Industry observers have suggested that wide-format printers have lacked the kind of dedicated workflow pre-flighting tools that are available to both digital and litho printers.

One source said: "In general, until now there's been a lack of workflow tools in the wide-format arena."

XFlow, which is an option for EFI Fiery XF and EFI Colorproof XF, will bring increased functionality to the sector, allowing users to process digital documents easily, automatically and accurately on large to superwide format devices.

Stefan Spiegel, general manager EFI graphic arts solutions, said: "XFlow automates pre-flight to reduce make-ready work to a minimum and frees up time to focus on more value-added tasks. In addition, the advanced colour management tools give accurate colour control automatically."

Meanwhile, Fujifilm has been pushing its XMF Prepare product, which was launched some 18 months ago and which it said is similar to the EFI Fiery XF with XFlow.

Fujifilm UK workflow solutions manager Andy Walker (pictured) said: "The wide format market is not as advanced as our traditional offset market and has tended to be based on RIPs rather than a workflow.

"The file preparation, if not managed, can lead to errors and the lack of a workflow means that the pre-press operations, file checking, colour management and so on is done manually."

EFI said that its XFlow workflow would reduce errors and speed makeready on jobs regardless of file formats, print data quality or print size, saving time and money.

XFlow automates pre-flight by checking images, graphics and fonts for correct embedding, before automatically reporting and rectifying errors through its Correct module.

Meanwhile, XMF Prepare is a cross-media product that can be used in traditional offset printing, digital print, wide format or in situations where all output options are present and one workflow is required to feed all types of print.

Fujifilm currently relies on third party RIPs, although Walker hinted that this could be an area for future development.

He said: "Currently XMF does not have a specific RIP product but this is an obvious progression for XMF as the fast processing speed and Fuji Colour Management could provide benefits to this market."