Through a combination of its award-winning monochrome laser printing devices and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Ultra High Frequency (UHF) technology, Lexmark International, Inc. (NYSE: LXK) is introducing enhancements to its innovative RFID solution, giving customers across many industries an easy-to-use, affordable alternative to track and access their assets and information with real-time visibility. Lexmark, an industry leader with years of experience in optimizing workflow and output-related products and services, was the first printer manufacturer to develop and bring to market a device that combines RFID technology with laser printing.

 
"Lexmark's newest RFID solution is leading-edge technology that helps our customers in key vertical markets, such as manufacturing and healthcare, to reduce errors and streamline processes," said Marty Canning, Lexmark vice president and president of its Printing Solutions and Services Division. "In addition, customers can also use the device to print and manage their everyday business documents, eliminating the need for and costs associated with operating multiple, single-use devices."

The new Lexmark RFID UHF Option is designed as an add-on accessory, in place of a drawer, for Lexmark's award-winning T654 monochrome laser printer, a device that has been recognized for its reliability, durability and the ability to handle complex media. The option, offered at an estimated street price of $2,499*, delivers these valuable benefits:

• Faster printing of RFID label media up to 20 pages per minute in RFID mode
• RFID tags can be placed either horizontally or vertically on the print media
• A broad range of media support from 5 inches x 7 inches to 8.5 inches x 14 inches

LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y. -- Building upon its stellar reputation for technological innovation and high-quality imaging offerings, Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leading provider of digital imaging and office solutions, today announced the Company has been honored with four Spring 2009 “Pick” Awards and an Outstanding Achievement Award by Buyers Laboratory Inc. (BLI)
“Receiving these prestigious accolades from BLI underscores Canon’s commitment to providing the most comprehensive and complete line-up of digital imaging equipment,” said Sam Yoshida, vice president and general manager, Imaging Systems Group, Canon U.S.A. “We are dedicated to developing a robust line-up of imaging solutions that delivers affordable, high-quality devices while also helping businesses streamline workflow and improve the end-user experience.”
Spanning across several product lines, including small office/home office devices, large format printers, MFPs and scanners, each award-winning product was recognized as “Outstanding” in its respective categories including:

There has been a movement to incorporate new document capture technologies into businesses worldwide.  Why would you spend hours patiently keying in information from delivery tickets, sales orders and remittance stubs when you could automatically extract information from scanned documents?

How Data Capture Works 
Documents are scanned using a scanner or multifunction system and then utilizes the following technologies to read data from the document:

Zone OCR: Optical Character Recognition (OCR) converts scanned text into text that can be edited in common word applications and imported into a database.  Zone OCR reads text from a specific area of a document. 

Barcode Recognition:  Information can be read from barcodes on documents.  For example, the invoice number on your proof of delivery slips can be embedded in a barcode. When these slips are scanned, the capture software reads the barcode.

Copystar Launches High Speed CS 750c Color Multifunctional Product Series for Premium Document Creation

Exceptional Image Quality and Robust Productivity Expertly Delivered through Award Winning Color MFPs

- Copystar, a division of Kyocera Mita America and a leading document imaging company, today announced the availability of the CS 750c series of color Multifunctional Products (MFPs), bringing high-speed color and advanced in-house document creation and finishing capabilities to organizations. Designed for today’s fast paced business environment, the CS 750c series offers high-speed color printing, copying, scanning and optional faxing to provide reliable, high quality document output through a user-friendly interface.

The CS 750c series features superior quality, power and performance in three new models– the CS 750c (75 pages-per-minute black/65ppm color), the CS 650c (65 ppm black/65 ppm color) and the CS 550c (55ppm black/55 ppm color).

“With the launch of the CS 750c series, Copystar’s portfolio now includes Color MFPs featuring full color speeds from 25-65 pages per minute, and black speeds of 25-75 pages per minute, providing a vibrant set of product offerings to address the color the printing needs of virtually any business,” said Danielle Wolowitz, product & solutions marketing manager, color MFPs, Kyocera Mita America. “For organizations seeking to enhance their productivity, color output capability and keep their major projects in-house, the CS 750c series brings robust performance, quality and performance to execute an array of tasks quickly and successfully.”

Industry-leading Performance
The CS 750c series comes to market with BERTL’s Five Star/Exceptional ratings for each of the three models based on product testing by BERTL Labs. BERTL, Inc., is a leading news, research and critical analysis service for the office technology industry. To receive these high rankings, each model was evaluated with strenuous testing and analysis by BERTL technical analysts to gauge performance, capability and reliability. In recognizing the CS 750c series with Five Star/Exceptional ratings, BERTL noted the CS 750c, CS 650c and the CS 550c for vibrant color strength, superior image consistency, and long-lasting reliability under strong testing conditions. BERTL’s Five Star/Exceptional testing further acknowledged the CS 750c series as offering an impressive feature set for addressing an array of jobs with excellent results.

FAIRFIELD, N.J. – July 27, 2009 - Kyocera Mita America, Inc., one of the world's leading document solutions companies, today announced the availability of the TASKalfa 750c series of color Multifunctional Products (MFPs), bringing high-speed color and advanced in-house document creation and finishing capabilities to organizations. Designed for today’s fast paced business environment, the TASKalfa 750c series offers high-speed color printing, copying, scanning and optional faxing to provide reliable, high quality document output through a user-friendly interface.

The TASKalfa 750c series features superior quality, power and performance in three new models– the TASKalfa 750c (75 pages-per-minute black/65ppm color), the TASKalfa 650c (65 ppm black/65 ppm color) and the TASKalfa 550c (55ppm black/55 ppm color).

“With the launch of the TASKalfa 750c series, Kyocera’s portfolio now includes Color MFPs featuring full color speeds from 25-65 pages per minute, and black speeds of 25-75 pages per minute, providing a vibrant set of product offerings to address the color printing needs of virtually any business,” said Danielle Wolowitz, product & solutions marketing manager, Color MFPs, Kyocera Mita America. “For organizations seeking to enhance their productivity, color output capability and keep their major projects in-house, the TASKalfa 750c series brings robust performance, quality and performance to execute an array of tasks quickly and successfully.”

Industry-leading Performance
The TASKalfa 750c series comes to market with BERTL’s Five Star/Exceptional ratings for each of the three models based on product testing by BERTL Labs. BERTL, Inc., is a leading news, research and critical analysis service for the office technology industry. To receive these high rankings, each model was evaluated with strenuous testing and analysis by BERTL technical analysts to gauge performance, capability and reliability. In recognizing the TASKalfa 750c series with Five Star/Exceptional ratings, BERTL noted the TASKalfa 750c, TASKalfa 650c and the TASKalfa 550c for vibrant color strength, superior image consistency, and long-lasting reliability under strong testing conditions. BERTL’s Five Star/Exceptional testing further acknowledged the TASKalfa 750c series as offering an impressive feature set for addressing an array of jobs with excellent results.

By Jamie Bsales, Associate Editor, July 24, 2009

eCopy, Inc. is continuing its quest to help close the workflow divide in the workplace—where digital documents follow one path and paper documents follow another, often much slower, route—with its latest software solution. eCopy PaperWorks is a desktop document imaging solution that helps users scan paper documents, merge them with other digital files, modify the documents and connect them to back-end repositories and line-of-business applications.

PaperWorks replaces the company’s eCopy Desktop offering. It augments the eCopy ShareScan Suite and ShareScan Essentials network scan-capture and routing solutions, which integrate with many leading MFPs and enable users to easily scan paper documents and integrate them into more than 100 leading business applications, such as enterprise content management (ECM) software, document management repositories, fax software, collaboration platforms and more. While PaperWorks can be used as an adjunct to ShareScan (and is included in both ShareScan bundles), ShareScan is not required to take advantage of the desktop software’s features.

“ShareScan handles distributed front-office capture and connects to business and enterprise applications,” explained Tim Durant, vice president, Business Development Worldwide for eCopy. “PaperWorks handles the document processing piece of the puzzle: working with documents to scan, merge, modify and connect.”

PaperWorks is a desktop document imaging application that falls on the software continuum between simple scan-capture solutions (such as Sharp’s Sharpdesk) and full-blown document management applications (such as Xerox DocuShare Express). Rather than just scanning a file and dumping it to a folder, where it then has to be opened with another application, PaperWorks allows users to work extensively with digital applications. They can use the PaperWorks interface to capture paper documents from any desktop scanner or network MFP; combine already-existing electronic files (such as Microsoft Office files and e-mail) with scanned documents, faxes and more; view, edit, mark up and manipulate files; and create secure, searchable PDFs of the new documents. And thanks to eCopy’s expertise in connecting to back-end applications such as Microsoft SharePoint, users can deliver and retrieve files via PaperWorks to workflow, document management, communication and other business applications.

MAHWAH, N.J., July 23, 2009 – Sharp Imaging and Information Company of America (SIICA), a division of Sharp Electronics Corporation, today introduced the FO-2080, a digital document communication system that packs Sharp’s multi-functional capabilities into a compact footprint for the SMB market. The versatile FO-2080 combines high speed Super G3 fax functionality with high-quality digital copying, network printing, and direct-to-PC color scanning in an easy-to-use machine that is easily accessible to anyone in the workgroup.

Providing an enhanced level of user-friendliness, the FO-2080 provides auto switching between dual paper trays as a standard feature, eliminating the need to manually switch between legal and letter sized paper for incoming faxes. With an overall maximum capacity of 550 sheets, the two standard 250-sheet paper trays simultaneously accommodate different paper sizes such as letter or legal, along with a 50-sheet bypass tray that can handle heavy paper, labels, transparencies, and envelopes, to keep workflow moving seamlessly. The FO-2080 also delivers features such as 2-sided printing, copying and scanning, as well as E-Sort and Offset Stacking, making tasks such as collating, separating, and sorting absolutely effortless.

“The FO-2080 is a highly functional office document solution that puts the capabilities of multiple machines in the footprint of an average fax machine,” said Andre Pimentel, Associate Product Manager, A4 Multifunction Printers, Sharp Imaging and Information Company of America. “This is a product that can help enable office administrators to greatly resolve and streamline workflow issues and reduce cost of operation in a number of ways.”

Ypsilanti, MI -- July 23, 2009 -- EFI today announced that it has entered into a partnership with Masterpiece Graphix, Inc. (MGX), MGX the largest provider of customized pre coated, print enhanced substrates for digital printing. Under the terms of the agreement, MGX will coat certain substrates for use with the Jetrion 4000 Series industrial inkjet system and UV inkjet inks, eliminating the need for Jetrion users to perform this step themselves. As a result, Jetrion users will now have the option to order an even larger array of standard substrates they are already using on their flexo presses with an MGX coating that ensures that these substrates are print-receptive for UV inkjet inks.

“The Jetrion 4000 is revolutionizing digital label printing by allowing converters to print directly onto the majority of their favorite substrates without a costly primer or topcoat. This results in lower running costs and faster cycle times, a major advantage of Jetrion’s proprietary UV inkjet inks versus liquid or dry toner-based systems,” said Dr. Kenneth Stack, general manager of EFI Jetrion. “While many customers use flexo substrates that work well without priming or top coating, some have asked us for a third-party solution for the substrates that are more difficult to print on. We do offer a flexo-based coating that guarantees compatibility with any substrate, but our relationship with MGX gives our customers the added convenience of ordering print –ready rolls from a third party.” MGX treats materials with a proprietary pre-coating process assures excellent printing and ink adhesion. Not only does this guarantee the best possible on-press quality, but it also eliminates the extra coating step in the converter’s manufacturing process, thus reducing the production cycle time.

“We are excited about this partnership with EFI,” said Doug Watson, CEO and President of MGX. “MGX has extensive experience with coatings, having coated over 800 different types of materials from common paper to exotic substrates, enabling a broad selection of materials for unlimited applications. We are pleased to be bringing this expertise to bear for the benefit of EFI Jetrion 4000 users.”

West Caldwell, N.J., July 22, 2009 – Ricoh Americas Corporation, a leading provider of digital office equipment, today announced the availability of its Ricoh Aficio SP C820DN and SP C821DN Color Laser Printer Series. Ricoh’s newest color laser printers are an upgrade over the previous Aficio CL7200 and SP C811DN models and offer large workgroups an upgraded engine design based off the CL7200 engine, which produces faster warm-up times and first print times. The SP C820DN and SP C821DN eliminates the need for outsourcing as the printers produce high quality prints up to 9600x600 dpi and 1200x1200 dpi at a rate of up to 40 pages per minute for the Aficio C820DN and up to 50 pages per minute for the Aficio C821DN.

Ricoh’s new color laser printers are the perfect solution for graphic-intensive workgroups like marketing departments, print-for-pay vendors, pre-press departments and design agencies looking to produce full-color documents in-house. The SP C820DN and SP C821DN Series comes equipped with numerous professional-grade finishing options like the 1,000-sheet booklet finisher and 3,000 sheet finisher which allow users to produce full-color marketing materials at a fraction of the cost of outsourcing. The printers’ multi-bit printer engine uses true laser technology to achieve photographic quality prints. The SP C820DN and SP C821DN support PANTONE®, ColorSync, and custom ICM and ICC profiles which gives users the flexibility to keep a wide range of jobs in-house. PANTONE Color Palettes will be available mid. August 2009.

The SP C820DN and SP C821DN not only equip workgroups with the ability to produce high quality output at interpolated resolutions up to 9600x600 dpi but the printers provide users with a combination of fast processing and fast print speeds. Businesses can use the new color laser printers to create reports, presentations or brochures at high speeds. The high-performance 1 GHz Intel Celeron® Controller allows the printer to efficiently process jobs consisting of large files, complex applications and other graphic-intensive demands.