Electronics For Imaging, Inc. revealed its latest digital front end (DFE) technology for advanced, high-end digital print production. New EFI Fiery FS350 Pro software will give graphic arts professionals more power, productivity and versatility in digital printing. The new Fiery offering – which EFI is showing for the first time this week at its annual Connect users conference in Las Vegas – will be available starting this quarter in high-end production DFEs for EFI partners’ new, advanced digital printers and presses. 

“With this new platform release, we are continuing to stay ahead of market requirements, ensuring that customers can be as productive and versatile as possible,” said John Henze, vice president of Fiery marketing and sales, EFI. “Fiery FS350 Pro delivers unrivaled productivity from prepress to finishing across a wide range of digital printing engines, plus it provides even better color results for high-value print products.”

This versatile DFE software offers new features in the key areas that print customers care about: color and imaging, productivity,managementtoolsand connectivity. New DFEs based on EFI Fiery FS350 Pro software will drive digital printers and presses from several leading manufacturers, across sheetfed, high-speed continuous feed, B1 folding carton, and corrugated digital production systems, including both toner and inkjet technologies. Canon will be the first to launch a new DFE featuring Fiery FS350 Pro in the near future. 

The new release also will help customers better manage their print production, using the industry’s most intuitive and integrated DFE offerings, including the ability to establish automated, bi-directional communication and integration with EFI’s market-leading MIS/ERP and web-to-print products. Users also can unify production operations for all Fiery Driven printers – including wide-format and superwide-format inkjet printers – from a single EFI Fiery Command WorkStation interface. 

Leading-edge technology for advanced digital print efficiency

FS350 Pro, Fiery Command WorkStation and additional Fiery workflow products for the new DFE software offer arange ofproduction enhancements and advantages including: 

New Fiery make-ready features. Users can automate prepress and finishing stages, reducing job preparation time by up to 70%, with Fiery Impose software and Duplo Slitter/Cutter/Creasers. This productivity advantage includes a new integration with the Duplo DDC-810 Raised Spot UV Coater that enables operators to accomplish seven previously manual file preparation tasks in a single step.

Enhanced image control with Fiery JobMaster software. New image editing capabilities give users the power to touch up scanned pages without leaving the Fiery JobMaster application using installed third-party image editors, including Microsoft Paint, GIMP, Adobe Photoshop and Preview.

Support for Adobe APPE 4.4. This new support in Fiery FS350 Pro software helps to deliver exceptional performance for all jobs. This includes overprinting of up to 123 spot colors, support for CMYK+ transparency rendering, and improved processing performance for jobs with transparencies.

CMYK+ Support. The new DFE software provides more-complete management and estimating capabilities for Fiery Driven digital presses and printers that feature additional white, metallic, clear or spot colors. This includes a new Smart White feature that saves ink/toner and improves quality for full-color jobs printed on clear or colored media by ensuring white is only used where actually needed.

More-efficient system maintenance. The new Fiery Installer Builder launching with FS350 Pro completes the set of tools that allow technicians to easily backup, restore, upgrade and maintain all Fiery DFEs in an organization. It eliminates the need for physical media when installing software or upgrades while maximizing press uptime for the customer.