Nuance Introduces PDF Edit! in Japan, Teams with SOURCENEXT for Broad Retail and eCommerce Distribution Throughout Japan

Business Wire, March 16, 2006

TOKYO & BURLINGTON, Mass. -- PDF Edit! to be the Flagship Product for SOURCENEXT's Market-leading Ikinari PDF Family, Available in Over 10,000 Retail Outlets as the First True Alternative to Adobe(R) Acrobat(R) in Japan

Nuance Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq: NUAN), a leading provider of speech and imaging solutions, today announced the immediate availability of PDF Edit!, a complete PDF creation and editing application designed specifically for the Japanese market. Nuance also announced that SOURCENEXT, a leading software developer and distributor within Japan, has licensed PDF Edit! and will distribute the product as the flagship of its Ikinari PDF product family. SOURCENEXT has over 400 software titles, which are sold in over 10,000 retail outlets and significant eCommerce sites in Japan. The Ikinari PDF product family has seen record sales in the last two years, with 600,000 units sold in Japan.

"SOURCENEXT is one of the truly remarkable technology companies in Japan, with their Ikinari PDF family outselling even Adobe Acrobat in units within the Japanese retail market," said John Shagoury, president, Productivity Applications Division, Nuance. "We developed PDF Edit! specifically for retail, government and corporate users within Japan, and believe that SOURCENEXT is a unique partner that will maximize the growing opportunity for affordable PDF solutions in Japan."

Nuance's PDF Edit! is available only in Japan, and represents the first true alternative to Adobe(R) Acrobat(R) for the Japanese market. The product provides everything needed to view, create, print and edit PDF files, with a cost that makes it an affordable solution for every business desktop. Key features include:

--Industry-Standard PDF

Creates 100% industry-standard PDF files that can be read, printed, or processed by popular PDF viewer programs - such as ScanSoft(R) PaperPort(R) Professional and Adobe(R) Reader(R). Supports PDF v1.3, v1.4, and the latest v1.5; also supports PDF XML tags.

--High Quality PDF

Creates the highest quality PDF files from nearly all Microsoft(R) Windows(R) applications, retaining the precise layout of the original document.

--Superior Creation Speed

Produces PDF files up to 3 times faster than the leading PDF creation application.

--Optimized, Small File Sizes

Creates highly optimized PDF files that are dramatically smaller than the original document. Supports industry-standard compression options, including loss-less, JPG 2000 and enables optimization for the Web.

--Passwords and Security

Secure PDF files by requiring others to know a password in order to view or print a document. 40-bit and 128-bit encryption can also be applied to a PDF file with the user able to control whether the document can be viewed, printed, edited, copied or annotated.

--Automatic PDF-to-e-Mail

Choose to have PDF files automatically added as an attachment to an e-mail message simplifying the sharing of documents over the Internet.

--Watermarks and Stamps

Apply watermarks and stamps to your documents from a pre-made library or create your own. Custom watermarks can be applied from other PDF files or created from within the PDF Create! Assistant.

--Short-cuts and Application Integration

Create PDF files from practically every PC application through a printer interface or by using the right-mouse shortcut when clicking on any file in Windows Explorer. Nuance has also integrated toolbar icons for PDF Create! within a number of popular applications, including Microsoft(R) Word, PowerPoint(R) and Outlook(R).

--Advanced Font Embedding, Graphics and Page Size Controls

Supports font embedding for all standard and non-standard fonts, shading and transparency conversions. Select the graphics resolution and control PDF page size and orientation. Supports the creation of custom page sizes and automatically scales in inches, millimeters and points.

--International Language Support

Supports international double-byte character sets enabling creation of PDF documents using nearly any Latin, Cyrillic or Asian character set.

--Does Not Require Adobe(R) Acrobat(R)

Create and view PDF files without the need for any additional software.

PDF Editing Features

--Design and Publish Fillable PDF Forms

The amazing FormTyper feature automatically discovers form fields and check-boxes, adding standard PDF form elements to your form without changing the original. You can also manually add form elements, including buttons, checkboxes, digital signature fields and more. Full attribute settings are also supported.

--Reorder, Cut, Copy and Paste Pages

PDF page thumbnails and assembly tools allow you to easily manipulate pages in a PDF document to rearrange, add or delete pages with drag & drop ease.

--Copy Text, Graphics and more into Microsoft Office

Have you ever wanted to use a chart or graphic in a PDF within a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation? Now you can with PDF Converter Professional - just select the area to copy, then paste into Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and more.

--Select, Edit, Cut, Copy and Paste Text within PDF Documents