Scitex

From textiles to color images

Efi Arazi founded Scitex in 1968, after returning from the United States, under the name Scientific Technology; hence the name Scitex. At first it developed systems for designing patterns for the textile industry, and later moved into printing and publishing. Scitex developed computers, software and equipment that helped scan images, process colors and assemble pages before printing. This shift linked the designer's work with the production equipment in the print shop, at a time when much of the preparation was still done with photographic materials and manual work.

Milestone: computerized color prepress

According to Optica and Ynet, Scitex developed the world's first digital prepress computer and launched it in 1979. Tamar Almor's case study describes the Response 300, introduced in 1979, as the first computerized color prepress system. The system combined a scanner interface, a station for page assembly and image retouching, and equipment for outputting the result for print. The system changed how color images were prepared for print and made it possible to do this work on a computer. According to the study, the system was later also shown at the Print and IPEX trade shows in 1980, bringing the new tools to printing professionals around the world, and development of the prepress station began at the company in 1975.

Public offerings and competition in a changing industry

The case study records share offerings in 1980 and 1983 and Scitex's growth as a supplier of prepress systems to publishers around the world. In the 1990s it describes falling profitability, attempts to expand through acquisitions and new products, and a split into business units. The graphic arts business covered solutions from the original image to preparing material for print; alongside it, digital printing and wide-format printing developed. Advances in computers and software on the market changed the terms of competition, and the company had to adapt the structure of its business and its products. According to the study, its customers included National Geographic, Time/Warner and The New York Times.

The sales: Creo, Kodak and HP

According to Creo's SEC filing, on 4 April 2000 it bought the assets of Scitex's digital prepress business for 13.25 million Creo shares. According to Kodak's SEC filing, on 5 January 2004 it completed the acquisition of Scitex Digital Printing for $252 million, including about $13 million in cash held by the company being sold; when the deal was announced in November 2003, $250 million in cash was reported. On 1 November 2005 the sale of the Scitex Vision business to HP was completed for about $230 million in cash. HP by then already owned another Israeli digital printing business: in 2002 it bought Indigo, which in 1993 had introduced the world's first digital color offset press. On 29 December 2005 the parent company changed its name to Scailex.

Legacy

Scitex's businesses continued under other companies: Creo merged the prepress business into its CreoScitex division, and Kodak and HP absorbed the printing businesses they had bought. Another part of the legacy is tied to Arazi himself. According to Optica, he headed Electronics for Imaging, which in 1991 launched Fiery, the first color server for the printing industry. Scitex does not continue as the independent technology company of the 1980s, but the products, businesses and ventures that began there branched into other business paths.