EFI launches Fiery Textile Bundle

EFI has launched a new version of Fiery targeted at users of its Reggiani industrial digital textile printers.

The EFI Fiery Textile Bundle comprises new Fiery DesignPro Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop plug-ins and version 6.5 of the Fiery ProServer digital front-end (DFE) for high-quality textile production.

The bundle was made commercially available last month, following an introduction at the ShanghaiTex tradeshow in China.

EFI said Fiery DesignPro provides the ability to accurately match colours to the printed result, share colour palettes across the design team in real time, design professional repeat patterns and create multiple colourways from one design.

The new Adobe plug-ins are said to result in "reduced learning curves" and provide shorter design time, enabling users to create professional textile designs more efficiently.

Version 6.5 of the Fiery ProServer is an advanced offering for use with wide- and superwide-format inkjet printers that brings Fiery performance and colour technology to the Reggiani printer portfolio.

EFI said the DFE provides colour consistency in the production workflow with colour profiles that can be used across the design and production process.

Version 6.5 includes textile-specific capabilities such as support for multiple ink types and colour technology to ensure high print quality with saturated black, fine details and smooth gradients.

Additionally, improved halftoning technology is said to keep pastels and light tones clean, and reduces graininess in highlights and large solid areas.

EFI Fiery wide-format senior product marketing manager Elli Cloots said: “A lot of the features in ProServer version 6.5 are completely brand new and have been developed to address the needs of the textile market.

“A lot of colour presets have been put in there to support textile, because it’s completely different inks and post-process.

“So there are a lot of new features around measuring colour, and getting that fed back into the system so you actually have accurate colours. There’s also new features around step and repeat for textile, because it needs to be seamless.”

Version 6.4 of the Fiery ProServer did not drive the Reggiani printers, Cloots added.

“In the past, users of Reggiani printers had to point to an external vendor for the RIP part to drive their machines.

“At EFI we want to support the complete eco-system so it’s a seamless connection between the Fiery and the printer, so we had colour specialists from Fiery work together with the specialists from Reggiani to get this down to an art to really get good high-end quality.”