Electronics for Imaging Announces the Fiery RIP Station 5000 For The Epson Stylus Pro 5000 Printer

Business Wire, March 2, 1998

SAN MATEO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 2, 1998--

Fiery and Stylus Pro Deliver Affordable High-End Digital Proofing

to the Graphic Arts Market

Electronics for Imaging, Inc. (NASDAQ:EFII) a pioneer and leading supplier of technologies for high-quality digital color printing over computer networks, today announced the RIP Station 5000 Fiery Server external RIP for the Epson Stylus Pro 5000, a 6-color, tabloid size inkjet device for the high-end proofing market. The RIP Station 5000 enables full-bleed 13 by 19-inch samples to print in a fraction of the time, and at a lower cost per page than competitive products.

The RIP Station 5000 is customized for graphic arts power users, includes high-quality press simulation options for accurate proofing, yields fast throughput of complex graphics files, and allows seamless connectivity to a wide variety of networks. The RIP Station 5000 provides remote printer management tools, as well as a job accounting feature for accurate client billing. In addition, the RIP Station 5000 incorporates Adobe PostScript 3, and supports a print resolution of up to 1440 x 720 dpi.

"The new Fiery LX architecture of the RIP Station 5000 is designed to bring the brilliant color, productivity and flexibility of next-generation digital printing to whole new markets," said Dan Avida, president and CEO of EFI. "We are very happy to combine forces with Epson to bring to the desktop output quality that is truly revolutionary."

"We chose EFI as a strategic ally in bringing Epson's debut professional proofing printer offering to market because of their history of technology leadership in color server and color management technologies," said Mark Radogna, product manager, high-end ink jet products, Epson. "We expect the result of this collaboration to be the success of the Epson Stylus Pro 5000 in meeting the performance and color accuracy demands of the prepress industry."

Based On the LX Platform

Based on the Fiery LX platform, the Fiery RIP Station 5000 for the Epson Stylus Pro 5000 delivers superior productivity, precision color, effortless control and networkability through a number of exclusive EFI technology features. -0-

--   RIP-While-Print technology allows the controller to
     simultaneously process and print pages, while Continuous Print
     prevents the engine from resetting between jobs, resulting in
     reduced downtime and increased throughput.

--   A new color management system based on an innovative color
     architecture designed from the ground-up by EFI. Designed so that
     both novice and power users can get equally high-quality output,
     it delivers extraordinary results right out of the box, and yet
     also equips experts with a wide range of customizable options.
     These include comprehensive calibration tools, expanded color
     references, and color rendering dictionaries (CRDs) that raise
     the standard for colorspace conversion and mapping out-of-gamut
     colors.

     The new architecture also includes powerful offset press
     simulations that are tuned to match industry standards such as
     SWOP, Euroscale, and DIC, or can be customized for a specific
     press. This industry standard emulation is extended through to
     the DuPont Cromalin DesignerProof Commercial Proofing Paper
     designed especially for the Stylus Pro 5000, as well as
     additional color profiles provided by DuPont.

--   Fiery WebTools expand desktop printing capabilities via the
     intranet/Internet by enabling remote users with any Java-enabled
     browser to download and install printer files on their
     workstations, retrieve printer status information and change job
     parameters. Fiery Spooler, Fiery Calibrator, and Fiery Downloader
     utilities provide a unique and intuitive combination of tools
     that enable users to perform many print functions directly from
     their own desktop workstation, across a local network.

--   Seamless network operability is provided with EFI's new network
     architecture delivering broad, flexible network support for fast
     and easy connectivity in a variety of environments.