Las Vegas, Nev. – A highlight of this month’s Sourcing at MAGIC tradeshow, the EFI? Textile Eco-System for the fashion industry from Electronics For Imaging, Inc., allows customers to thrive with efficient, cost-effective digital apparel production. EFI’s exhibit at the Aug. 12-15 event showcases one of the industry’s only complete offerings to create a better paradigm in small-lot and sample apparel production – with new and updated products from EFI’s innovative textile technology portfolio, including:

EFI Reggiani products offering eco-friendly digital production with stunning colors and color fidelity for striking fashion designs. EFI Reggiani printers are exceptionally versatile in their capabilities and can print with a variety of different inks to support virtually any fabric type for efficient digital production. New Terra water-based inks, a groundbreaking pigment ink with binder, enable in-line polymerization for greener, more-efficient production, eliminating the need for steaming or washing.

EFI Fiery? DesignPro RSe, a set of new, time-saving plug-in tools that give designers the unprecedented ability to do multi-channel separation and re-coloring work within Adobe? Photoshop?.

The EFI Optitex? 2D and 3D integrated platform for product development and design – a cutting-edge digital solution used by leading brands and retailers worldwide to optimize workflows and save time, costs and fabric by creating digital patterns. Optitex offerings now include a new eLearning site that gives users a step ahead in their technical design education, reducing the time required to develop a stronger base knowledge of the software’s powerful CAD capabilities.

During the show, partner exhibitors Klieverik, Zünd? and Brigade Manufacturing will provide heat press/fixation, cutting and sewing, respectively, for designs EFI is printing on site. This complete, multi-vendor “mini-factory” with EFI and partner exhibitors shows the broader range of possibilities from a real-world, highly efficient and fully functional integrated system featuring new technologies that put customers on the forefront of lean, efficient and automated apparel manufacturing.

“We have developed a totally new and highly innovative generation of digital printers, based on four new Reggiani models launched progressively since 2017, plus our groundbreaking new pigment ink,” said EFI Reggiani Vice President and General Manager Adele Genoni. “In addition, we have paired those innovations with cutting-edge Optitex and Fiery design and production tools, making EFI’s Textile Eco-System the only offering from a single supplier capable of delivering this level of fast time-to-market, high-customization manufacturing. Our customers can create new opportunities and establish profitable apparel lines produced closer to the point of need using the new offerings on display at MAGIC.”

Integrated, end-to-end production on the show floor

The workflow for the mini-factory at MAGIC begins with EFI Optitex, a leading, innovative 2D/3D software platform. EFI Optitex digital technologies give businesses the significant advantage of being able to perfect their garments as a 2D or 3D pattern before cutting or sewing the first prototype, for faster cycles and products that better fit consumer needs.

EFI has a longstanding commitment to maximize the value Optitex users receive with coaching, training, advising and consulting. The extensive Optitex training offering now includes a new, on-demand portal of eLearning courses that can be purchased individually or as part of a complete training package. Clients can progress through an environment that provides job-specific training for patternmakers, marker makers, technical designers, 3D designers and more across 10 different technologies.

Seamless progression from design to digital print with EFI Fiery DesignPro

Virtual product patterns completed in Optitex software can enter print preparation through EFI’s Fiery DesignPro software suite – a series of plug-in applications for Adobe Illustrator? and Adobe Photoshop – and the Fiery proServer digital front end (DFE), which delivers professional color management and high-quality RIP output for EFI Reggiani digital printers. The Fiery DesignPro suite gives stakeholders throughout a design team the power to quickly and easily create professional designs, seamless repeat patterns, different colorways, color libraries and palettes.

The latest version of EFI’s Fiery DesignPro software suite includes Fiery DesignPro RSe – a product making its worldwide debut at MAGIC. The RSe plug-in product significantly reduces the time and effort needed to create multi-channel separations, colorways and repeat patterns directly within Photoshop, all with the added convenience of a streamlined “print to Fiery” function to send designs directly into production through an EFI Fiery proServer DFE.

Users do not have to launch new tools within their Adobe program to employ Fiery DesignPro, a benefit that can significantly reduce the time spent completing designs. As a result, customers can eliminate common bottlenecks and unleash their creativity using the only full set of advanced textile design solutions that work within Adobe products. Designs processed through the EFI Fiery proServer at MAGIC will be fed to an EFI Reggiani NEXT 180 sublimation printer running in EFI’s booth.

Eco-friendly production with EFI Reggiani Terra water-based pigment inks

Attendees can also see direct-to-fabric cotton samples featuring the newly available, high-performance EFI Reggiani Terra pigment inks during Sourcing at MAGIC. Available in six colors (CMYK, blue and red) the ink uses an innovative binder technology for fast, sustainable, and cost-competitive industrial textile production with no washing or steaming needed. Designed to leverage EFI Reggiani digital printers’ industrial performance capabilities, these eco-friendly, water-based inks provide extraordinary print durability and yield longer printhead life with reduced maintenance costs. The inks also deliver excellent light fastness and high sharpness on nearly any type of fabric, including cotton, polyester, cotton-poly blends and more.

EFI’s Sourcing at MAGIC exhibit is in booth 66708 in the north hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center.

EFI Reggiani, Optitex and Fiery DesignPro products are part of an extended portfolio of technologies that advance EFI’s global role in the analog-to-digital transformation of print manufacturing in the textile, commercial print, ceramics, corrugated packaging and signage and display graphics industries.