ScanSoft Ships OmniPage Pro 12 Office; Extends Benefits of Document and PDF Conversion to All Businesses

Business Wire, August 26, 2002

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

PEABODY, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 26, 2002

Company Expands Addressable Market Opportunities by Enhancing

World's Most Popular OCR Product With New PDF, Workgroup, XML

and Network Automation Capabilities

ScanSoft, Inc. (Nasdaq: SSFT), a leading supplier of imaging, speech and language solutions, today announced the immediate availability of OmniPage(R) Pro 12 Office, the newest release of the world's most popular optical character recognition (OCR) and PDF conversion application. OmniPage Pro 12 Office sets a new standard for OCR accuracy and page layout retention, and provides a new set of unique automation, XML and republishing capabilities that expand the usefulness of OCR for any business. With this release ScanSoft has delivered a single, affordable solution to convert, edit, process and share both paper and PDF documents.

OmniPage Pro 12 Office is a powerful productivity application that delivers highly accurate document and PDF conversion, replacing the need to manually re-create paper and image-based documents with an automated, electronic process. The software helps businesses save time and money by instantly turning paper and PDF files -- letters, contracts, spreadsheets, magazine articles, manuals and more -- into editable word processing and spreadsheet documents.

In the new release ScanSoft has enhanced the features that matter most to users of OCR products, increasing overall accuracy up to 35% and improving PDF conversion accuracy by more than 80% -- easily making OmniPage Pro 12 Office the fastest and most reliable document conversion tool available. Other time-saving advances include precise document layout retention and unmatched document editing, making it easier than ever to re-create electronic documents -- even those with formatted text, columns, graphics, tables and spreadsheets.

"The new, robust functionality of OmniPage Pro 12, our flagship OCR product line, will enable us to expand ScanSoft's addressable market opportunities," said Paul Ricci, chairman and CEO of ScanSoft. "With its extensive enhancements, and the engagement of nearly 2,000 channel partners in North America and Europe, this version of OmniPage represents our most comprehensive product launch ever. We expect excellent performance from this product in the coming months."

OmniPage Pro 12 Office Continues ScanSoft History of Industry Firsts

ScanSoft, with the introduction of OmniPage Pro 12 Office, builds on its rich history of industry firsts by adding several unique features that deliver even greater productivity gains and cost savings. This release is the first desktop OCR solution that can be used to automatically process volumes of documents and scanned files into XML. XML has emerged as the standard for representing documents and data using a vendor-neutral format. By supporting scan- and PDF-to-XML capabilities, OmniPage Pro 12 Office helps businesses connect document workflows with database, document management and search applications, and enables connectivity with other applications that support the XML standard.

The new release also offers revolutionary support for Open eBooks, an important electronic document capability supported by Microsoft(R), Adobe Systems, and other leading commercial, academic and government organizations. OmniPage Pro 12 Office is the first OCR and PDF conversion product to move eBooks beyond electronic book publishing, now allowing all business documents to be shared, used and protected using commercial eBook readers and digital rights management solutions. Free eBook readers from Microsoft and Adobe Systems are available for a growing list of devices, including Apple(R) Mac(R), Microsoft Windows(R) XP, Palm(R), Microsoft Pocket PC and Tablet PC systems.

"ScanSoft continues to expand the benefits and market opportunity of document conversion for a range of users, regardless of whether they're using a scanning device or existing PDF documents," said Ron Glaz, research manager at IDC. "Most impressive is the new convert-to-XML, -PDF and -eBook capabilities, which, combined with its document automation and sharing capabilities, show that OCR and ScanSoft will play an increasingly valuable role in delivering productivity to the growing networked worker and mobile office community."

Automated Paper-Based Workflow Processes Save Time and Money

Today, businesses are continually seeking ways to streamline paper-based processes to save time and money, recognizing that manual processes can cost an organization hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost productivity. To help customers achieve greater value and productivity benefits from OCR, ScanSoft has enhanced OmniPage Pro 12 Office with a number of significant features, including:

-- The Easiest-to-Use OCR -- Already award-winning for its ease-of-use, OmniPage Pro 12 Office features an enhanced user interface and productivity wizards that result in the most intuitive OCR and PDF conversion product available.

-- Layout and Flowing Page Retention -- A critical requirement for document repurposing, OmniPage Pro 12 maintains columns with flowing text between pages, and precisely separates graphics, text and tables -- while maintaining fonts and layout positioning.

-- Precise Table and Spreadsheet Retention -- The ability to repurpose spreadsheets and complex tables saves significant time and effort, but requires complete data accuracy and has significant layout challenges. OmniPage Pro 12 Office includes new table and spreadsheet segmentation capabilities that deliver high-quality results, even for spreadsheets and tables without lines or borders.

-- IntelliTrain -- For documents that require proofing, IntelliTrain learns from previous corrections, streamlining the proofing process by reducing manual editing tasks.

-- Enhanced Support for Microsoft Office and Corel WordPerfect -- OmniPage Pro 12 Office extends its support for popular application formats with improved and enhanced integration with popular desktop applications, including Microsoft Office XP and Corel(R) WordPerfect(R).

-- Legal and Medical Recognition -- OmniPage Pro 12 Office includes recognition dictionaries for a wide range of legal and medical terms, increasing accuracy when processing professional documents.

-- On-The-Fly Zoning -- The new release supports one-pass OCR and On-The-Fly zoning, which allows users to dynamically select new zones on a page. This eliminates redundant OCR processing and gives users complete control of the document conversion process.

-- Interoperability with Microsoft OLE Automation -- OmniPage Pro 12 Office can now be easily integrated with other applications through its industry-standard Microsoft OLE automation interface. Using OLE automation developers, integrators and VARs can incorporate OmniPage Pro 12 Office functionality into a wide range of automated document processes, from scan-to-email and document capture processes, to archiving and workflow applications.