Fiery channel playbook us hr

The Fiery Channel PlaybookGreat Plays Lead to Victory

FOR FIERY SALES CHANNELS

THE FIERY CHANNEL PLAYBOOK | GREAT PLAYS LEAD TO VICTORY 2

ContentsPlan to Make Your Goal …………………………………………………………………………………… 3

Know the Pitch: What is a Fiery Server? ………………………………………………………………… 4

Fiery Target Markets: Turn Target Audiences into Loyal Fans ……………………………………… 6

Fiery Advantages: Why Fiery Servers Score with Users …………………………………………… 7

Sales Plays ………………………………………………………………………………………………… 17

Who to Target ………………………………………………………………………………………………… 17

Questions to Ask ……………………………………………………………………………………………… 18

Mapping the Plays: Four Customer Scenarios ……………………………………………………………… 23

Resources and Tools ………………………………………………………………………………………… 25

Fiery Workflow Suite Appendix ………………………………………………………………………… 26

EFI Business Management Products Appendix …………………………………………………… 28

Glossary of Terms ………………………………………………………………………………………… 30


Plan to Make Your GoalIf you’ve ever watched a professional sports team play, you know they have a plan for every opposing team, every player and every play. It’s called a playbook. As a valued partner of EFI in selling Fiery® products, we want to make sure you have the plays you need to achieve your sales target by leveraging the value of Fiery products as part of every sales cycle.

In order to do that, you first have to:

1. Know the pitch: know your solutions and how they meet the needs of the organizations you’re targeting.

2. Know how to turn your target audience into loyal fans: understanding the audience and their needs is crucial to making your goal, a successful sale.

3. Have winning plays: where, when and how you deploy your resources determines whether you win or lose the game. Planning out what products to recommend and why is just as essential as properly placing strikers and wingers.

In this Fiery Playbook, you’ll learn about all those elements of a successful sales play, how to identify an opportunity, and how to work with the Fiery sales team to close high-value deals.

Top 10 Reasons Businesses Buy Fiery Servers (see pages 8 to 16 for more details)When talking to customers about Fiery servers, here are some ways to score quick points:

1. Innovation — clear digital front end (DFE) technology leader — the “gold standard” of the industry.

2. Customer flexibility — Fiery servers and the popular Fiery Command WorkStation provide customers a common job management interface and unified workflow across the print facility.

3. Fastest RIP — industry leader in speed with unique technology advantages in hardware and software.

4. Amazing, precise, consistent color — best color output and control, bar none.

5. Easy to Use — Fiery Command WorkStation® is the de-facto industry print job management user interface.

6. Best Variable Data Printing (VDP) Support — faster VDP job processing and compatible with leading languages and authoring tools.

7. Automation and Integration — best capability in the industry to achieve integrated workflows with minimal touch points, and the only server to integrate with EFI™ MIS and Web-to-Print solutions.

8. Platform that helps produce more, adapt to customer needs and grow the business — Fiery Workflow Suite gives access to a broad, innovative portfolio of integrated Fiery products and color software options.

9. Best sales and technical support — worldwide “feet on the street” to support sales channels.

10. Extensive Training — many free resources, comprehensive online and classroom training and professional certification.


Know the Pitch: What is a Fiery Server?Fiery print servers are software-intensive, sophisticated digital front ends (DFEs) that drive a full range of color and black-and-white digital print engines.

People may also call them a RIP (raster image processor) or network controller. At EFI, we choose to call them servers or DFEs because they are more than just a RIP or network controller.

More than just a RIP, Fiery servers:

• Act as a brain for print engines, controlling the job preparation and job production workflows.

• Receive instructions from job-submission workflows, prepare and RIP jobs for production.

• Make sure the color output is accurate and consistent, page-to-page, job-to-job and printer-to-printer.

• Send media selection, job setup and finishing parameters to the print engine and monitor the production process.

• Report process information back to scheduling systems like EFI PrintFlow®, EFI MIS solutions and EFI Digital StoreFront®.

The end result of these capabilities is an unbroken real-time process that produces jobs efficiently and profitably, and with the highest quality.


Fiery Workflow Suite software products1 provide a modular platform where customers can tailor the Fiery configuration to their particular situation, paying only for the functionality they need and adding additional capabilities as needs evolve and budgets allow:

• Job Submission: EFI Digital StoreFront.• Prepress: Fiery JobFlow™, Fiery Graphic Arts Package, Premium Edition• Make-ready: Fiery JobMaster™, Fiery Impose, Fiery Compose• Output Management: Fiery Central, Fiery servers• Color Management: Fiery Color Profiler Suite• VDP: Fiery VDP technology• Data analytics: Fiery Dashboard

EFI Business Management solutions such as EFI Pace™, EFI Monarch and Fiery Dashboard integrate with Fiery Workflow Suite products to offer business-wide workflow automation and integration

For additional information on Fiery Workflow Suite go to page 14.

Types of Fiery Servers

Internal• DFEs that are embedded (internal) to the printing device; also known as controllers.• DFEs that are attached (bolted on) to the printing device; sometimes known as

“bustled” controllers.• Internal servers are not part of the EFI integration workflow because they do not

include support for Fiery JDF technology.• Internal Fiery servers are best positioned to perform in corporate office environments

or decentralized environments that primarily use a print driver to submit jobs to print.

External• DFEs that are detached from a printing device.• Usually on a separate stand or station.• Includes Fiery JDF to integrate to EFI print MIS and Web-to-Print solutions,

as well as prepress workflows.• External Fiery servers are best positioned for busy print environments with demanding

turnaround times and high color quality expectations. Print service providers or In-plant facilities that have external servers are likely to be using Command WorkStation — either with one key operator, or a number of people using Windows or Mac client PCs.

1 Some products in the Fiery Workflow Suite are delivered as part of the standard configuration of some Fiery server models. Check your Fiery product information for the list of standard and optional Fiery packages.


Fiery Target Markets: Turn Target Audiences into Loyal Fans You will find Fiery servers in a wide variety of organizations, working on a range of digital print engines.

Check the Fiery feature matrix to find out which of the above Fiery server platforms ship with a Fiery server driving a specific print engine model.


Fiery Advantages: Why Fiery Servers Score with UsersCustomers buy Fiery production solutions for their performance, quality, productivity, innovative features plus amazing color and image quality. This leads to greater productivity, a broader offering of services, lower cost and ultimately more profit for the customer. In this section we detail the 10 reasons there’s such a strong demand among customers for Fiery servers.

1. Innovation

2. Customer Flexibility

3. Fastest RIP

4. Amazing, Precise, Consistent Color

5. Easy to Use

6. Best VDP Support

7. Automation and Integration

8. Platform that Helps Produce More, Adapt to Customer Needs and Grow the Business

9. Best Sales and Technical Support

10. Extensive Training


1. InnovationEFI pioneered the digital print market with the first color print server in 1991.

Since then, over 1.7 million Fiery print servers have been sold and installed in leading corporations, advertising agencies, graphic design studios, commercial printers, and print-for-pay businesses around the world.

EFI is committed to innovation and invests almost 20% of revenues in R&D to continue delivering technology innovation and customer value.

And customers recognize the value. Staples and FedEx standardized on Fiery workflow solutions. Amazon uses Fiery Driven™ printers to print books on demand.

Fiery servers have the biggest installed base with 10 times more users than the closest competitor and a combined market share of more than 70% between internal and external servers.

EFI Fiery servers are the leading DFEs in overall unit sales including external and internal units.

Figure 2: 2012 InfoTrends study of the U.S. market “Digital Front Ends: Understanding Market Dynamics and

Customer Requirements.” * Includes HP Indigo and Kodak NexPress which don’t offer a Fiery server option.

Ext Creo 3%

Ext EFI 9%

Ext OEM 3%

Int OEM 21%*

Int EFI

64%


2. Customer FlexibilityFiery servers cover everything from corporate office to high-end production environments. For that reason, you will always be able to sell the optimal solution for any environment. At the same time your customers will always be able to use the same familiar Fiery interface and job management workflow with Fiery Command WorkStation. And even if – as in the case of many print providers – they have print engines from multiple manufacturers in the shop, they will be able to manage all their Fiery Driven print engines from one Command WorkStation interface. Fiery servers and the Fiery Command WorkStation are the bridge that allows customers to have a unified workflow across the shop.

3. Fastest RIPFiery servers are the fastest RIPs in the industry. This is due to the powerful hardware platform, with customized Fiery Vx ASICs, and integrated software. Unparalleled processing speeds let shops get more data to print engines faster so that they never have to cycle down and warm up again, losing valuable press time. A fast DFE helps meet tight turnaround times and reduce bottlenecks.

Fiery servers also include deep integration with Adobe® technology and Fiery SmartRIP, a software architecture that uses intelligent processing to accelerate the RIPping and provide the fastest speeds possible for all hardware configurations. Both technologies accelerate color, compression and rendering by recognizing file characteristics and using adaptive processing.

Intuitive operation and automated workflows deliver completely finished jobs faster. Customers can meet their tight turnaround times and do more work by automating time-consuming manual tasks and by removing bottlenecks that slow down production.

Fiery imposition and make-ready tools shorten job preparation times and last-minute corrections by enabling users to do all these tasks easily, while previewing exactly how the job will print on the digital press to further reduce waste.

In addition, operators can proof before they process jobs. For a really big variable-data printing (VDP) file that might take 90 minutes to process, operators can open and view a record range to make sure the data file and imposition are correct, with no need to wait for the entire job to process to see the preview. Once the operator is satisfied and starts processing the job, the Fiery RIP-While-Print technology starts printing before the entire job has finished RIPping. This ability to preview jobs before processing creates workflow efficiency and means operators spend less time doing rework. Operators can also go back and reprint an exact record or range if there’s a printing problem such as a paper jam. So shops save time and reduce errors.


Here are some examples of processing speeds that compare high-end Fiery QX servers with competitive DFEs:

Graphic and image-intensive manual

VDP 4-up postcards with images and variable text


4. Amazing, Precise, Consistent ColorFiery servers deliver the most precise and consistent color output. Fiery color technology gives users the flexibility to use digital presses for quality results in high-value, color-intensive applications — and even to offer spot-varnish effects. All Fiery servers are PANTONE® calibrated to guarantee the best match for all PANTONE color libraries.

Plus, Fiery servers integrate all these professional tools. This gives operators total control of color output quality so print providers can meet the color requirements of demanding customers and can ensure accurate and repeatable color every time.

• Fiery color management technology offers great color out of the box.• The Fiery Spot-On™ tool accurately and easily matches colors for

corporate and other spot colors.• Fiery Color Profiler Suite is an integrated color management solution for

creating ICC-profiles to define the color gamut of the output device and ensure optimal color accuracy.

• Image Enhance Visual Editor is an easy, interactive, real-time image-editing tool that adjusts image colors in a job without the need to open the file in the originating application.

• Fiery Graphic Arts Package, Premium Edition allows professionals to preflight and troubleshoot jobs before printing.

Many Fiery Driven printers have achieved Digital Print Certification by the U.S.-based IDEAlliance organization. This certification signifies that these digital print systems comply with the exacting GRACoL reference standard. There are more certified Fiery systems than all other DFEs combined. For more information, go to www.efi.com/IDEAllianceDPC.

With regard to European-based certifications, many Fiery Driven printers have been certified under the Fogra Validation Print. This was the first ISO-based certification that ensures accurate and consistent color quality in digital printing. Certified systems and print-outs lead to more efficient and reproducible workflows, a reduction in consumption of consumables and therefore lower production costs and higher productivity. For more information, go to http://w3.efi.com/Fiery/Products/FograCert-Validation-Printing-System.

5. Easy to UseFiery servers have been recognized by the industry with multiple awards for their intuitive user interface, Fiery Command WorkStation.

With Command WorkStation, local and remote users, from Mac and PC clients, can manage Fiery servers, do color management, submit jobs, prepare and preview jobs before printing, and more. The visual, intuitive interface lets operators get jobs done faster and with fewer keystrokes, saving time and money.

Command WorkStation is a free application, available to all Fiery server customers at efi.com/cws5.

In addition, there are other Fiery tools that make Fiery servers the easiest to use. An example of that is Fiery VUE. This innovative tool, also known as the visual print driver, is an interactive printing application that helps users to produce professional-looking, finished documents quickly, easily and cost-effectively with a WYSIWYG interface that lets even novice users see exactly what the finished piece will look like. The green book printing function shows users how to use paper more efficiently so they can print in an environmentally responsible way.


6. Best VDP SupportFiery servers process VDP jobs very efficiently to maintain the print engine’s rated speeds.

The Fiery servers support the widest variety of variable data printing technologies, to provide error-free processing of VDP jobs using PPML, PDF-VT, Fiery FreeForm™, Xerox VI Compose* (VIPP) and Creo VPS. Fiery servers are PPML certified, so customers know they will have the highest possible levels of throughput and productivity when printing personalized material at high volumes.

Fiery servers also include a free VDP technology, Fiery FreeForm. With FreeForm, customers can print personalized jobs by leveraging their existing desktop applications such as Microsoft Word, Publisher and Adobe InDesign. It’s a great entry-level solution for customers who want to start offering VDP services.

Fiery servers integrate with many common variable data publishing solutions such as FusionPro, XMPie, Pageflex, DesignMerge, PrintShop Mail. This guarantees a smooth job submission from creation to production of fully personalized printed materials within a comprehensive personalized marketing campaign.

7. Automation and IntegrationIn today’s print services business, customers want value-added services with shorter run lengths and faster turnaround time. Business-wide workflow automation and integration are key to success in this environment.

Fiery servers are the only DFEs that integrate with EFI Management Information Systems (MIS) and Web-to-Print workflows. Fiery servers also integrate seamlessly with industry-leading third-party workflow solutions. This key competitive advantage is provided by Fiery JDF technology based on the JDF open standard specification that allows data to pass between different applications and systems for automating print production workflow. It uses the JDF job ticket as the conduit to simplify data exchange and collection, eliminate manual data entry and re-entry — to make print production efficient and accurate. Your customers can leverage the power of their Fiery servers to:

• Deliver job specifications entered at the Digital StoreFront® or PrintSmith Site client or at the EFI MIS. The information is validated and transferred to the Fiery server without the touch points, delays and errors common in a disconnected workflow. The Fiery server uses this information to configure the job, preparing it for output on the digital engine.

• Update job status in real-time to the EFI scheduling system. This includes updating schedule and run lists too.• Track job costing information in order to perform accurate and timely cost analysis and invoicing.• Analyze information about equipment and employees to provide management staff with the details

they need to make more informed business decisions.

Below is a summary of key customer benefits for each solution Fiery servers integrate with. Keep them in mind when talking to your customers. For more information go to http://w3.efi.com/Fiery/Products/Fiery-Integration.

* VIPP compatibility is only available with Fiery external servers driving Xerox print engines


EFI Digital StoreFront Integration The industry-leading Digital StoreFront Web-to-Print solution provides:

• Seamless integration with Fiery products and other EFI solutions to enable precise print services and media mapping, including mixed media and inline finishing.

• Powerful VDP support for personalized communication.

EFI Print MIS Integration Fiery servers are the only DFEs that integrate with EFI’s leading-edge portfolio of enterprise resource planning (ERP) and MIS software such as EFI Pace and EFI Monarch. This allows print businesses to perform a number of analyses that give them a distinct competitive advantage:

• Accurate and timely cost analysis.• Automatic tracking of job-costing information such as production time and material usage for more accurate invoicing.

Prepress Workflow Integration for Offset and Digital Hybrid Workflow Integrate with industry-leading prepress workflow solutions such as Kodak Prinergy and Agfa :Apogee helps centralize press operations. This integration easily directs jobs to the most appropriate, cost-effective offset presses or Fiery Driven digital presses.

The key benefits of a Fiery digital workflow are:

• Maximizes return on investment and profitability through system integration and scalability of EFI and third-party JDF-enabled solutions.

• Supports digital and offset hybrid workflow, so shops can use the best of both technologies.• Increases productivity and efficiency by eliminating manual touch points, errors and resource waste.• Provides accurate and automatic business intelligence by capturing production time and material

usage for more precise reporting, estimating and invoicing.

Importance of Seamless IntegrationQ: When buying a new printing device, how important is seamless integration of the DFE with existing workflow solutions?

Very important, wewon’t buy a printer

that requiressignificantworkflow

modifications

Very important, forother reasons

0.3%

Not important, newprinters/DFEs canbe easily added

because ourworkflow is

flexible

Not important, wehave staff available

to modify theworkflow

Not important,when buying a newdevice we set asidesome of the budget

to change theworkflow, as well

Important, we tryto buy printers that

fit our workflowseamlessly

21.5% 11.1%

17.8%

32.8% 16.4%

Figure 1: 2012 InfoTrends study “Digital Front Ends: Understanding Market Dynamics and Customer Requirements.”


8. Platform that helps produce more, adapt to customer needs and grow the business Fiery servers are part of the Fiery Workflow Suite that offers solutions for every stage in the print production process. The modular nature of Fiery Workflow Suite means customers can tailor the product to their particular situation, paying only for the functionality they need and adding additional capabilities as needs evolve and budgets allow. Customers can integrate current production systems by centralizing control of print job management to make existing print assets more scalable and productive. Plus, Fiery Workflow Suite offerings integrate with each other, with other EFI products and with third-party solutions — for easy implementation, deployment and use.

Fiery Workflow Suite Products

Job Submission EFI Digital StoreFront: Web-to-Print platform provides an end-to-end content and eCommerce workflow that lets print buyers order, edit and preview job specifications. Integrates with Fiery servers and EFI PrintFlow® to make the entire operation more efficient and profitable. For more information go to www.efi.com/dsf.

Prepress Fiery JobFlow™: Advanced prepress tools automate print workflows to ensure the integrity of jobs before going to print. For more information and free trials go to www.efi.com/fieryjobflow.

Fiery Graphic Arts Package, Premium Edition: Professional tools to softproof, preflight and troubleshoot end customer files; plus preview jobs and make last-minute edits. For more information go to www.efi.com/gappe.


Make-ready Fiery JobMaster™: Advanced make-ready software simplifies complex document preparation tasks including fully visual tab insertion and design, page-level ticketing, finishing, scanning and powerful late-stage editing capabilities. For more information go to www.efi.com/fieryjobmaster.

Fiery Impose: Streamlines and automates the document imposition process, making production more efficient. Reduces waste by displaying all jobs as they will print, before starting any run. For more information go to www.efi.com/fieryimpose.

Fiery Compose: Advanced document preparation provides centralized document assembly, WYSIWYG page-level ticketing, preview and editing features. For more information and free trials go to www.efi.com/fierycompose.

Output Management Fiery Central: Combines multiple Fiery Driven digital printers and select non-Fiery-driven production printers into a centralized production system with a single, intuitive user interface. Integrates with EFI Digital StoreFront, Pace and Monarch for accurate production reporting and seamless job submission. For more information go to www.efi.com/fierycentral.

Fiery servers: High-performance print servers deliver unparalleled image and color quality, maximum productivity and seamless integration with existing workflows for exceptional results every time. For more information go to www.efi.com/Fiery.

Color Management Fiery Color Profiler Suite: Integrated profiling solution provides optimal color quality and best-in-class process-control monitoring with total color control from profile creation to visualization and editing. For more information and free trial downloads go to www.efi.com/cps.

VDP Fiery VDP technology: Enables customers to offer new high-margin VDP services. Open technology supports leading VDP workflows plus major design and production tools. For more information go to www.efi.com/fieryVDP.

Business Management Fiery Dashboard: Cloud-based service captures and aggregates a wide array of performance data from Fiery Driven digital print engines. Gives managers a single view into digital print productivity to make better use of assets. For more information and free trials go to www.efi.com/fierydashboard.

EFI Pace: Browser-based, scalable and customizable print management system for estimating, production, accounting, sales management and e-commerce. For more information go to http://www.efi.com/pace.

EFI Monarch: Print production and management solution for large, single and multi-plant operations. Includes JDF-certified integration with many of the industry’s top suppliers of pre-press, press and finishing equipment. EFI business management software integrates with Fiery servers. For more information go to http://www.efi.com/monarch.

9. Best Sales and Technical SupportThe Fiery sales and technical field sales support has a strong worldwide presence to support the vast network of Fiery sales partners. In addition, this guarantees direct presence from EFI in the most important and strategic Fiery sales deals. Customers call their Fiery supplier for support. If the supplier cannot resolve the technical issue, they contact the printer manufacturer — which may escalate to EFI.

EFI gives end customers support services that include:• User forums at fieryforums.efi.com.• eLearning at efi.com/training.

For more information, go to efi.com/support.


10. Extensive TrainingFiery products come with many resources and training tools to help users get the most from their applications:

• Fiery How-To guides offer step-by-step instructions, showing key workflows and highlighting the best ways to get jobs done. For more information, go to http://www.efi.com/how-to/sys10/cws5/en/. These How-To guides can also be accessed via the Fiery Command WorkStation user interface, by opening the Help menu and selecting How-To.

• Fiery ABC guides educate employees and management on the basics of printing including VDP, color, integration, and more. To download them, go to http://w3.efi.com/en/resources/educational-downloads/abcs-guides

eLearning Courses: Fiery eLearning offers 20+ Web-based, state-of-the-art courses that cater to print operators. The 30- to 45-minute interactive training sessions enhance Fiery product knowledge, increase productivity and optimize operator abilities. The cost is US$35-50 per course, or a $300 annual subscription for access to all courses. For more information, go to efi.com/training.

Fiery Professional Certification: The Fiery Professional Certification establishes a solid foundation of Fiery knowledge. Developed by EFI subject-matter experts, it provides the latest information on Fiery technology to develop employee skills, enhance professional development and be more competitive. The cost for this certification is US$250. Fiery Professional Certification is available in English. For more information, go to efi.com/training.

Fiery Expert Certification: The Fiery Expert Certification builds on the Fiery Professional Certification to develop more in-depth expertise. The expert courses help students master the advanced Fiery toolsets and learn to use the full range of features. This includes a deeper understanding of workflows and integration, using Fiery Graphic Arts Package Premium Edition features, color matching, spot color workflows, advanced imposition techniques, assembly of complex jobs with tabs, creating and troubleshooting PDFs, and what you need to know about Fiery integration with JDF workflows. The cost for this certification is US$750 plus travel expenses to the 2-day class training. Fiery Expert Certification is available in English. For more information, go to efi.com/training.


Sales Plays

Who to Target

Market Segment Characteristics Key Contacts Needs

Commercial Print • Digital print engines: 70–130+ ppm; $75–500+ k

• Very skilled production printers

• Hybrid digital/offset

• Integrated workflows

• Production Managers

• Prepress Managers

• High volume and performance• Color accuracy and consistency• Integration with disparate

workflows• VDP, complex jobs

Medium Print For Pay

• Digital print engines: 60–90 ppm; $50–300k

• Skilled professional printers• Many “mom-and-pop” shops



• CEO/Owners

• Broad variety of jobs• Color accuracy and consistency• More complex jobs and finishing

Small Print For Pay

• Digital print engines: 50–90 ppm; $25–100k

• Mixed skilled/unskilled• Franchise printers, retail stores



• CEO/Owners

• Fast turnaround time• Serve SMBs and consumers• Simple finishing – booklets, etc.

In-Plant • Digital print engines: 60–90 ppm; $50–500+ k

• Skilled, in-house print shop• Variety of jobs; production workflow

• Facilities Manager• Production

Managers

• High volume of jobs• Consistent color; spot color• Department chargeback


Questions to AskIn this section we give you the best qualifying questions you can ask your prospects that will help you map the play and understand the resources and knowledge you need to have in order to make a winning play. The questions will give you the answers to the type of Fiery offering you should lead with — such as whether to sell an internal Fiery server or an external one, and how to identify whether your customer’s business can benefit from any products part of the Fiery Workflow Suite.

Get to Know the Playing FieldThese are some of the basic questions you should ask to understand the print site environment and potential printing needs.

Questions Things to look for

Do you currently have digital color print engines? Which brand and model? How many? Do you have black and white engines? For how long have they been installed?

Knowing the brand, model, type and age of their print engines, gives you an idea of the magnitude of the production site and time when prospects would be more open to talk about new equipment or equipment replacement.

Which DFE are you using for each print engine? What were the reasons you choose this DFE?

Getting to know the DFE helps you get introduced to aspects of the current environment such as workflows and the need for a familiar user interface across engines.

Some print sites may have had specific reasons why they choose the current DFEs. Make sure you know them and confirm whether those needs still prevail or have changed.

What type of jobs and application types are you producing? Application types give you an idea of the make-ready and prepress challenges your prospect may have, as well as their technology and image-quality requirements. Applications may include: presentations, reports, newsletters, letters and memos, spreadsheets, forms, booklets, manuals, proposals, catalogs, flyers, posters, coupons, stationery, photo books, calendars, and promotional items.

Do you have jobs coming from a few customers, or are you getting jobs from a diversified portfolio of customers?

A diverse portfolio of customers can present challenges in job submission workflows and inconsistent file-type input.

Please describe the most common workflow from job acquisition to final output.

Understanding the ins and outs of the job life cycle within the print facility will help you identify areas of inefficiency that may be open to a technology solution.

Do you use a Web-to-Print portal or MIS system? How many people interact with an incoming job?

By getting to know the Web-to-Print and MIS system in-house, you can detect opportunities for integrating those with the production workflow. Point out how this can help reduce waste and errors, and have a more profitable operation. EFI Digital StoreFront, Pace and EFI Monarch can integrate with a Fiery external server driving a print engine to make print production even more efficient and accurate.


Define the Need for an Internal or an External Fiery Server

Questions Answers

What is the type of environment you are working in? Office, creative design, in-plant, print service provider?

Does one operator do most of the print work? Or are printers shared among multiple users?

Internal Fiery servers are best positioned to perform in corporate office environments or decentralized environments that primarily use the print driver to submit jobs to print; and only occasionally have the need for more sophisticated applications such as PANTONE color matching, booklet finishing or Microsoft Office document composition.

External Fiery servers are best positioned in busy print environments with demanding turnaround times and high color quality expectations and a need to reduce costs through automation.

Are throughput and speed critical? The external Fiery server processes files almost 20% faster than the internal Fiery server. It offers benchmark production-level speed and throughput, with hardware and software to process large and complex files faster.

The external Fiery server offers features that streamline production workflows with Quick Doc Merge, Rush Print and Process Next as standard features.

Do you require color precision and control to achieve accurate and consistent results?

The external Fiery servers include the Fiery Graphic Arts Package that offers key features such as the Image Enhance Visual Editor for on-the-fly image correction and softproof-ing. External Fiery servers can upgrade to the Fiery Graphic Arts, Premium Edition to offer raster preview and color edits with ImageViewer, as well as Preflight and Postflight to maximize flawless throughput.

Do you have variable data printing (VDP) requirements? For those just starting out in VDP, both the external and the internal Fiery offer Fiery FreeForm™ for basic personalization without the cost of a VDP software package. The external Fiery server makes VDP production fast and efficient with key caching technology that supports industry-standard page description languages such as PPML, the new PDF/VT-1 standard, and vendor-specific languages such as Xerox VIPP* and Creo VPS.

Do you see your printing needs growing over time in terms of production volumes? Image quality requirements? Variable data printing? Or application types and file sizes?

The external Fiery and the internal server are both scalable solutions with Fiery optional packages that allow the solution to grow as business needs change. The external Fiery server provides further scalability, with access to the full portfolio of Fiery Workflow Suite offerings including color and job management control tools. It also offers more horse-power with multiple processors. External servers also offer APPE support, leading VDP technology and Fiery Graphic Arts, Premium Edition Package.



Ask your customer and qualify the need for additional products in the Fiery Workflow Suite

Questions Answers

Are your business processes and equipment integrated across your print production environment?

Fiery JDF technology comes with the external Fiery server. JDF-based integration can eliminate manual entry steps and streamline job workflow from submission to output.

Do you need cut and stack imposition? Fiery Impose provides the cut and stack imposition style. With this imposition style, cutting, sorting and packing can start before job is finished printing. This increases productivity as production steps are done in parallel.

Do you have repetitive imposition jobs that you would like to automate?

Fiery Impose allows operators to create unlimited user definable templates. These templates include imposition styles like saddle-stitched, perfect-bound or cut and stack with crop marks and bleed areas.

Shops can attach these templates to a Fiery Hot Folder or a virtual printer, enabling the user to submit a file for automated imposition.

Do your jobs require gathering pages from multiple sources, including hard copy pages?

Fiery JobMaster provides advanced PDF-based make-ready functions including flexible document assembly that allows drag-and-drop merging of pages. This enables users to create a new job by merging digital and scanned documents. Users can de-skew and de-speckle scanned documents; edit images for brightness, contrast and sharpness; make pages fit to the desired media size for a uniform appearance on every page; renumber pages; mask out staples, hole-punch marks or undesired page content.

Do you need to create document sections that require tab separations?

Fiery JobMaster provides a state-of-the-art tab creation tools with a WYSIWYG preview. The preview changes dynamically as users specify tab ear settings and content that can include images, color background, logos and formatted text.

Do you need to print documents that require a mixture of media types?

Fiery Compose and JobMaster offer a visual page-level ticketing workflow, including a thumbnail preview of paper and finishing options. The user is able to select the media type, the duplex method and the page ranges. Integration with the engine’s Paper Catalog* also makes it intuitive for operators to apply media specifications on a per-page or chapter basis, and improves media management across the entire production environment.

* The implementation of the Paper Catalog feature varies by print engine. Check the Fiery Feature Matrix or contact your Fiery Technical Specialist for more information on the capabilities for a specific Fiery driven print engine.


Questions Answers

Is consistent color across all of your imaging devices a necessity for your business?

Fiery Color Profiler Suite: Sometimes, an image may look one way on screen, but when printed, the color appears to be different. By creating a color-managed environment, color consistency across monitors and output devices is within reach. All of the devices in the environment are profiled and work together to achieve the most consistent representation and output. The Printer Profiler Module optimizes the profiling process for Fiery Driven printers. This process saves time and increases the accuracy of the output.

Do you need color consistency across multiple printers? Fiery Color Profiler Suite: In many production environments, the same job may be split and run on different printers to optimize productivity and resources. However, when the job prints differently on each device, your customer may lose revenue, time and resources when they need to reprint. By creating custom device link profiles for each printer, you achieve a controlled environment to deliver the same output each and every time from one printer to another.

Do you need to review the color output before printing? Fiery Graphic Arts Package, Premium Edition: Fiery Image Viewer provides local and remote raster-based softproofing with color editing capabilities that allows users to view the effects of trapping, application based screen moiré patterns and color profile changes; and make changes to their jobs without the need to re-RIP the file. This saves valuable production time.

Do you need to check a document for errors before committing to print?

Fiery Graphic Arts Package, Premium Edition: Users can analyze and diagnose files, before or after RIPping, by using the Postflight and Preflight functions. Postflight is a robust diagnostic utility that lets operators troubleshoot color problems. Preflight provides a fast and intuitive check of the most common errors to ensure that files will print success-fully on a Fiery Driven printer. Checks include fonts, spot colors, low-resolution images and VDP elements.

Do you need to improve efficiency in your prepress department?

Fiery JobFlow is a prepress solution that lets you easily automate job workflows including PDF conversion, preflight, correct and edit PDF files, image enhancement, document imposition and job ticketing. These automated workflows save time and reduce rework and waste. With JobFlow, you can be confident of accurate print output by printing only the jobs that pass the preflight check configured for each workflow. JobFlow will automatically correct for typical print errors such as wrong media size or page orientation, plus adjust bleed and crop-box properties.


Questions Answers

Do you need to make last-minute edits to jobs before going to print?

With Fiery JobFlow operators can make critical last-minute changes, proactively identify file issues and apply corrections without returning files to customers or going back to native applications. This saves hours or even days.

Do you see the need for more visibility into printer utilization and uptime in order to optimize engine capacity and employee productivity?

Fiery Dashboard is a cloud-based service that captures and aggregates a wide array of performance data from one or multiple Fiery Driven devices, giving users a single view into digital print productivity, including usage rates, uptime, color metrics, error rates and more.

Fiery Dashboard gives shops the data they need to guarantee the best utilization of existing print engines. It reduces management costs and gives managers the information they need to understand workload, plan staffing and reduce costs.

If you own multiple printers, would you benefit from a centralized production system that manages jobs and devices with the same intuitive interface and intelligent job balancing?

Fiery Central integrates production systems to make existing or new printers more scalable and productive. It combines multiple Fiery Driven digital printers, and other select printers, into a centralized print production system, unified by Fiery Command WorkStation 5.4 with an award-winning, intuitive user interface. Fiery Central printer groups allow print providers to intelligently balance production output — automatically splitting color and black-and-white pages, routing jobs to the most productive and cost-effective devices, and even rerouting jobs with errors or paper jams to a similar printer to continue production.

Would you benefit from end-to-end workflow automation from ordering to production?

Fiery Central and Fiery external servers use certified, industry-standard job definition format (JDF) integration to enable the following integration points:• EFI Web-to-Print systems, such as Digital StoreFront,

automatically map your media library and printer capabilities to online print services.

• Business-wide automation to provide more transparency and accuracy into scheduling, cost estimation and business profitability.

• Bi-directional communication so print MIS products such as EFI Pace and Monarch can use process time, click counts, media usage and other production information for efficient production scheduling and more accurate cost estimates.


Mapping the Plays: Four Customer ScenariosBelow we list the four common sales scenarios you may encounter when visiting your customers. Each scenario will require different approaches to score goals and successful sales. These scenarios will give you ideas on how to leverage the knowledge and tools we give you throughout this playbook.

Scenario #1: Print service provider wants to add a new print engineYour customer is a print service provider who wants to add a new digital print engine. One of his big customers is a multinational company that always asks him to produce high volume jobs on very short notice. So the print service provider is looking for a print solution that gives him maximum productivity and the opportunity to do load balancing so he can use as many engines at the same time as possible for maximum throughput.

• In this case, an external Fiery server is the best solution as it is faster than other comparable DFEs. It offers benchmarked production-level hardware and software to process large and complex files faster.

• The service provider can add a new Fiery Driven engine any time and still manage all Fiery servers through one Command WorkStation interface.

• The Fiery Command WorkStation interface not only allows users to manage different Fiery Driven engines at the same time, it also enables them to manually balance the workload from one engine to another. If there is a constant requirement for load balancing in order to maximize the capacity of the engines, it is worth looking at the new Fiery Central solution which automates load balancing between print engines — always selecting the most appropriate engine for the specific print requirements.

Scenario #2: In-plant facility wants to add more capacity to their production siteYour customer is an in-plant facility within a multinational company. In order to save costs and to maximize utilization of the existing Fiery Driven engines, the company decided to bring the production of a part of the marketing materials back in-house after they had used an external provider for a couple of years. In order for them to be able to manage the workload adequately, the print room manager considers adding a new print engine to his installed base. The head of Marketing is very concerned with the color quality of the documents and their stationary because the company has just changed their branding and the main new corporate color is PANTONE color “Emerald” (PANTONE 17-5641). It is the “Trend Color” for 2013 and the company wants to express their ecological focus and promote their trendy product portfolio. He goes to the print room manager to express his concerns. In your next meeting with the print room manager, he brings up the company’s concerns.

• Assure the print room manager that he can reproduce this color exactly with his PANTONE calibrated Fiery Driven engine.

• The Fiery color management technology within the Fiery server allows for consistent output and the same print results, independent of the particular engine and media.

• EFI’s spot color reproduction technology (Fiery Spot-On) and Fiery Color Profiler Suite ensure excellent color quality, with creation, definition and consistent reproduction of spot colors on different media.

• Inline finishing modules integrate with the Fiery driver and Fiery make-ready solutions such as Fiery Compose and Fiery JobMaster to allow the production of finished products with minimal touch points.


Scenario #3: In-plant facility wants to add the production of complex jobsThree months later, the in-plant has had good experience printing the marketing materials so the head of the Training Department expresses interest in bringing the production of his educational literature back in-house. He has seen the excellent color quality of the marketing materials and sets up a meeting with the print room manager to discuss his workload. Lately the Training Department has diversified their offering and is now not only printing hand-outs for their face-to-face trainings, but they are very proud of their new eLearning platform. This now allows them to have people do online courses prior to face-to-face trainings so that all participants join the meeting with the same level of knowledge. However, some individual content from the online trainings need to be added to the printed hand-outs. And these may differ, depending on the individual eLearning results and the kind of courses people have completed. The Training Department now adds this variable material manually into one folder and prints tabs separately. The head of the Training Department is looking for a way to digitally compile the content, including printing the tabs in the right order, so that there is no more need for any manual work. He also says that his PowerPoint presentation usually looks a bit strange when printed.

• Suggest that the additional content can be added to the existing print file by merging processed pages in Fiery Command WorkStation or by merging PDF pages with the fully visual make-ready tools such as Fiery Compose or Fiery JobMaster

• They can insert tabs at the Fiery Command WorkStation and label them accordingly, using the intuitive tools in Fiery Compose or Fiery JobMaster.

• The in-house group can print the job in the requested format without any manual touch points. This will speed up the process and drive down cost.

• The company can optimize output of the PowerPoint presentations by using the Substitute Colors feature in Fiery Spot-On.

Scenario #4: In-plant facility wants to add the production of personalized marketing documentsThe company started their own customer loyalty program some years ago. Cardholders are entitled to specific promotions and rebates. On the occasion of the new branding and the new focus on their “green production” line, the company wants to offer special discounts to their customers for some of their new “green” products. Their advertising agency suggested a marketing concept with several levels of customer retention. The idea is to run a multi-channel campaign using cross-media publishing. The CEO is impressed and asks the VP of Marketing to go ahead. However, due to cost-cutting measures, the VP would like to do as much as possible in-house — especially since he is concerned about sharing the customer database outside the company.

• The Fiery server supports all popular VDP languages (PPML, PDF-VT, VPS, VIPP) which integrates with VDP applications used by the advertising agency.

• Fiery VDP technology identifies the reusable global elements and stores them on the Fiery server. The VDP workflow can become much more efficient if VDP applications are programed to send and process the variable elements only. This provides maximum productivity and faster turnaround on jobs.

• Most of VDP jobs require some level of document imposition, either gang-up imposition for cards or coupons, or booklet imposition for guides or newsletters. VDP document imposition with Fiery Impose is as easy as imposing a regular job. Additionally, the in-plant operators can preview imposed records to minimize production errors and waste.



Resources and Tools• Find the marketing collateral and tools you need on the EFI Partner Portal. https://partner.efi.com/• Learn more about Fiery integration with EFI MIS, Web-to-Print and third-party

solutions at: http://w3.efi.com/Fiery/Products/Fiery-Integration

Education and Training

• Visit the Fiery Resources and Training Web page at: http://w3.efi.com/Fiery/Fiery-Resources-and-Training

Fiery Videos

• Fiery Command WorkStation: http://w3.efi.com/Fiery/Products/CWS5/Demos• Fiery Impose-Compose: http://w3.efi.com/Fiery/Products/Workflow-Suite/Fiery-Impose/Fiery-Impose-Demos• Fiery JobMaster: http://w3.efi.com/Fiery/Products/Workflow-Suite/Fiery-JobMaster/Resources-and-Training• Fiery Image Enhance Visual Editor: http://w3.efi.com/Fiery/Products/CWS5/Demos• Fiery Color Profiler Suite: http://w3.efi.com/Fiery/Products/CPS/Resource-and-Training• Fiery Dashboard: efi.com/fierydashboard• Fiery JDF: http://w3.efi.com/Fiery/Products/Fiery-Integration/Resources-and-Training

Support and CapabilitiesFiery Driven engines with JDF integration capabilities: http://w3.efi.com/Fiery/Products/Fiery-Integration/Supported-Printers Fiery Central supported engines: http://w3.efi.com/Fiery/Products/Fiery-Central Fiery JobFlow supported engines: http://w3.efi.com/Fiery/Products/Workflow-Suite/Fiery-JobFlow/Specifications Fiery JobMaster supported engines: http://w3.efi.com/Fiery/Products/Workflow-Suite/Fiery-JobMaster/Specifications Fiery VUE certified printers: http://w3.efi.com/Fiery/Products/Office/Fiery-VUE/Certified-Printers

Fiery Sales Territory MapsIf you don’t know your Fiery Sales Development Manager, search for “Territory Map” on the Partner Portal. https://partner.efi.com/


Fiery Workflow Suite Appendix

EFI Digital StoreFrontEFI Digital StoreFront is a Web-to-Print platform provides an end-to-end content and eCommerce workflow that lets print buyers order, edit and preview job specifications. Integrates with Fiery servers and EFI PrintFlow® to make the entire operation more efficient and profitable. Digital StoreFront offers:

• Personalized Marketing. DSFdesign Studio™ offers immediate entry into single version VDP. Powerful VDP technology (from XMPie or FusionPro) complements the solution 1:1 personalized products to support more complex, direct marketing initiatives – all via the rich Digital StoreFront experience.

• Unlimited, customizable StoreFronts. Create branded, “sticky” storefronts specific to your customer base to drive adoption and more online revenue.

• Streamlined Job Submission. Digital StoreFront’s powerful Visual Product Builder lets print buyers order, edit and preview their job specifications on a single page!

• Automated Workflow. Digital StoreFront creates an end-to-end content and commerce workflow by providing seamless integration with EFI Fiery® servers and EFI Print MIS/ERP solutions. Integration means less re-keying of job data and fewer chances for production errors.

• Deployment Flexibility. Digital StoreFront can be deployed on-site or from the cloud, depending upon your business requirements.

Fiery JobFlowFiery JobFlow delivers advanced prepress capabilities in a browser-based, cost-effective solution. Once jobs go through the JobFlow workflows, operators can send them to print through a Fiery server or through Fiery Central. The configurable Fiery JobFlow workflows integrate powerful tools for PDF conver-sion, preflight checks, correction and editing of PDF files, image enhancement, document imposition, and job ticketing.

• Decrease errors and rework by printing only the jobs that pass the preflight check configured for each workflow.

• Save time by making critical last-minute changes and corrections without returning files to customers or going back to native applications.

• Improve client communications by interacting with customers more efficiently and giving them the option to submit jobs through a cloud-based sync-and-storage service like Dropbox.

Fiery Graphic Arts Package, Premium EditionThe Fiery Graphic Arts Package, Premium Edition features professional-level tools for managing color, proofing and controlling workflow. This tool:

• Caters to expert users who need advanced color tools for preflighting and troubleshooting jobs.• Allows users to preview jobs and make last-minute color edits.• Integrates with legacy proofing workflows.

EFI Digital StoreFrontFlexible eCommerce Software to Power Your Business Online

WEB-TO-PRINT / ECOMMERCE SOLUTIONS


Fiery JobMasterFiery JobMaster provides advanced PDF-based make-ready functions to let users do the following:

• Insert and design tabs in a fully visual interface, assign media to sheets, number pages, merge scanned pages and apply last minute changes.

• Preview jobs in page and sheet views, displaying media attributes at a glance for quick job navigation, and see exactly how the output will look like before going to print.

• Create a new job by merging digital and scanned documents. Delete, move, add blank pages and even duplicate pages.

Fiery ImposeFiery Impose delivers intuitive document imposition that automates prepress tasks and:

• Provides platform, application and file-format independence.• Enables last-minute changes to text and images with powerful PDF editing.• Cuts waste by previewing all jobs exactly as they will print, before starting any run.• Includes Full Acrobat 9 Professional and PitStop Edit for Mac and PC.

Fiery ComposeFiery Compose adds intuitive tools that make advanced document preparation simple and quick:

• Creates and inserts tabs and specifies mixed media from a single, visual interface.• Simplifies document setup and navigation in large jobs with a page view panel.• Offers quick and easy setup of page ranges within documents, including chapter definition.

Fiery CentralFiery Central is a PDF production workflow solution that maximizes throughput plus automates color and black-and-white workflows. It allows you to:

• Control up to 12 printers from one place and to centralize output management in order to improve digital print production capacity, turnaround and productivity.

• Split or route jobs for lowest-cost production. This can mean splitting color and black-and-white pages, balancing the workload and routing all or part of jobs to the most productive and cost-efficient printers.

• Avoid job delays: If one printer has a paper jam or print error, for example, configurable error rerouting automatically sends the job to a similar printer to continue production.

• Unify workflows: Use consistent production processes across multiple printers. This assures a quick learning curve and dramatically boosts productivity.

Fiery Color Profiler SuiteFiery Color Profiler Suite offers integrated color management tools for Fiery Driven printers to provide accurate, consistent and reliable color reproduction as it:

• Offers total color control including printer profile creation, inspection, monitor profiling, profile editing, and verification against industry standards.

• Shortens learning curves with a fast, easy-to-use interface that’s tightly integrated with Fiery servers.• Includes the EFI ES-2000 spectrophotometer to calibrate the server and capture colors for the Spot-On utility.


EFI Business Management Products Appendix

Fiery DashboardFiery Dashboard is a cloud-based service that captures and aggregates a wide array of performance data from Fiery Driven digital print devices. It gives managers a single view into digital print productivity, including usage rates, uptime, error rates and more, so they can:

• Stay in control of business no matter where they are with real-time information through a standard Internet browser.

• Make proactive business decisions to maximize efficiency and productivity with data at every level of detail from high-level metrics to underlying data.

• Manage production resources more effectively. Fiery Dashboard helps managers make better use of print engines, manage production or track workload to plan staffing more efficiently.

• Track color data to monitor and compare key color metrics to maintain print engine color accuracy over time.

EFI PrintSmith VisionEFI PrintSmith Vision is a flexible, feature-rich business management software that offers powerful estimating, point-of-sale, account management, production management, receivables and sales analysis tools within a single, easy-to-use application. This browser-based platform is both modular and scalable making it an excellent solution for growing businesses. Its primary target markets are quick printers, small commercial shops, in-plant facilities, specialty printers, print-for-pay operations and small commercial printers.Companies running PrintSmith Vision find they are able to:

• Attain greater visibility into business performance.• Improve customer service.• Increase billing accuracy and cash flow.• Make informed decisions that improve their organization’s profitability.

EFI PaceEFI Pace is a browser-based, scalable, and customizable print management system designed to streamline operations, reduce costs and provide the information customers need to be more successful. Its primary target markets are small to mid-sized commercial print shops, in-plant operations, specialty and hybrid printers, government and school operations.

• Offers a complete suite of software modules that give total control, anytime, anywhere, plus it uses an appliance model that allows for installation and training in a fraction of the time required by other solutions.

• The secure system architecture is XML driven, ODBC compliant and allows browser-based access from Mac and PC platforms to better leverage emerging technologies that will define the digital workflow process.

EFI PrintSmith VisionPowerful, Browser-Based Business Management Software

BUSINESS AUTOMATION SOFTWARE FOR PRINT AND PACKAGING


EFI PaceGlobally Optimized Print MIS


EFI MonarchEFI Monarch is a flexible, powerful, intelligent, and automated print and management solution. Its primary target markets are large, single and multi-plant operations handling everything from the most basic jobs to the most complex projects.

• Scalable to 5,000 users, Monarch offers a high degree of functionality and flexibility for the efficient management of all product and work types, including: web, sheet, screen, inkjet, digital, and flexographic.

• The core system includes advanced job management, intelligent production planning, and JDF-certified integration with many of the industry’s top suppliers of pre-press, press and finishing equipment.

• Gives unprecedented visibility and control through integration, process intelligence and patented algorithms customized for businesses – all designed to improve capacity utilization, reduce waste, streamline operations, and grow your profit potential.

EFI PrintFlow Dynamic SchedulingPrintFlow Dynamic Scheduling integrates with Pace and Monarch and would replace the simple scheduling available in each of those solutions. PrintFlow’s advanced optimization capabilities allow a print provider to realize savings by optimizing the interaction of all the processes in their facility or facilities. PrintFlow’s real- time calculations, enterprise-wide scope and unique what-if capabilities transform scheduling into the focal point of an enterprise-wide management solution. EFI PrintFlow also offers companies the following capabilities:

• Identifies optimal job path. EFI PrintFlow’s automatically determines the optimal job path based on available equipment, current workload and the status of other job delivery schedules.

• Offers real-time schedule status at a glance. The Gantt Chart shows all plant jobs in a single window and allows users to manipulate their job schedules. This feature also enables operators to create summaries, tasks, links and timelines.

• Creates powerful what-if comparisons. The solution re-optimizes and re-synchronizes each time a proposed change is submitted and provides a new scenario with an impact analysis to see how jobs and customers are affected.

• Finds weakest link and eliminates it. PrintFlow determines problem areas quickly, allowing users to manage production bottlenecks and control jobs more effectively.

EFI Online Print SolutionsEFI Online Print Solutions (OPS) is a customizable solution with options to extend the Web-to-Print platform to help print service providers transform their print business into a print communications service provider. EFI OPS, the leading innovator in the areas of Web-to-Print, dynamic publishing and cross-media solutions, helps you meet this challenge with a single, integrated platform to interact with clients. EFI Online Print Solutions offers:

• Single, Integrated Platform covering Web-to-Print storefronts, job submission, variable data, cross-media and retail portals.

• Support for the management of co-marketing dollars and spending limits.• Unlimited branded storefronts, PURL’s and emails.• Integration to workflow, MIS and accounting applications, such as QuickBooks, MYOB, Enterprise MIS,

EFI Logic, EFI Pace, EFI Prism MIS and many more.• Live CASS certification and pre-sort through 3rd party partners.• Online payments through PayPal, CyberSource, Authorize.net eliminates the hassle of invoicing and

tracking payments.• Pre-integrated into customer ERP or CRM applications such as SAP, Ariba, Salesforce.com, PeopleSoft

and Oracle Financials.

EFI MonarchEnterprise Resource Planning for Print



Glossary of TermsAPPE: Adobe PDF Print Engine enables integrated, end-to-end PDF workflows for printing graphically rich content, including variable content for personalized publishing.

ASIC: Application-specific integrated circuit, or ASIC, is an integrated circuit customized for a particular use, rather than intended for general-purpose use. For example, a chip designed to run in a digital voice recorder is an ASIC.

Calibration: Refers to the process used to ensure that a printer produces colors that are consistent in relation to a standard.

Color Gamut: In color reproduction, including computer graphics and photography, the gamut, or color gamut, is a complete subset of colors. The most common usage refers to the subset of colors which can be accurately represented in a given circumstance, such as within a given color space or by a certain output device.

Color Management: In digital imaging systems, color management is the controlled conversion between the color representations of various devices, such as image scanners, digital cameras, monitors, TV screens, film printers, computer printers, offset presses, and corresponding media.

The primary goal of color management is to obtain a good match across color devices; for example, the colors of one frame of a video should appear the same on a computer LCD monitor, on a plasma TV screen, and as a printed poster. Color management helps to achieve the same appearance on all of these devices, provided the devices are capable of delivering the needed color intensities.

DFE: DFE is an acronym for Digital Front End. It basically refers to the brains of a digital printing system. The DFE is able to load files from various sources on a network and process them in order to be printed on digital equipment, whether it be a small desktop printer or a large digital press.

Fiery FreeForm: A free variable-data-printing tool from EFI that works with VDP solutions. It allows data that is used many times in a variable-data printing job to be processed just once, enabling print engines to run at or near rated speed.

ICC Profile: ICC stands for International Color Consortium. ICC profiles are based on scientific standards developed by International Commission on Illumination (CIE) that define the parameters used to describe all visible colors. An ICC profile provides a cross-platform device profile format that ensures consistent, device-independent color throughout the entire production process.

Imposition: Grouping and arranging pages for efficient printing on larger sheets of paper, taking into account the need to cut and bind the pages after printing.

ODBC: Open Database Connectivity is a standard C programming language middleware API for accessing database management systems (DBMS). The designers of ODBC aimed to make it independent of database systems and operating systems; an application written using ODBC can be ported to other platforms.

Personalization software: Software that enables the user to create personalized communications, or variable data printing. See “variable data printing.”

PANTONE: Also known as the PANTONE Color Matching System is largely a standardized color reproduction system. By standardizing the colors, different manufacturers in different locations can all refer to the PANTONE system to make sure colors match without direct contact with one another.

THE FIERY CHANNEL PLAYBOOK | GREAT PLAYS LEAD TO VICTORY 31U011.02.13_US

PPML: Personalized print markup language is an XML-based language for variable data printing. Developed by Print On Demand Initiative (PODi), PPML makes variable-data jobs print faster by allowing a printer to store text elements and graphic elements and re-use them as needed. PPML is a non-vendor specific language and is therefore considered to be an open industry standard.

RIP: A raster image processor is a device or software program that converts page description language code to a format understood by the print engine so it can print pages.

Spot color: A custom or special color that can be printed using specially mixed ink or simulated with the four-color process.

Transactional printing: Printing records of transactions, usually records of economic activities between a customer and a business.

Variable Data Printing (VDP): Digital technology that links print engines to databases that contain the content for printed documents in order to print pages that vary in content.

VIPP: Variable data Intelligent PostScript Printware, invented by Xerox, is a page-description language (PDL) designed especially for printing variable data documents VIPP is also known as VI Compose.

VPS (Variable Print Specification): A proprietary VDP language from Kodak Creo. All Fiery external servers consume VPS format files.

WYSIWYG: WYSIWYG is an acronym for “what you see is what you get”. In computing, a WYSIWYG editor is a system in which content (text and graphics) displayed on screen during editing appears in a form closely corresponding to its appearance when printed or displayed as a finished product, which might be a printed document, web page, or slide presentation.

Documents

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