PEABODY, Mass., June 5, 2002 - ScanSoft, Inc. (Nasdaq: SSFT), a leading supplier of imaging, speech and language solutions, today unveiled the ScanSoft® Capture Development System v11. The new release is an API-compatible replacement for the ScanSoft® Developers Kit 2000, delivering significant OCR accuracy improvements and new PDF capabilities to commercial and in-house application developers.

The Capture Development System v11 allows developers to harness the proven capabilities of ScanSoft® OmniPage Pro®, the dominant commercial application for desktop OCR and PDF conversion. Key enhancements delivered within the new Capture Development System include; improved recognition accuracy of 25%, the addition of robust PDF developer tools, a highly accurate page decomposition capability that separates static documents into text, columns, tables and graphics, a new text editor control (TEC) for setting properties, and for training suspect characters and extended support for import and export formats, including TIFF-FX and PaperPort MAX.

The system's new support for the MAX image file format allows developers to use ScanSoft® PaperPort® as a turn-key scan station for distributed desktop environments. With PaperPort on the desktop, users can instantly convert paper, PDF and digital documents into applications created with the Capture Development System, and images created within the developed application can also be searched and viewed through the PaperPort desktop. This flexibility delivers significant value to both in-house and commercial application developers.

"Support for PDF, recognition voting, page decomposition and distributed capture are now 'must-have' features for capture applications," said Harvey Spencer, President of Harvey Spencer Associates. "By incorporating this sophisticated functionality into a rapid development system, ScanSoft is providing the tools to substantially widen the imaging and capture market while demonstrating significant leadership within this arena."

ScanSoft's imaging and OCR developer products are the most popular way to add sophisticated scanning, image pre-processing, indexing, PDF and image export capabilities to software applications. Its imaging and OCR products are used in nearly all commercial applications that support capture features, including Canon® imageWARE, Cardiff TELEform®, FileNET Panagon™ Capture, Kofax Ascent Capture®, and Microsoft® Office XP.

"The ScanSoft Capture Development System v11 is the most comprehensive imaging and PDF toolkit available," said Robert Weideman, vice president of worldwide marketing for ScanSoft. "This release raises the bar for OCR accuracy, a critical requirement for indexing and conversion, and provides an affordable way to integrate complete PDF support with commercial and custom applications."

The Capture Development System includes everything needed to add sophisticated PDF, OCR and imaging capabilities to applications, speeding time-to-market, lowering development costs, and reducing the cost of maintenance. Its open architecture also gives developers the flexibility to incorporate custom functions or other commercial imaging toolkits. Key features of the toolkit include:

Import/Export: The input subsystem provides scanner and image conversion interfaces and supports conversion for TIFF, PCX, DCX, BMP, PNG, JPEG, PDF, TIFF-FX and PaperPort MAX image formats. Both color and grayscale images can be handled by the system, and images can be sent from memory to the preprocessing and recognition processes.

The output format can be generic Unicode or ANSI or can be filtered through output conversion modules into popular word processing formats. Over 30 output formats are supported, including Microsoft Word, Excel, PDF, PaperPort MAX, RTF, ASCII and HTML. PDF output is provided in four formats including PDF Normal (text only), Normal with image substitutes, Image only and Image on text.
Image Preprocessing: Image preprocessing functions are available to rotate, deskew, invert, and despeckle images. Automatic Page Analysis is offered to separate an image into zones (auto-zoning) and is capable of recommending recognition modules for subsequent processing. Attributes such as language and document structure elements are also provided.
Recognition Voting: Developers have a choice of any of 3 omnifont OCR recognition modules including the OCR Engine from ScanSoft's OmniPage Pro. This engine provides increased accuracy by incorporating a powerful internal voting process that leverages the recognition technologies of all 3 omnifont OCR engines.
ICR: Two ICR recognition modules are available in the ScanSoft Capture Development System. One supports numbers only and is designed for applications where a restricted character set is required. The second ICR recognition module is designed for alphanumeric hand printed characters of both upper and lower-case handprint of nearly 100 languages, 15 with dictionary support.
Barcode: The ScanSoft Capture Development System provides recognition support for 13 barcode symbologies allowing developers to build custom applications that offer robust barcode recognition technology.
OMR (Optical Mark Recognition): The ScanSoft Capture Development System provides support for recognizing optical marks. Typical areas of application include questionnaires, educational tests and reporting or ordering sheets, where the documents to be processed are form-like and filled in by respondents.
Visual Toolbox: An optional set of custom controls is made available through the Visual Toolbox which provides developers with the tools needed for the design of image viewers and correction editors.

The ScanSoft Capture Development System v11 will ship within 30 days, with pricing starting at $4,495. PaperPort Deluxe® scan station seats start at $99, with quantity discounts. For more information please visit www.ScanSoft.com/Capture.

About ScanSoft, Inc.

ScanSoft, Inc. is the leading supplier of imaging, speech and language solutions that are used to automate a wide range of manual processes-saving time, increasing worker productivity and improving customer service. For additional information on the company, please visit www.ScanSoft.com/CaptureSDK

Trademark reference: ScanSoft, OmniPage Pro, PaperPort, and PaperPort Deluxe are trademarks or registered trademarks of ScanSoft, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other company names or product names referenced herein may be the trademarks of their respective holders.

The statements in this press release that relate to future plans, events or performances are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including risks associated with market trends, competitive factors, and other risks identified in the Company's SEC filings. Actual results, events and performance may differ materially. Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on these forward-looking statements that speak only as of the date hereof

Contact Information