Bitstream Releases WebFont Maker; New Web Publishing Tool for Displaying Fonts Across Industry-Standard Web Browsers

Business Wire, Feb 16, 1999

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 16, 1999--Bitstream Inc. (Nasdaq:BITS), reinforcing its position as the Internet Font Company, announced the release of WebFont Maker(tm), a new Web publishing tool that allows Web page designers to embed their typefaces in Web pages designs. These embedded typefaces will display properly using either Netscape Navigator(tm) or Microsoft Internet Explorer(tm) Web browsers (versions 4.0 and higher).

"WebFont Maker is a major step forward for Web page designers and other content providers," said Paul Trevithick, president of Bitstream. "Before WebFont Maker, Web page designers were forced to use a Web browser's limited set of default fonts, or designers had to build their custom fonts inside graphics files, such as GIF or JPEG files. These graphics files tend to be large, which increases the download time for Web pages. Also, users cannot perform text searches for text strings that are inside these graphics files."

Trevithick continued, "WebFont Maker solves these problems by allowing Web page designers to use the fonts they wish, while keeping overall file size to a minimum. And since designers are using standard text strings, search engines can continue to query the text. WebFont Maker is the only product that makes fonts truly portable across the Internet."

About WebFont Maker

Bitstream's WebFont Maker includes:

--Over 200 high-quality TrueType fonts, including a collection of WGL4 fonts with expanded Pan European characters and the "euro" currency symbol.

--Bitstream's award winning Font Navigator(tm) for typeface management.

--The newly developed WebFont Wizard(tm).

The WebFont Wizard allows designers to create portable, dynamic fonts from the TrueType fonts on the CD, or from any TrueType or PostScript Type 1 fonts installed on the designer's computer running Windows 95, Windows 98 or Windows NT 4.0. These dynamic fonts can then be embedded in any Web page for display using Netscape Navigator (for Windows or Macintosh) or Microsoft Internet Explorer (Windows only).

The price for WebFont Maker is $198.95. For more information about WebFont Maker or dynamic font technology, visit Bitstream's website at http://www.bitstream.com/products/world/webfont/index.html.> About Bitstream Inc., The Internet Font Company

Bitstream Inc., headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is a leading developer of type technology, digital typefaces, and type customization services for the graphics communications industry. Bitstream licenses its WebFont(tm), TrueDoc(R), and T2K(tm) font portability and rendering technology to hundreds of industry-leading Internet, Web, and publishing software applications developers, as well as to manufacturers of computers, printers, set-top boxes, and other devices. Bitstream has been awarded several patents that cover aspects of creating subsetted fonts, managing and rendering portable font objects, and using portable fonts for Web publishing. Bitstream also offers on-demand publishing software through its wholly owned subsidiary, PageFlex Inc. For more information on Bitstream and its products, visit the company on the World Wide Web at http://www.bitstream.com

Bitstream and TrueDoc are registered trademarks of Bitstream Inc. All other trademarks mentioned are for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners.