Major Products: EFI has one of the graphic arts industry’s broadest inkjet printer portfolios, including VUTEk, EFI Wide Format, Reggiani, Nozomi, Cubik and Cretaprint printers and presses. EFI offers a wide range of ink products for the wide-/superwide-format sign and display graphics and industrial inkjet printing markets, including UV and UV LED inks, ceramic and mineral inks, and water-based inks for direct to textile and transfer printing. EFI also makes reactive, pigment and water-based acid inks for industrial textile printing.

Number of Employees: 1,300

Comments: One of the world’s largest inkjet equipment and ink manufacturers, Electronics For Imaging, Inc. (EFI) is prominent in many printing segments, including packaging, textiles, industrial, sign and display. EFI’s ink operations are a key part of the company’s growth; Ink World estimates EFI’s ink sales at $200 million annually.

EFI is consistently introducing new printers, software and inks. At 2024 PRINTING United, EFI launched its 3.2-meter EFI VUTEk M3h, a hybrid flatbed/roll-fed LED printer, and the 3.5-meter EFI VUTEk X3r roll-to-roll LED printer, which is designed for indoor and outdoor sign and display applications.

At FESPA Global Print Expo 2025, EFI also showcased its EFI Pro 30f+ flatbed and EFI VUTEk Q3h XP hybrid. In terms of inks, the EFI Pro 30f+ flatbed LED printer features EFI’s new high-performance ProGraphics+ Series UV LED inks. The optional clear ink can add extra pop to colors or special effects to graphics, while also offering protective qualities.

“We’re delivering the versatility, image quality, and production-level performance our customers need to stay competitive and profitable,” said Todd Zimmerman, CRO of EFI. “Our newest technology, showcased at our booth, was developed to help businesses lead with confidence in a fast-moving market.”

Major Products: EFI has one of the graphic arts industry’s broadest inkjet printer portfolios, including VUTEk, EFI Wide Format, Reggiani, Nozomi, Cubik and Cretaprint printers and presses. EFI offers a wide range of ink products for the wide-/superwide-format sign and display graphics and industrial inkjet printing markets, including UV and UV LED inks, ceramic and mineral inks, and water-based inks for direct to textile and transfer printing. EFI also makes reactive, pigment and water-based acid inks for industrial textile printing.

Number of Employees: Approximately 1,200 (Ink World estimate)

Comments: Electronics For Imaging, Inc. (EFI) is one of the world’s largest inkjet equipment and ink manufacturers, and is in numerous markets including textiles, packaging, industrial, sign and display. EFI’s ink operations remain a key driver in the company’s success; Ink World estimates EFI’s ink sales at $200 million annually.

In October 2023, EFI announced that it transformed its Castellon, Spain, manufacturing site mostly focused on ceramic tiles into a manufacturing operation for production-level single-pass inkjet printing for packaging, display graphics and other adjacent markets.

“EFI has placed a particular focus on the packaging market as it has worked to transform the Castellon manufacturing facility as well as the research and development arm located there,” said Evandro Matteucci, EFI’s VP and GM for packaging and building materials, in announcing the project.

EFI was active at drupa 2024, highlighting new solutions in inkjet printing for packaging, display graphics, and textiles.

These included the Packsize EFI X5 Nozomi, the first full-color, on-demand, right-sized box system, which prints, cuts, creases, glues, and erects customized boxes at rates as fast as one box every six seconds with high-resolution graphics.

EFI also introduced the EFI Nozomi 14000 AQ true water-based, single-pass inkjet technology for corrugated packaging and displays. EFI Genuine Water-based Inks are compliant with the European Printing Ink Association (EuPIA), Swiss Ordinance RS817.023.21, and Nestlé Guidance Note & European directives on packaging inks.

“Our aqueous, single-pass inkjet technology sets a new standard for corrugated packaging with vibrant, high-quality, and eco-friendly printing,” said Matteucci in announcing the plans for drupa. “This innovation ensures compliance with some of the most stringent regulations while enabling businesses to meet customer demands swiftly and efficiently.”

Major Products: EFI has one of the graphic arts industry’s broadest inkjet printer portfolios, including VUTEk, EFI Wide Format, Reggiani, Nozomi, Cubik and Cretaprint printers and presses. EFI offers a wide range of ink products for the wide-/superwide-format sign and display graphics and industrial inkjet printing markets, including UV and UV LED inks, ceramic and mineral inks, and water-based inks for direct to textile and transfer printing. EFI also makes reactive, pigment and water-based acid inks for industrial textile printing.

Number of Employees: Approximately 1,200 (Ink World estimate)

Comments: For Electronics For Imaging, Inc. (EFI), 2022 was a time of major change for the digital printing industry leader, as the company split off its Fiery segment.

Fiery, which is a leader in Digital Front End (DFE) technology for production and industrial printing, has been established as a separate company that will operate independently while remaining owned by EFI’s owner, Siris Capital Group LLC.

Toby Weiss, long-time COO and GM of Fiery, will continue to lead the business as CEO of Fiery, with Jeff Jacobson serving as executive chairman of Fiery in addition to his role as executive chairman of EFI.

“This realignment best positions Fiery, the leading global DFE provider, to accelerate investment and win in its current markets while also strategically expanding its footprint into key adjacencies – as exemplified by Fiery’s recent acquisition of CADlink Technology Corporation,” said Jacobson in announcing the split. “I have always believed that digital imaging would not be where it is today without Fiery, and its separation from EFI will allow it to best serve customers in the DFE market.

“This realignment positions both EFI, now solely focused on digital inkjet for industrial applications, and Fiery, the leading global DFE provider, to win in their independent markets while maintaining the close partnership that has contributed to the success of each business,” Jacobson added.

Frank Pennisi, most recently president and CEO of Orora Packaging Solutions, a provider of custom packaging solutions with an emphasis on corrugated and an EFI customer, has joined EFI as its CEO.

“As a former customer, I know that EFI’s digital industrial inkjet portfolio is unmatched in the industry,” said Pennisi. “The company’s suite of equipment, inks and intelligent service positions it to address its customers’ most critical needs.”

With the Fiery split, EFI will be focused on driving the analog-to-digital transition across packaging and corrugated, display graphics, textile and building materials/décor end-markets. Inkjet inks are a key part of the EFI portfolio, with an estimated $200 million in sales in 2022.

In July 2022, EFI Reggiani, its industrial textile printing business, broke ground on a new 20,000 square meter textile campus in Comun Nuovo, Bergamo, Italy. The new facility is expected to be completed mid-2023.

“EFI Reggiani has always worked diligently to take our offerings to the next level, thinking ahead and developing high-tech, high-quality and reliable textile solutions,” said Adele Genoni, EFI Reggiani SVP and GM, in announcing the plans for the new facility.

“The new campus is an important step in our journey, and it is proof of EFI’s strong commitment to continued development of the textiles business unit. Not only will this provide us more space to continue our growth, but it will also be a welcoming and sustainable environment for our employees.”

Major Products: EFI has one of the graphic arts industry’s broadest inkjet printer portfolios, including VUTEk, EFI Wide Format, Reggiani, Nozomi, Cubik and Cretaprint printers and presses. EFI offers a wide range of ink products for the wide-/superwide-format sign and display graphics and industrial inkjet printing markets, including UV and UV LED inks, ceramic and mineral inks, and water-based inks for direct to textile and transfer printing. EFI also makes reactive, pigment and water-based acid inks for industrial textile printing.

Number of Employees: Approximately 2,000 (Ink World estimate)

Comments: As one of the world’s largest inkjet equipment and ink manufacturers, Electronics For Imaging, Inc. (EFI) is continuing to meet growing needs in the transformation from analog to digital printing, whether it is in textiles, packaging, industrial, sign and display or other key markets. EFI’s ink operations are a key driver in the company’s success.

Mark Goodearl, senior ink product manager for EFI, noted that EFI’s ink operations were able to deliver consistently and maintain commitments to customers throughout 2021. For EFI, the largest change within the company happened at the end of 2021, when EFI embarked on a significant overall realignment to focus on and invest in digital print’s strong growth potential.

“Private equity company Symphony Technology Group acquired EFI’s eProductivity Software business – the leading developer of MIS/ERP workflow software for printing and packaging businesses,” Goodearl said. “EFI in turn has since had some reinvestment around our core digital print-focused strategy.”

EFI has also been actively developing new products.

“Within the last 12 months, we have further improved our disperse dye-sublimation offerings with a new plus version of our VUTEk FabriVU soft signage printer line,” Goodearl noted. “We are also bringing important new products and solutions to market, including a new UltraClear Coat offering for our roll-to-roll printers, which is unique by being both decorative and protective and will significantly improve process efficiency for applications such as truck side graphics.”

Additional highlights for EFI in the last 12 months include a few recent announcements.

“In March, we launched an advanced new platform for single-pass inkjet for corrugated packaging, the EFI Nozomi 14000 LED press,” said Goodearl. “EFI won a number of orders immediately following its launch, so this press is already extending EFI’s position as the leading single-pass inkjet provider for the corrugated space. In May, our EFI Reggiani textile business acquired the world’s leading RIP provider for industrial textile printing, Inédit Software, and it is a move that expands both our workflow capabilities in textile and our geographic market presence in strategic locations.”

In an effort to avoid supply chain issues, EFI has strengthened its ink manufacturing in Europe.

“EFI has taken proactive steps to make our own logistics, supply chain and manufacturing capabilities even more consistent and reliable,” Goodearl observed. “And with ink, that includes having full redundancies of our Ypsilanti, MI ink manufacturing facility within Europe.”

As for 2022, Goodearl said that EFI is seeing continued recovery in 2022 for most applications and in most regions.

“EFI has fared well through the first half of 2022. There continue to be disruptions from the pandemic and global events, but the majority of EFI customers are sharing positive outlooks for the remainder of the year,” he added. “There has been strong take-up of our new EFI Pro 30h hybrid flatbed/roll-to-roll UV LED printer. And, we recently sold the 800th printer to come from our dedicated roll-to-roll printer production operations.

“We have also successfully taken single-pass inkjet into the display graphics market with the first two placements of our Nozomi 18000+ LED printer, plus, we are entering a new market for paper-based signage with a new VUTEk PaperPro printer using pigment ink,” Goodearl concluded. “EFI’s outlook is positive – we have a broad and strong product portfolio and are well positioned in our target markets.”

Major Products: EFI has one of the graphic arts industry’s broadest inkjet printer portfolios, including VUTEk, EFI Wide Format, Reggiani, Nozomi, Cubik and Cretaprint printers and presses. EFI offers a wide range of ink products for the wide/superwide format sign and display graphics and industrial inkjet printing, including UV and UV LED inks, ceramic and mineral inks, and water-based inks for direct to textile and transfer printing. EFI also makes reactive, pigment and water-based acid inks for industrial textile printing.

No. of Employees: Approximately 3,300 (Ink World estimate)

Operating Facilities: 34 worldwide offices

Comments: The printing industry faced many challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the digital printing segment was no exception. Electronics For Imaging, Inc. (EFI) is one of the top inkjet equipment and ink manufacturers, and the company saw many of the challenges.

Mark Goodearl, senior ink product manager for EFI, said that EFI weathered the same setbacks seen across the graphic arts digital print and industrial print markets, but also had some key gains, particularly in packaging.

“The closures that came with lockdowns in 2020 reduced demand for inks used in signage and graphics printing, such as retail POP signage as well as tradeshow and event signage,” Goodearl noted.

“Packaging ink volume for our single-pass inkjet UV LED corrugated packaging printer, the EFI Nozomi C18000 Plus, grew throughout 2020,” he added. “The pandemic accelerated consumer e-commerce shopping and products such as subscription boxes kept packaging ink demand high. And by the end of the 2020, we saw some improvements in ink volumes in the Asia Pacific region as that part of the world moved toward pandemic recovery. Ink volumes for industrial digital print applications that are prevalent in Asia, such as ceramic tile decoration and industrial textile manufacturing, started recovering in the fourth quarter of the year, creating some momentum in ink business that we are working to build on in 2021.

“EFI had the first commercial implementations of its Cubik digital wood staining technology in 2020, opening a new market for industrial production using mineral inks to create a high volume, single-pass digital staining option for wood flooring and other wood products,” he added. “EFI Cubik printers can use a mineral ink that offers a significant improvement in sustainability, health and safety compared with traditional wood staining.”

EFI had one of its most significant years for change in 2019, becoming a privately owned company with a new CEO from the digital print industry, Jeff Jacobson.

“In 2020, additional high-level executives joined who are critical to our future development with ink innovation and digital printing in general,” Goodearl said. “Former Xaar CEO Doug Edwards joined as EFI’s CTO in January and, in June, Scott Schinlever, an executive who previously helped us reach a leadership position in UV and later UV LED superwide-format inkjet, returned to EFI as our COO of Inkjet, a role where he directs all of our inkjet operations across our display graphics, textile, corrugated packaging, ceramic tile and building materials product lines.”

In May, EFI brought in Todd Zimmerman, a new senior executive who will be instrumental in driving the company’s ink strategy forward.

“He has extensive print experience and, as the vice president and general manager of our Display Graphics business – EFI’s single-largest inkjet business segment – he will be enacting some strategic plans that can position our ink operations for longer-term growth,” Goodearl said.

Two of EFI’s inkjet technologies earned top awards for their respective markets in 2020. The EFI Cretaprint Hybrid product – a digital ceramic tile printer – won the tile decoration industry’s top technology award, the Alfa de Oro.

“That product is somewhat revolutionary from an ink perspective as the Cretaprint Hybrid printer is the first digital tile decoration printer that will enable users to run solvent-based ceramic inks but then switch to greener water-based inks,” Goodearl said.

“The other big honor EFI had in 2020 was receiving one of the top accolades for printing technology – an InterTech Award for the EFI Reggiani BOLT single-pass inkjet textile printer,” he continued. “The BOLT is the world’s fastest digital textile printer, operating at speeds up to 295 linear feet (90 linear meters) per minute.”

COVID-19 had a major impact on raw material pricing and availability.

“We worked very hard on strategies that helped us minimize the issues every ink manufacturer faced in rising ink component, chemical and freight costs,” reported Goodearl. “While it is too early to say the situation has improved, we remain optimistic that the factors that have impacted ink manufacturing will indeed become more stable as the pandemic subsides globally.”

EFI is constantly developing new markets, with wallcoverings a promising new opportunity.

“Earlier this year, we tested prints produced on our roll-to-roll printers with our UV LED inks on DreamScape material, and they earned Type II certification for wallcoverings,” Goodearl said. “It is a key advancement in terms of quality, safety – including fire safety – and durability of digital print.”

Goodearl said that while the ink business at EFI has not returned to normal, demand is up across the board compared with 2020.

“In the future, our ink offering will look different than it did pre-pandemic based on shifts in customer demand, with corrugated packaging inkjet ink, for example, continuing the growth it has had all through the pandemic, and ink products such as dye-sublimation ink for soft signage graphics and UV LED display graphics inks moving back towards pre-pandemic volumes,” Goodearl said.