Canon Adds EFI Fiery Central To Workflow Solutions

Canon Extends Support of EFI Fiery-Based Production Workflow Solution to Maximize Customers’ Productivity and Equipment Investment. EFI Fiery Central Added to imagePRESS Workflow Solutions Program.

LAKE SUCCESS, NY and FOSTER CITY, CA, Mar. 25, 2008 — Canon U.S.A., the overall brand market share leader in digital color printing systems in the U.S.(i), and EFI (Nasdaq:EFII), the world leader in customer-focused digital printing innovation, today announced the inclusion of EFI Fieryr Central powerful modular, PDF-based production workflow solution as part of Canon’s imagePRESS Workflow Solutions program.

Higher Productivity for Printers
Encompassing EFI’s unmatched expertise, Fiery Central enables print service providers in medium to high-volume print-on-demand environments, such as corporate reprographic departments (CRD), print for pay, and commercial printers, to increase job volume, decrease turnaround times and maximize their Canon imagePRESS and imageRUNNER product investment.

“Helping customers optimize their digital workflow and automate
redundant tasks is necessary to maximize profits on their digital
printing operation. By integrating the Fiery Central production
workflow solution and EFI’s and Canon’s high-end production solutions,
our customers can better manage their end-to-end digital workflow and
streamline monochrome and color production printing to further develop
and enhance their digital business,” said Janet Cain, senior director,
Canon U.S.A., Inc.

“With Fiery Central, we’ve extended the Fiery power familiar to
many Canon customers, delivering an unprecedented production workflow
solution that optimizes their resources and increases their
production,” said Frank Mallozzi, senior vice president, worldwide
marketing and sales, EFI. “With Canon now offering Fiery Central for
more of their digital color printing systems, more customers will
realize the tremendous value of EFI’s robust portfolio of integrated
products specifically designed to drive their increased
competitiveness, efficiency and profitability.”

JDF Connectivity for Integrated Workflows
Readily enabling connection to multiple imagePRESS and imageRUNNER
devices, Fiery Central is a powerful yet flexible solution that
leverages Canon customers’ existing investment in Fiery-driven Canon
imagePRESS server, Canon ColorPASS and Canon imagePASS technology and their familiarity with the Fiery workflow. Further, JDF connectivity enables a broadened range of integrated workflows. To address customers’ specific needs and expand as their workflow requirements change, Fiery Central comes in three modular components, Fiery Central Focus, Fiery Central Flow and Fiery Central Balance.

Fiery Central Focus, the base module, provides a centralized job
management solution for multiple Fiery-driven imagePRESS, ColorPASS
and imagePASS digital servers in a production environment. Focus
includes award-winning Fiery applications such as the EFI Command
WorkStation(R) (CWS) interface, EFI Hot Folders to automate the job
set-up process and reduce errors, and EFI Driver, which simplifies the
process of setting up, submitting and monitoring print jobs. The Focus
module also includes EFI Scan, which improves the job process by
scanning black and white and color documents to the workflow and
provides manipulation of scanned content. Focus also has two options
for digital document preparation: The Compose feature eases job
composition and make-ready by allowing users to visually assign and
communicate page-level attributes and tabs to any printer. Impose
reduces production time and errors by allowing WYSIWYG (What You See
Is What You Get) display for nearly any imposition scheme and by
creating templates for simple, scalable workflows.

Customers are able to add on optional modules to Focus to address
their needs:

Fiery Central Flow automates manual tasks and offers advanced
digital prepress capabilities in a simple, cost-effective solution.
Leveraging Fiery technology that delivers powerful capability via an
intuitive interface, this module is icon-based and features a unique
Visual Workflow to optimize productivity by providing job progress
at-a-glance. Fiery Central Flow incorporates file conversion,
preflight, color management, approval, routing to another workflow and
proofing processes into customizable workflows that can be edited and
managed by users of any skill level to optimize resources and increase
production.

Fiery Central Balance increases productivity by combining multiple
Canon devices into a “printer group” for optimized asset utilization.
For complex documents, Fiery Central Balance routes jobs to one or
more devices within the printer group for load balancing and maximum
speed. With this module’s intelligent routing function, jobs can be
split by volume, color/black and white and deployed to the best engine
or combination of engines.

As the print service provider’s business grows, imagePRESS and
imageRUNNER engine connectivity can be added to accommodate changing
production requirements. Fiery Central’s modular structure enables
production of complex documents easily, faster and more efficiently.

Fiery Central support includes the following Canon digital
printing systems, delivering a single high-end production workflow
that brings together analog and digital processes: imagePRESS series,
imageRUNNER Pro series, Color imageRUNNER C5185 series with a
ColorPASS or imagePASS server, and imageRUNNER 7105 series with an
imagePASS-S2, as well as legacy engine support. Fiery Central is
integral to a highly efficient end-to-end workflow, which includes
customer’s document submission via the web with EFI Digital
StoreFront(TM), Fiery-driven imagePRESS servers, ColorPASS and
imagePASS digital servers, and optimal print shop management with EFI
Print MIS solutions.

Fiery Central
Fiery Central is among the Canon imagePRESS Workflow Solutions,
comprising Canon and third-party solutions that add value in
imagePRESS customer environments. This Canon program focuses on key
workflows in production printing environments to maximize efficiencies
and help printers build and grow a profitable digital print business.
Fiery Central represents EFI’s next generation of digital print
production workflow technology, leveraging the company’s
industry-leading Fiery digital print server technology widely used by
Canon customers.

Availability
EFI solutions designed for Canon U.S.A., Inc. are available
through Canon U.S.A., Inc. authorized dealers, at 1-800-OK-CANON. Fiery Central will be available through Canon U.S.A., Inc. authorized dealers later this month.

Canon U.S.A., Inc. delivers consumer, business-to-business, and industrial imaging solutions. The Company is listed as one of Fortune’s Most Admired Companies in America and is on the 2006 BusinessWeek list of “Top 100 Brands.” Its parent company, Canon Inc. (NYSE: CAJ), is a top patent holder of technology, ranking third overall in the U.S. in 2007(ii), with global revenues of $39.3 billion.

EFI is the world leader in customer-focused digital printing innovation. EFI’s award-winning solutions, integrated from creation to print, deliver performance, cost savings and productivity. The company’s product portfolio includes Fieryr digital color print servers; VUTEkr superwide digital inkjet printers, UV and solvent inks; Jetrionr industrial inkjet printing systems; print production workflow and management information software; and corporate printing solutions. EFI maintains 26 offices worldwide.
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(i) Source – Gartner Dataquest – “Printer, Copier and MFP
Quarterly Statistics – Database, 4Q2007″, February 2008
(ii) IFI Patent Intelligence Press Release, January 2008
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Posted by Editor on 10:12 am. Filed under Contracts / Agreements, JDF / CIM / Automation, Presses, Software: Production, Software: Workflow. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Canon Adds EFI Fiery Central To Workflow Solutions

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