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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 27, 2006. Portland, OR -- Fusion Systems International (http://www.FusionSystems.com) today announced proven compatibility of their Fusion News Workflow ESP product with Kodak's NewsManager Workflow System. The Daily Breeze newspaper in Torrance, CA, is now in full production with the Fusion workflow, sending RIPped 1-bit data files via remote connection to the Kodak NewsManager Workflow System at Southwest Offset, Gardena, CA, where the newspaper is printed.

The 1-bit plate separations are soft-proofed prior to being sent to Southwest Offset. Since the separations are already fully RIPped and screened when they arrive at Southwest, there is no possibility that the plate data will change. Fusion Systems recognized a need in the newspaper industry, where the reliability of the plating data is a critical and integral part of meeting press deadlines. "We found that many newspapers were relying on ad and editorial proofs that looked fine on screen or when output on a color plotter, but didn't match up with the printed newspaper itself," says Sean Murphy, Director of Technology at Fusion Systems. "We've helped many customers reduce or even eliminate costs associated with proof/plate mismatches. That is because our unique ROOM (Rip Once Output Many) technology ensures an absolute match between the proof and the plate, while at the same time providing for complete workflow automation."

Compatibility with Virtually Every CTP System on the Market

Since the Fusion News Workflow ESP system outputs to industry standard EPS and 1-bit TIFF formats, it is compatible with virtually any CTP system on the market. This allows customers to implement the workflow independent of a CTP buying decision. Newspapers that have not yet migrated to CTP can put the workflow in place first and implement CTP as budgets allow and when facilities are ready. And newspapers, like The Daily Breeze, can benefit by having a workflow that ensures absolute integrity between the proof, the plate and final printed product, even though the newspaper is printed off-site.

Highly Measurable Returns

The decision to invest in the new Harlequin-based Fusion RIPs for Mac OS X with DigiPage and FTIFF workflow plug-ins to replace older, out-dated RIP technology has provided highly measurable returns at The Daily Breeze. The workflow's built-in capabilities for direct file printing, job-name cleansing, advanced true-page numbering, automated file routing and sophisticated soft-proofing have dramatically reduced production time requirements and wasteful proofing materials usage.

With Fusion Systems' solutions in place at The Daily Breeze, the impact for production of weeklies has been even more dramatic. All Quark page layouts are now printed directly to printer queues. This eliminates the need to convert pages to PDF altogether and last minute fixes and changes are easily accomplished. Creating PDFs of the Quark pages used to take 12 hours of time on production days to distill the pages and quality assure them. The new Fusion RIPs automatically handle jump pages and sectioning, and routing of output correctly.

Final Layout Errors Completely Eliminated

At any time a classified or display ad layout operator can print a single page or series of pages to a published "Proofing" queue and automatically generate a Fusion raster-PDF that shows exactly how the job will print because the PDF is created from high resolution 1-bit TIFF separations data. Hard copy proofing is minimized and errors on the final layout can be completely eliminated. The Daily Breeze weeklies production time for weeklies has been reduced by 12 hours per week.

The processing of jobs supplied to The Daily Breeze from outside customers has been dramatically streamlined as well. Built-in file name sanitizing has completely automated the task of fixing obscured PDF file names. For instance, one externally produced weekly use to take as much as five hours to manually fix before it could be sent out for printing. With the Fusion RIPs now in place this task is handled automatically, within minutes, in the background.

About Fusion Systems International

Fusion Systems International, of Portland, OR, is a leading independent developer and provider of Mac OS X, Linux, UNIX, and Windows-based prepress workflow solutions for the graphic arts industry. We have over 15 years of systems integration experience and specialization in prepress software solutions designed to enhance existing investments and or complement new ones. All products are distributed directly or through a global network of value-add resellers and OEM partners. Fusion Systems International is a division of LDR International, Inc. For more information, please visit http://www.FusionSystems.com, or call us at (503) 261-7395.

About The Daily Breeze

The Daily Breeze is one of 18 newspapers published by Thee Copley Press based in La Jolla, Calif. The Copley Press Inc. is the sixth largest private family owned newspaper group in the United States and is the 19th largest newspaper group in the country, with news bureaus in Washington D.C., Mexico City, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Chicago and Springfield, Ill.

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