FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 15, 2008

Full Array Of EFI Products On Display At SGIA ‘08

End-to-end workflow, environmentally friendly UV wide and superwide format printers bring the ultimate in productivity, profitability to sign and display graphics businesses

Foster City, CA -- EFI™ (Nasdaq: EFII), the world leader in customer-focused digital printing innovation, today announced that it has expanded the array of solutions being shown at SGIA ’08 beyond VUTEk, the most productive portfolio of grand format printers in the industry, to include workflow, web-to-print and print MIS solutions. Raster Printers will also be joining EFI in Booth #1807 at the show, which is being held at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, October 15th through 18th, 2008.

“As sign and display graphics businesses continue their migration from analog to digital production technologies, it becomes increasingly important to surround the production operation with the right digital infrastructure,” said Fred Rosenzweig, president of EFI. “That’s why we have expanded our presence at the show to include a full range of solutions to help those businesses improve their competitive advantage, especially critical in a period of economic turmoil.”

EFI to Acquire Raster Printers
Concurrent with the show, EFI also announced its intent to acquire Raster Printers. The company had made an initial investment in Raster in late 2006 as a demonstration of its dedication to bringing the broadest array of innovative products to the printing industry, especially in the growing display graphics market. The acquisition is expected to be complete as of December 1, 2008. Raster printers, currently marketed under the Daytona brand, will be rebranded as Rastek under EFI ownership.

“This investment offers sign and display graphics companies an ease-of-entry strategy into the roll-to-roll and rigid substrate UV printing of display graphics,” added Rosenzweig. “When combined with our extensive VUTEk portfolio, this places EFI and our many distribution partners in a unique position in the UV-curable market and further solidifies our investment in environmentally sustainable products and practices.”

At SGIA 2008
In addition to the Raster Daytona H-700, a hybrid roll-to-roll/flatbed UV wide format printer that prints photographic image quality at up to 320 square feet per hour at up to 1,200 dpi on materials up to 73” wide and 1.8” thick, EFI will be showing:

• VUTEk DS Series digital screen printer. The innovative DS Series design and architecture, on display for the first time in North America, enables the cost-effective production of higher volume jobs than ever before possible using a digital press. The incredible speed and resolution made possible by the DS Series’ full width print array sets this VUTEk printer apart from all other competitive offerings available in the market today.

  With eight ink channels, up to 1200 dpi quality and fast make-ready times, the DS Series prints to a wide range of substrates while minimizing the health and safety issues normally associated with analog workflows. It extends the digital crossover point with traditional screen print by a factor of 4 to 5, it possible to go straight to high volume production for same day, order-to-delivery capability.

• VUTEk QS3200r. This innovative roll-to-roll UV printer was recognized as the 2007 grand format UV product of the year by the Digital Printing & Imaging Association (DPI). It has experienced early market success, and is driving new image quality requirements in the roll-to-roll space as the migration from solvent to UV printing continues.

  New at SGIA is a heavy-duty media handling option and a kit that enables two-sided printing, both designed to increase the productivity of this already outstanding printer, and to increase the range of applications it can produce. The QS3200r images up to 3.2 meters wide at 1,080 dpi with High Definition Printing (HDP), at the rate of up to 1,850 square feet per hour.

• VUTEk 3360 with the Fusion Option. The VUTEk 3360, a three-meter roll-to-roll solvent printer, is available in four-, six- and eight-color versions, switchable to Fast-4™ and is field upgradeable from one configuration to another. The 3360 prints up to 1,622 square feet per hour at up to 720 dpi apparent resolution for brilliant photographic color reproduction on roll-to-roll substrates. The 3360 will be producing solvent applications in the EFI booth at the show.

  The versatile VUTEk 3360 is also available with the Fusion option, which enables a clean and rapid changeover between traditional solvent and textile applications in about two minutes, without the need to flush the entire system. Hilord Chemical Company, an EFI partner, will be demonstrating the 3360 printing dye sublimation applications in Booth #2607 using VUTEk UltraTex dye sublimation ink.

• VUTEk QS3200. This versatile 3.2 meter printer offers superior image quality on both rigid and flexible substrates up to 126 inches (3.2 meters) wide and up to two inches (5.08 cm) thick, with changeover from flexible to rigid substrates in less than a minute. It is also certified for use with 3M’s Matched Component System (MCS), including 3M Piezo Inkjet inks and 3M media.
• Fiery XF. The EFI® Fiery® XF RIP supports the full line of award-winning solvent and UV VUTEk superwide format printers from EFI. It provides leading-edge technology for superwide format printing for both production and proofing requirements, delivering high-speed processing, exceptional color quality and increased productivity. It also offers exclusive connectivity to the EFI product portfolio, allowing Fiery XF customers to profit from current and future integration with other EFI products to streamline production workflows and increase productivity.
• EFI Digital StoreFront Web-to-Print. This popular web-to-print solution has been deployed to more than 2,500 sites worldwide and is available in either hosted or licensed software versions. New at SGIA are a large file submission process designed to meet the needs of the sign and display graphics market, as well as integration with EFI Fiery XF for a streamlined order-to-production workflow.
• EFI Pace. This modular, fully integrated and scalable print shop management solution has already been adopted by a number of superwide format users. Its browser-based architecture makes it device independent, operating equally well with Macs, PCs and Linux-based devices. Because it is delivered in a turnkey hardware/software configuration, implementation is faster and easier than many other print management solutions. In addition, this highly configurable solution can be customized to meet the needs of even the most unusual requirements in the sign and display graphics market. EFI Pace will seamlessly integrate with Digital StoreFront and PrintFlow dynamic scheduling for a complete solution.
• EFI PrintSmith. For smaller shops, EFI PrintSmith offers turnkey end-to-end management for wide format operations, commercial shops and copy centers. This entry-level solution operates in both Mac and PC environments, and includes estimating and pricing, scheduling, real-time data tracking and costing, point-of-sale, and e-commerce capabilities. It is also integrated with Fiery XF and can leverage the capabilities of Digital StoreFront for a more sophisticated customer-facing web presence.