Adobe offers a new approach to managing paper documents with Acrobat Capture; extends the power of Acrobat Software to provide a universal electronic environment for both printed and digital documents

Business Wire, April 10, 1995

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 10, 1995--Adobe Systems Incorporated (NASDAQ:ADBE) introduced today Acrobat Capture software for Windows, a powerful page recognition technology that extends the benefits of Adobe Acrobat electronic document software to paper-based documents.

Acrobat Capture easily and accurately converts paper documents into a compact electronic format that maintains the fidelity of the original across computer platforms, providing a universal means for distributing paper-based information via the Internet, CD-ROM, on-line services and corporate networks.

Using Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF), an open file format that preserves the visual richness of documents across platforms, Acrobat Capture replicates complex layouts of the printed page, including mixed fonts, graphics, and multiple columns,while translating text into a computer-readable form that can be searched and indexed to make information easy to find. Adobe Acrobat and Acrobat Capture software combined provide a complete cross-platform environment for sharing and managing documents, regardless of whether those documents originated in paper or electronic form.

"An enormous amount of information is still locked in paper form, preventing it from being used effectively on any of the rapidly growing electronic media available today," said John Warnock, chairman and chief executive officer of Adobe Systems Incorporated. "Acrobat Capture offers any business that has a heavy reliance on paper the ability to easily convert paper information into a more useful and efficient electronic format that can be distributed across existing networks to a large number of people. Together, Acrobat Capture and Adobe Acrobat software provide corporations and government agencies with a universal document archiving and distribution solution that can extend their reach to customers, reduce costs and ultimately help them be more competitive."

Once converted into PDF by Acrobat Capture, paper documents are practically indistinguishable from any other document created by Acrobat software. All of the features available to users of Acrobat software can be applied to PDF files created by Acrobat Capture, including full-text searching, the ability to cut and paste text and graphics, security options, annotation capabilities and the ability to integrate with other files types, such as video and documents on the World Wide Web.

"Word for Word" Accuracy

Acrobat Capture software employs a variety of component technologies, including optical character recognition (OCR), font recognition, bitmap imaging and page decomposition, to ensure that the resulting PDF file exactly replicates the original document. If Acrobat Capture is not confident it has successfully recognized a word, it will embed a bitmapped image of that particular word in the PDF file, providing a document that is completely readable and accurate. Users can control Acrobat Capture's confidence requirements, imposing stricter limitations for critical applications or where document originals may have degraded due to handling. Acrobat Capture's ability to embed bitmaps for suspect words can eliminate the need for users to correct misrecognized text since the file is completely viewable and printable. Acrobat Capture software also places its best guess of a suspect word behind the bitmap in the PDF file, so the file is still fully searchable.

Acrobat Capture ships with 41 commonly used business typefaces, providing the ability to exactly or closely match the fonts of the original document. For applications requiring an exact duplicate of the original document, Acrobat Capture software can produce a bitmapped image of the entire document in PDF, placing the recognized text behind that image so the document is still fully searchable.

Network Ready

Acrobat Capture is designed for the casual or power user, providing the ability to process either one document at a time or a collection of documents queued up for batch processing. In addition to standalone use, Acrobat Capture can automatically process image files across a network. Acrobat Capture can monitor network file folders for document images and automatically convert paper documents to PDF in an unattended mode. As a result, anyone on a network can access the capabilities of Acrobat Capture software.

Built-In Editor

Acrobat Capture software makes editing and error correction quick and easy with the Acrobat Capture Reviewer program which displays the file image in true WYSIWYG format. Users can approve or correct suspects and change fonts or typefaces as desired. However, Acrobat Capture ensures that the document layout remains unaltered, preserving faithful reproduction. In addition, users can conduct search and replace or add new words through a custom dictionary.

When editing is completed, Acrobat Capture documents can be saved in a variety of file formats. Though its primary mission is to convert paper pages into PDF, Acrobat Capture software can output files in Rich Text Format (RTF), plain ASCII or popular word processing formats for Macintosh or Windows computers, including Microsoft Word, WordPerfect and Ami Pro.