Liberty's Community Print Location Solution Creates New Revenue Opportunities for Its Retail Customers

LAS VEGAS --(Business Wire)-- Jan. 31, 2008 Liberty, the premier source for the development and distribution of photo gifting, lab consumables, custom lab solutions, equipment, replacement parts, and pro photography equipment, today announced a unique all-in-one Community Print Location (CPL) printing solution for wireless devices.

Liberty is offering a mobile printing solution to its retail customers, enabling them, as a Community Print Location (CPL) to provide mobile printing services to their wireless consumers. Consumers can print virtually any file--including Word documents, PowerPoint, Excel documents--from any wireless device--PC, laptop, or wireless handheld, such as a cell phone or PDA to a Liberty Community Print Location.

"Liberty is actively developing products and services to create new revenue sources and drive profitability to our customers, and our Community Print Location solution is part of this offering," said Garry Green, president of Liberty Photo Products. "Also, as minilab solutions shrink in footprint, the ability to drive new sources of revenue increases and we see onsite community document printing and its ability to easily fulfill the needs of wireless and mobile consumers, as an exciting next step in a changing industry."

Liberty has partnered with PrinterOn(R) Corporation, a leading developer of mobile printing solutions and Ricoh Americas Corporation printers to offer this mobile printing solution to its customer base. The standard CPL printer hardware is the Ricoh HotSpot Printer, a Liberty-enabled color laser printer embedded with PrinterOn's PrintSpots(TM) mobile printing software--no additional hardware or software is required. An embedded keypad allows for direct input of print release codes. Custom hardware printer solutions are also available according to customer requirements.

"With our partners Ricoh Americas Corporation and PrinterOn we have created a turnkey solution for our customers and for consumers," said Duke Chadsey, sr. vice president, product development and marketing for Liberty. "Like a mini print shop, our CPL lets consumers leverage any means to print--whether they are on the road and send their files to a specific retail location to eventually pick up, or are on site and send the image for print from any device on-hand--their printing needs are met."

Consumers can print to the CPL by sending the print job via email to the printer's email address, or can upload the file using the CPL's web printing page, or interface directly with the printer via a virtual print driver. The print data is encrypted using 128 bit AES and standard RSA public/private key pairs, ensuring that documents can only be decrypted with decryption keys known by the PrinterOn(R) software. Documents are held in an encrypted state until the user provides the code to release their document, then they simply input the code into the keypad and their files print.

"Liberty's CPL solution addresses the growing international demand from mobile workers for driverless, mobile printing services," said Ken Noreikis, vice-president of sales and marketing for PrinterOn. "We were the first to market with mobile printing solutions and Liberty recognized our expertise, as well as the market opportunity to deliver a much-needed mobile printing service to the Liberty customer base of over 16,000 retail locations."

"Ricoh's new HotSpot Printers make it simple for business professionals to print important documents no matter where they are," said Ann Moser, senior vice president, Printing Solutions Division, Ricoh Americas Corporation. "These new printers fill an essential need for all types of organizations who seamlessly want to integrate this technology into their existing network infrastructure. This capability enables customers to enhance and maximize document workflow from anywhere at anytime."

This is a new business model for Liberty and delivers a way for its retail customers to leverage the space vacated in the lab by new and smaller technologies and offers advanced technologies to manage print imaging needs. It also improves the profitability per square foot while improving loyalty with retail consumers.

Editors Note: Liberty is offering demonstrations of CPL at PMA at their booth in the South Hall Level 2 M190. Liberty is also offering a graphic that explains the CPL solution, you can download it at http://download.yousendit.com/A3BB844C2E1F56D0 and an image of the Ricoh HotSpot Printer at http://download.yousendit.com/0561C43C1C425370.

About Liberty

Founded in 1984, Liberty (an ISO 9001:2000 certified company) is the market leader in the development and distribution of equipment, replacement parts, consumables, and custom lab solutions for the photographic imaging industry. The company services a broad range of labs including professional, commercial, wholesale, online fulfillment, specialty photo retail, regional and national drug, grocery, and mass retailers and professional photographers. Servicing more than 16,000 global end-user locations and photographers with an advanced logistics and sourcing platform, Liberty supplies more than 9,000 products including; minilab replacement parts and consumables, wide format printers, ink and media, custom printed CDs / DVDs / flash memory, kiosks, software, lifestyle photo products (photo gifting supplies), and more. For more information go to http://www.libertyphotoproducts.com or call (949) 361-1100.

About PrinterOn Corporation

PrinterOn's mobile printing solutions enable individuals to Print Simply Anywhere(R). PrinterOn's PrintSpots(TM) offers mobile printing solutions for corporate, education, hospitality, and retail environments. PrinterOn is based in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, and has been delivering award-winning document handling solutions for 24 years. Visit PrinterOn at http://www.PrinterOn.com.

for Liberty
Jennifer McLean, 714-457-1878
[email protected]