Whilst this is huge news for commercial printers, the partnership is sure to have an impact on how EFI delivers solutions to the sign and wide-format print industry.

EFI chief executive officer Guy Gecht and Landa chairman Benny Landa announced the partnership to an audience of 1,000 EFI customers during the opening session of Connect, EFI’s annual users conference in Las Vegas.

“Benny Landa is a legend in our industry, and we are excited to work with his company as its exclusive DFE technology provider,” comments Gecht, adding: “Landa nanographic printing presses have potential to accelerate the migration of mainstream commercial printing and packaging to digital printing. The Landa DFE provides a proven, ultra-high-speed, and well-integrated front-end platform that Landa customers will require.”

The new DFE will employ EFI-developed Fiery technology and will enable press operators to perform last-minute job changes on the press, to proof jobs, and to print rush jobs on-the-fly. It will also collect production feedback from the presses and support closed-loop colour control and inspection.

Benny Landa comments on the alliance: “Our unique nanographic printing process enables us to offer offset-quality digital printing and a combination of format size and throughput speeds unprecedented in the graphic arts industry.

“Reaching this remarkable and exciting goal requires partnering with best-in-class providers. That is the reason we chose Fiery technology and EFI as our development partner, to deliver the highest quality ultra-high-speed front-end platform to match the quality and performance of our nanographic printing presses.”

The new Landa DFE will enter beta testing as part of the installations of the B1 format Landa S10 nanographic press in Q4 of this year.