Epson Collaborates With EFI to Further Elevate Digital Color Proofing Performance; Epson Stylus Pro 5000 Offers Graphic Artists Faster Output Performance in Free Upgrade

Business Wire, Sept 1, 1998

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 1, 1998--Epson America Inc., creator of high-quality, award-winning imaging products, today announced at Seybold new product enhancing features for the EPSON Stylus Pro 5000 digital color proofing solution that increases speed up to 300 percent. Together with EFI, Epson has further elevated the performance of digital color proofing to offer graphic artists greater flexibility and cost efficiency.

"We have added new productivity-enhancing features to the EPSON Stylus Pro 5000 to enhance a professional designers day-to-day mission-critical prepress applications. Our goal is to bring customers significantly closer to achieving color accurate printing earlier on in the prepress process through increased output speeds," said Mark Radogna, senior product manager, professional graphics products, Epson. "Epson's reliable photo-quality performance coupled with EFI's expertise in the server market enables us to offer a complete graphic proofing solution at the industry's best price/performance ratio."

Upgrade Features - Increased Performance and Convenience

Leveraging EFI's latest technology advancements, the EPSON Stylus Pro 5000 offers increased data communication speeds between the RIP and the printer. This enables the print engine to continuously run at full rated print speed to maximize print performance by up to 300 percent, depending on file type and size. By adding an additional 32MB of memory, EFI has been able to take full advantage of Adobe PostScript 3 and more efficiently process and send data to the print engine. The EPSON Stylus Pro 5000 performance enhancing features are available now and can be seen at Seybold, San Francisco (Booth No. 3947). Current EPSON Stylus Pro 5000 printer owners may receive a free upgrade kit through an authorized Epson Stylus Pro 5000 reseller.

About Epson

Epson offers an extensive array of award-winning image capture and image output products for the consumer, business and graphic arts markets. The company is also a leading supplier of value-added point-of-sale (POS) solutions for the retail market. Founded in 1975, Epson America, Inc. is the U.S. affiliate of Japan-based Seiko Epson Corporation, a global manufacturer and supplier of high-quality technology products that meet customer demands for increased functionality, compactness, systems integration and energy efficiency. Epson America, Inc. is headquartered in Torrance, Calif.

Note to Editors: EPSON is a registered trademark of Seiko Epson Corporation. Other brand or product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

CONTACT: Epson

Jennifer Boggs, 310/782-5173

jennifer_boggs@ea.epson.com

or

Walt & Company

Holly Burkhart, 408/496-0900

hburkhart@walt.com