information from the PDF file, such as customer requirements for layout, color and finishing. Users gain increased efficiency, time savings on complex jobs and reduced costs. Plus, Fiery JobMaster-Impose is the only in-RIP make-ready solution that launches from the EFI Fiery Command WorkStation central job management interface.
New EFI Fiery JobFlow software automates prepress setup and corrections for the most common print applications to increase print volume. Users can configure job-specific workflows to integrate powerful tools for PDF conversion, preflight checks, correction and editing of PDF files, image enhancement, document imposition, job ticketing, notifications and approval. JobFlow also is the only automation tool on the market that can build a cloud-based approval process into a workflow that automatically resumes processing once the assigned reviewers have approved the job online.
Quality and sustainability with grayscale, LED inkjet imaging
The award-winning hybrid roll/flatbed EFI VUTEk GS2000lx Pro with UltraDrop Technology shown at GRAPH EXPO, a 2-meter LED inkjet printer, offers continuous board productivity at true 1,000 dpi with eight colors, plus three-layer white ink. Its innovative “cool cure” LED ink curing technology delivers photorealistic quality and high adhesion on flexible or rigid substrates up to 80 inches and up to two inches in thickness.
The printer’s 7-picoliter UltraDrop Technology combines grayscale imaging and more precise control for customers requiring the ultimate in image quality, crispness and speed. It offers true multi-drop addressability in each dot position, giving high apparent resolution and high definition quality with four-level grayscale and two ink density levels. UltraDrop Technology also produces outstanding smoothness in shadows, gradients and transitions, as well as superb text quality with four-point text in both standard and knockout with fewer satellites and more clarity in all print modes. It is available in several printers from EFI’s industry-leading industrial inkjet portfolio, including 2- and 3-meter UV and LED hybrid roll/flatbed printers and 3- and 5-meter LED roll-to-roll printers.
The award-winning EFI H1625 LED hybrid printer on display at GRAPH EXPO drives greater profits with a low total cost of ownership, giving users the ability to print fast-turn, high-margin wide-format graphics on flexible roll and rigid media up to two inches thick. Operating at speeds up to 458 square feet per hour and resolutions up to 1200x600 dpi, the EFI H1625 LED printer offers four-color plus two channels of white (which come standard) and single-pass, multilayer printing, as well as eight-level variable drop grayscale heads for superior quality imaging.
The “cool cure” LED imaging technology on the VUTEk GS2000lx Pro and EFI H1625 printers offers significant sustainability benefits, with virtually no VOCs, less consumables and waste and lower energy consumption compared to UV or latex printers. Plus, it gives users the ability to print on thin and delicate substrates that cannot withstand the heat of other curing or drying methods.
The new EFI VUTEk Go utility shown at GRAPH EXPO is an Android-based, remote monitoring application for VUTEk HS Pro series superwide-format inkjet presses. With VUTEk Go, users can monitor real time print queue status, ink levels, lamp settings and lamp life; review history of printer status and print queue within last 24 hours; and receive push notifications on printer alerts or errors.
The latest-version EFI Fiery proServer driving the VUTEk printer in EFI’s booth is a high-performance RIP and color management workflow for superwide-format inkjet printing, with industry-leading performance and FAST RIP technology. The proServer includes a newly re-engineered tool that completes custom linearizations for high-end imaging in half the time. As a result, users can easily switch to new substrates without making the quality compromises that would come with using default linearizations.
Printing and packaging businesses looking to streamline their wide-format finishing processes will want to see a new EFI Fiery XF Cut Server Bundle shown at GRAPH EXPO. The technology integrates cutting front-end technology from SA International and EFI’s Fiery wide-format RIP and color workflow on up to 8 cutting engines, giving users an efficient, end-to-end print-and-cut environment with minimal touch points and maximum automation. This new offering eliminates the need for manual cut path extraction and transfers and it works with cutting devices from over 80 different manufacturers.
EFI is highlighting several new inks at GRAPH EXPO as well. EFI SuperDraw ink is a versatile UV inkjet ink for thermoforming and corrugated plastic applications. EFI 3M SuperRange Ink provides an extended color gamut and maximum reliability and performance for roll-to-roll VUTEk superwide-format LED printers, with a hard surface cure and excellent adhesion properties for printing double-sided graphics, billboards, bus shelters, banners, window films, POP signage, wall coverings and more. A new clear ink for the EFI VUTEk H2000 Pro 2-meter hybrid UV inkjet printer extends users ability to address in premium-quality, higher-margin opportunities in temporary indoor graphics, retail point-of-purchase signage and other applications.
New EFI Cretacolor ink for digital inkjet ceramic tile printers is designed to deliver maximum color intensity, chromatic range, color stability over time and uniformity. Ceramic designers can use the ink to create high-quality, color-intense traditional designs, as well as vibrant, process-color images. Users can also employ several special effects with the Cretacolor ink line using white ink as well as inks that enable luster, matte and glossy finishes.
