PEABODY, Mass., April 10, 2000 - ScanSoft, Inc. (NASDAQ: SSFT), the leading provider of digital imaging software, today announced Developer's Kit 2000 version 10. Providing easy access to 10 powerful recognition engines in a single source, Developer's Kit 2000 version 10 offers many significant enhancements including increased accuracy with new and improved recognition engines and increased flexibility for integrators. The developer kit is expected to be available in July direct from ScanSoft.

"With ten recognition engines, Developer's Kit 2000 is a one-stop shop for developers who want to integrate multiple recognition technologies into their applications," said Valorie Cook Carpenter, senior vice president of marketing at ScanSoft. "By providing a single interface for the integration of multiple recognition engines, Developer's Kit 2000 enables developers to streamline the integration process, minimizing their time to market."

Developer's Kit 2000 provides software developers and OEMs with an open-architecture source of OCR (machine print), ICR (handprint), bar code, OCR-A, OCR-B, MICR (E13B), and OMR. The open API architecture permits 32-bit software developers to integrate additional or alternative image capture technologies.

Access to the technologies is provided by a C API for C programmers, while C++, Delphi or Visual Basic® programmers can access the latest recognition technology through an ActiveX interface. Example code using the Microsoft Foundation Class Library (MFC) makes it easy to integrate the Developer's Kit 2000 into applications developed using Microsoft Visual C++. It comes in three configurations optimized for different application development needs: the Professional Recognition Kit, the Professional OCR Kit, and the C Developer's Kit. In addition, an optional Professional Toolbox offers the convenience of visual controls that provide for text editing, image viewing, image thumbnail viewing and zone control. These controls are designed to simplify the development of image viewers and correction editors, for example.

The new Developer's Kit 2000 version 10 offers many enhancements to the award-winning Developer Kit 2000. The new developer kit offers:

New POWR++ OCR engine: This new OCR engine employ's ScanSoft's highly accurate Predictive Optical Word Recognition++ (POWR++) technology, the same technology found in OmniPage Pro 10, the world's standard for machine print OCR. The POWR++ engine provides increased accuracy, reducing the number of errors on average by 30% over the M/Text engine also available in the developer kit. Providing a more intelligent approach over traditional external voting, POWR++ incorporates a powerful internal voting process, which leverages the recognition technologies of the OmniPage, WordScan and Recognita engines.
Updated reRecognition alphanumeric handprint recognition engine: This updated ICR engine is reRecognition's most accurate ICR engine. It provides increased accuracy over the reRecognition ICR engine previously included in the Developer's Kit 2000.
Updated M/Text OCR engine: This updated version 9.7 OCR engine is faster than the previous version 9.2. The increased speed performance is primarily due to the engine's ability to save OCR results directly to output formats of choice and eliminates the unnecessary step of first saving to an intermediate file format.
Updated MOR OCR engine: This updated version 9.0 OCR engine is the same found in ScanSoft's Recognita Plus 5.0 product. Recognizing 114 languages, the updated engine provides increased accuracy.
Updated GammaGraphX bar code recognition: This engine is GammaGraphX's most accurate offering for the recognition of 1D and 2D bar codes. In addition, Developer's Kit 2000 customers can now license these bar code engines directly from ScanSoft.
New and improved image preprocessing capabilities including a new despeckle algorithm and improved thresholding capabilities that better convert color and grayscale images to black and white for increased recognition accuracy.
Updated output filters for Microsoft Word and Excel developed internally to better maintain original page layout in output text.
New controls for defining resident or non-resident recognition engines. Developers now have the flexibility to define all recognition engines as resident or non-resident in memory.
Updated ActiveX controls are included with the Professional Toolbox. These controls enable developers to add 1) text annotations to image files, 2) basic printing from applications developed using the developer kit, 3) the ability to reorder pages in the Thumbnail Viewer with a simple drag and drop, and 4) keyboard shortcuts to easily skip between suspect words during text editing to their applications.

Choice of Three Versatile Kits

Developer's Kit 2000 version 10 comes in three configurations optimized for the different needs of application developers:

The Professional Recognition Kit comes with all of the available programming interfaces including C libraries and ActiveX. Also included are three award-winning OCR (machine print) engines, two ICR (handprint) engines, OCR-A, OCR-B, MICR (E13B), OMR (checkmark) and bar code engines which recognize industry standard types such as code 39, 128, 125, UPC-A & E, EAN 8 and 13, PostNet, and PDF-417.
The Professional OCR Kit includes all of the programming interfaces for the integration of the three award-winning OCR engines.
The C Developer Kit provides developers with an economic kit and supports the C libraries and the three machine print OCR engines.

The Professional Toolbox is an optional set of ActiveX controls, which can be added to either the Professional Recognition Kit or Professional OCR Kit. It offers developers custom controls that allow for the design of a variety of image viewers and correction editors.

Pricing and Availability

Developer's Kit 2000 version 10 and License Packs for the various recognition engines are expected to be available in July direct from ScanSoft at (408) 395-5148 ext. 2110. Pricing of the toolkits ranges from $2,945 to $5,495. The Professional Toolbox is priced at $1,495.

Customers of the previous version of Developer Kit 2000 are eligible for an upgrade to version 10 for $995. Customers who purchase the previous version of Developer Kit 2000 between April 10, 2000 and the availability date of Developer's Kit 2000 version 10 are eligible for a free upgrade to Developer's Kit 2000 version 10.

About ScanSoft, Inc.

Headquartered in Peabody, MA, ScanSoft, Inc. (Nasdaq: SSFT) is the leading developer of digital imaging software that enables users to leverage the power of their scanners, digital cameras and other electronic devices. ScanSoft's award-winning product line - Pagis® Pro, TextBridge® Pro, PaperPort® Deluxe™, OmniPage Pro®, OmniForm®, OmniPage Pro Scan Suite Plus™, ImageAXS™, PageKeeper®, Kai's PhotoSoap2™, Kai's SuperGoo™, Kai's PowerShow™, and PhotoFactory™ - enables users to capture, recognize, edit, manage and share documents and photos electronically by taking advantage of ScanSoft's cutting-edge technology.

ScanSoft has established numerous strategic partnerships with the industry's leading scanner and multifunction vendors to deliver the most comprehensive and cost-effective solutions to its customers. Vendors who have chosen ScanSoft's cutting-edge OCR technologies to incorporate into their own product offerings include Brother, Canon, Epson, Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard, Lotus, Microtek, Mustek, Primax, Sharp, Symantec, Visioneer, Xerox and others. ScanSoft's leading OCR technology was recently licensed by Microsoft for use in future products. ScanSoft continues to cultivate and develop strategic partnerships to deliver the most comprehensive and cost-effective solutions for its customers.

ScanSoft software is sold and marketed worldwide through retail, dealer and OEM channels and the Internet, capturing the consumer, small office/home office (SOHO) and corporate markets. There are approximately 6 million registered users of ScanSoft products. ScanSoft can be found on the Web at www.scansoft.com.

Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters set forth in this press release, including, but not limited to, statements as to the features, perceived benefits and availability of OmniPage Developer Kit 10, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially, including the market acceptance of OmniPage Developer Kit 10, the impact of competitive products, and other risks detailed from time to time in ScanSoft's SEC reports. ScanSoft disclaims any intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

Paper Converter, Pagis, TextBridge, PaperPort, PaperPort Deluxe, Scanner Suite, OmniPage, OmniForm, OmniForm Internet Publisher, PageKeeper, Smart Folders and Folder Watch are registered trademarks or trademarks of ScanSoft, Inc. ImageAXS is a trademark of Digital Arts & Sciences Corporation. All other trademarks and tradenames are hereby recognized and many be registered to their respective holders.

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