FREMONT, Calif. - Electronics For Imaging, Inc., a world leader in customer-focused digital printing innovation, is continuing to evolve the integration between the new Kodak? PRINERGY? Workflow 8 platform and its industry-leading EFI? Fiery? digital front end (DFE) platform. With the expanded capabilities between Fiery DFEs and PRINERGY Workflow 8.1, print business owners gain the best of digital and conventional presses, allowing them to make decisions in real time for the most cost efficient production scenarios.

Bi-directional integration for hybrid digital and conventional production

The PRINERGY Workflow-compatible Fiery DFE — along with integrated EFI MIS/ERP software products for business and production management — help printing businesses and in-plant graphics departments boost profitability and productivity, while meeting the increasing demand for short-run jobs, faster turnaround time and value-added services only digital presses in an integrated workflow can achieve. Users gain exceptionally fast processing speed with EFI's proprietary HyperRIP technology, which can process files up to 55% faster, on average, compared with a Fiery DFE without the HyperRIP feature.

"PRINERGY Workflow 8.1 will provide our customers with the widest choice when connecting to a digital device," said Allan Brown, Vice President and General Manager of Kodak's Unified Workflow Solutions. "By fully leveraging their digital equipment, printers will be able to increase efficiency and open the door for additional growth opportunities."

Fiery DFE integration with PRINERGY Workflow 8.1 provides many important features for advanced production operations including:

- The flexibility to add equipment from different leading digital toner-based or high-speed inkjet production printer manufacturers without changing workflows

- Fiery DFE printer capabilities to dynamically submit jobs with specified media, color, layout and finishing settings

- Bidirectional communication between the PRINERGY Workflow and Fiery Driven? presses to check job progress and device status in real time for efficient production      with the browser-based PRINERGY Track

- Last-minute production scenario changes for cost optimization by rerouting jobs to a different digital press even after submission, with capability to modify job settings

-The ability to dynamically define mixed media, mixed color mode, and more with page range, inserts, and covers straight from the PRINERGY Workflow

- Full integration with EFI Productivity Suite products, including the Midmarket and Enterprise Commercial Print Suites with EFI Pace? and Monarch MIS/ERP core software,  for automated management of estimating, scheduling, job ticketing, accounting and other processes

- A JDF-certified workflow, with automated communication of job intent data and metadata for reduced errors and higher efficiency.

The previous Fiery integration continues to support PRINERGY Workflow 5, 6, 7, and 8.

"The EFI Fiery DFE is designed to maximize the capabilities of digital printing, giving Kodak customers whose businesses depend on toner or high-speed inkjet production a way to drive their success without compromise," said John Henze, vice president, Fiery marketing, EFI. "By integrating with the popular PRINERGY Workflow 8.1, PRINERGY users can create a truly bi-directional, single workflow for digital and conventional printing as well as prepare with a production workflow that can also handle new opportunities such as digital packaging production."

The Fiery DFE is the first DFE in the industry to achieve JDF Certification for Digital Printing to assure the most robust interoperability. It also supports a wide range of industry variable-data print standards and integrates with leading third-party prepress solutions in addition to the PRINERGY Workflow. For more information about EFI Fiery digital production printing, visit www.efi.com or contact 800-875-7117.