New ScanSoft PaperPort Deluxe 9.0 Simplifies Organizing and Sharing Scanned Paper, PC Documents and Digital Photos

Business Wire, March 19, 2003

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

PEABODY, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 19, 2003

World's Best Selling Digital Paper Management Application

for the PC Gains Support for PDF, Enhanced Thumbnail Capabilities

and Microsoft Windows XP Certification

ScanSoft, Inc. (Nasdaq: SSFT), a leading supplier of imaging, speech and language solutions, today announced the immediate availability of PaperPort Deluxe(R) 9.0, the latest release of its award-winning digital paper management application. ScanSoft's PaperPort Deluxe is the easiest way to turn piles of paper and digital photos into organized files that people can quickly find, use and share. PaperPort Deluxe 9.0 includes significant new features specifically designed to enhance the productivity of people who use scanners, all-in-one devices, digital cameras and personal computers - at home and within small office environments.

PaperPort Deluxe 9 enhances the usefulness of scanners and all-in-one devices with its native support for the portable document format through scan-to-PDF. Documents scanned as PDF can be safely shared over the Web and, as email attachments, and can be viewed using standard PDF viewers, including ScanSoft(R) PaperPort and Adobe Acrobat Reader. The new release also supports converting to PDF from all standard image formats, including BMP, JPEG, TIFF and GIF, allowing owners of digital cameras to easily share albums and collections of photographs as an individual PDF attachment via email.

PaperPort Deluxe is world's most popular desktop paper and document management application for the PC, enabling the management of all PC files through a distinctive thumbnail-based user interface. It has proven to be an essential time-saver for millions of users worldwide for a range of tasks, including organizing home finances, warranties and receipts; managing records for agencies, associations and non-profit organizations; and maintaining collections of photographs, recipes, hobby instructions and school work.

"PaperPort has brought professional document management capabilities into my home office, allowing me to eliminate clutter and quickly convert stacks of paper into organized, digital information on my PC," said Quentin Leo, a longtime PaperPort user. "Now I use it for nearly everything, from organizing household bills to sorting the digital photographs from our family vacation. PaperPort Deluxe is simply the most versatile, powerful and easy-to-use solution I have seen for organizing my personal and business information."

PaperPort Deluxe is the easiest way to turn piles of paper and digital photos into organized files that people can quickly find, use and share. Key features of the new release include:

    --  Scan-to-PDF Capabilities
        PaperPort Deluxe 9.0 creates PDF files from scanned documents
        and enables users to annotate, assemble and manage PDF files
        and share them with coworkers, friends and family via this
        universal standard format. PaperPort's PDF capabilities are
        compatible with, but do not require, other PDF reading,
        creation or editing applications.

    --  Convert-to-PDF for Digital Cameras and Images
        Sharing albums and collections of photographs has been
        simplified through PaperPort's support for converting standard
        image formats into PDF. With PaperPort Deluxe 9 existing BMP,
        GIF, JPEG, and TIFF image files can be converted into PDF, and
        can be assembled into a single PDF file with drag-and-drop
        ease.

    --  Fast and Easy Document Assembly
        With a single click of the mouse, users can quickly assemble
        custom PDF documents, combining pages from scanned documents.
        PDF documents can be reordered and merged using PaperPort's
        drag-and-drop stacking capability - just as with real paper.

    --  Easy Digital Photo Management
        Easy-to-use image enhancing tools make it simple to retouch
        photos, adjust color and contrast and crop to enhance photos.

    --  Intuitive Thumbnail Desktop
        Nearly every application file type and image format can be
        viewed within the PaperPort Deluxe visual desktop, which
        provides clear thumbnails that allow users to quickly find
        documents without having to open them. PaperPort also includes
        built-in viewers for all popular formats, providing an
        affordable way to ensure that everyone can view image formats
        like TIFF, JPEG and PDF, as well as Microsoft Word, Excel and
        PowerPoint files.

    --  All-in-One Document Search and Retrieval
        The SimpleSearch(R) feature allows users to quickly find any
        document with a single keyword or phrase search request.
        Documents stored on PCs are automatically indexed by
        PaperPort, which uses highly accurate optical character
        recognition (OCR) to make even scanned paper and PDF files
        searchable.

    --  Fast, Easy Electronic Form Filling
        Filling out forms has never been faster or easier thanks to
        the FormTyper(TM) feature, which instantly converts static PDF
        forms into fill-able electronic forms. Form fields are
        automatically identified and created, allowing the user to
        fill, save and email the form online or print it for
        submission.

    --  Edit and Clean - One or Many
        PaperPort Deluxe supports editing and clean-up operations on
        one or many documents simultaneously -- including de-skewing
        scanned pages, rotating documents or adding search keywords.
        Image editing tools are also included, including contrast,
        color adjustment and cropping.