PEABODY, Mass., May 1, 2000 - ScanSoft, Inc. (NASDAQ: SSFT), the leading provider of digital imaging software, today announced that Richard S. Palmer joins ScanSoft as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer effective May 8, 2000. Palmer joins ScanSoft from Xerox Corporation and replaces John Rogers, who has left to pursue other opportunities.

Commenting on the appointment, ScanSoft Chief Executive Officer Michael Tivnan said, "Rich's background includes 25 years of financial and business acquisition expertise for a Fortune 100 company. This is invaluable to ScanSoft as we continue to aggressively grow the business by expanding our own offerings and distributions, as well as integrating new products and technology from our Caere acquisition."

While at Xerox, Palmer held the position of Director of Corporate Development and was instrumental in the recent $925 million acquisition of the color print division of Tektronix Corporation. Prior to that, he worked in a number of financial management positions at Xerox including Assistant Treasurer and Vice President of Business Analysis for Xerox Financial Services, Inc.

Additionally, Gerry Kent was named Controller at ScanSoft. Kent was most recently a senior manager with PricewaterhouseCoopers and has held a number of financial management positions at companies that include Visibility Software, Sequoia Systems, Intermetrics and Arthur Andersen.

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 as well as 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.

TextBridge, Pagis, PaperPort, PaperPort Deluxe, Scanner Suite, OmniPage, OmniForm, and PageKeeper, are registered trademarks or trademarks of ScanSoft, Inc. ImageAXS is a trademark of Digital Arts & Sciences Corporation. All other trademarks and trade names are hereby recognized and may be registered to their respective holders.

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