Contains 272 photos of custom backlit awnings both in black and white on printed pages of a binder, and in full color on an enclosed CD. Intended as an idea generator for both sign designers and salespeople, ...
Does the large-format, digital-printing industry deserve its own management software?
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I just returned from the Electronics for Imaging's EFI Connect 2006 user's conference, which was held April 30-May 2 at the Venetian Casino in Las Vegas. As you read this, EFI (Foster City, CA) is celebrating its first anniverary of having acquired VUTEk (Meredith, NH) for $281 million. This seventh annual conference (best attended yet, with more than 1,300) included more than 200 educational sessions. I was one of 26 invited journalists invited from 11 countries. I was the only person from a sign magazine.
EFI is a $485 million company that primarily provides software-system solutions to help various kinds of printers manage their businesses: quick printers, direct-mail printers, digital printers and even offset printers, such as R. R. Donnelley, which prints ST .
The conference included a mini tradeshow with 21 companies and some very recognizable names: Xerox, Ricoh, Canon, Toshiba, Heidelberg, Adobe and the National Assn. for Printing Leadership (NAPL). The tradeshow's 14-station "lab" allowed attendees to go online and try out these software products. A conference highlight was an hour-long "fireside chat," complete with a 20 x 40-ft. Vutek-printed backdrop of a den with a fireplace, at which EFI CEO Guy Gecht interviewed Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen.
In the back corner of the tradeshow area, a Vutek PressVu was displayed. The neighboring display promoted EFI's Fiery RIP, which was originally designed for narrow-format production. Vutek has provided the ColorBurst RIP (Sterling, VA) with its machines for several years. Currently, PressVu purchasers have a choice between the ColorBurst or Fiery RIP.
Marc Olin, EFI's Sr. VP and GM of Professional Printing Applications, presented an hour-long update on all of EFI's product introductions from the prior year, as well as upcoming innovations. Primarily MIS solutions, these products carry brand names of Hagen, Logic, Fiery and PSI, and they help printers manage their operations in terms of estimating, mailing, color, invoicing, post-job costing, Internet selling and seemingly any other type of printing concern.
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