EFI

The official numbers aren't in yet, but the crowds at this week's Graph Expo show in Chicago seemed larger than in previous years. Those who attended certainly had a number of new products to check out. Here are just a few of the new machines unveiled at Graph Expo.

Often when wide-format printing is discussed, the immediate connotation is of posters and banners. But a little creativity can go a long way, and with advancements in printer, ink and substrate technology, in-plants around the country are finding innovative ways to serve their parent companies with wide format, beyond posters and banners.

EFI has announced two advanced EFI Fiery digital front ends (DFEs) for the new Canon imagePRESS C800 and C700 presses. The Canon imagePRESS Server F200 and G100 are the first DFEs built on EFI’s Fiery FS150 Pro platform for cut-sheet digital production systems.

These products for the in-plant market will be on display at Graph Expo.

EFI has acquired DirectSmile GmbH, a provider of software solutions for cross-media marketing automation based in Berlin. DirectSmile's technologies extend EFI's offerings and will give customers expanded, fully integrated capabilities with data-driven digital print, Web, e-mail, social media and mobile marketing workflows.

EFI announced that it has prevailed in a court case filed against the company in what it characterizes as a “patent troll” attempt to extract a settlement. In early July, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit confirmed that a device profile patent asserted by a subsidiary of the non-practicing entity Acacia Research against EFI and 31 other companies is invalid.

The recipients of the 2014 InterTech Technology Awards have been revealed by the Printing Industries of America. The technologies receiving this respected award have been judged as truly innovative and are expected to advance the performance of the graphic communications industry. The following eleven technologies were selected to receive the award...

EFI Connect and the AMSP/NAPL/NAQP Executive Leadership Summit (formerly the AMSP Winter Conference and NAPL Top Management Conference) will hold concurrent events in 2015 at the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas. Attendees will gain a richer experience with access to a broader range of resources, including several shared programs available to registrants of either conference.

When you sit down and talk with Donna Horbelt, you immediately feel like you've been friends for years. So it's no wonder that her engaging personality and the interest she takes in her customers has led them to view her in-plant at the University of Texas Heath Science Center at Houston as a supportive ally, committed to their success.

Gabriel Matsliach has been tapped as general manager and senior vice president of EFI Productivity Software. He comes to EFI from Comverse, a telecommunications software provider, where he served as chief product officer.