PEABODY, Mass. and GENT, Belgium, November 12, 2002 - ScanSoft, Inc. (Nasdaq: SSFT), a leading supplier of imaging, speech and language solutions, today announced it has shipped localized versions of OmniPage® Pro 12 for Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden, Italy and Spain. OmniPage Pro 12, released earlier this year in the U.S., U.K., France and Germany, is the newest release of the world's most widely used optical character recognition (OCR) and PDF conversion solution.

OmniPage Pro provides broad language capabilities, including support for converting documents in 114 languages, and is available in 12 localized versions. The product, which has already won prestigious awards from C|NET, PC Magazine, Windows News, PC Pro and ZDNet, is able to process documents that contain content in multiple languages and supports adding custom words to its processing dictionary. ScanSoft also plans to deliver additional localized versions for Hungarian, Czech and Polish languages in the coming weeks.

"The extensive language support in OmniPage Pro 12, our flagship OCR product, helps ScanSoft to deliver productivity solutions for a broad, international user population," said Robert Weideman, chief marketing officer at ScanSoft. "With these new localized versions, we are pleased to introduce the benefits and value of OmniPage Pro 12 to a new set of customers and partners across Europe."

OmniPage Pro 12 is a powerful productivity application that delivers highly accurate document and PDF conversion, replacing the manual reproduction of paper and image-based documents with an automated, electronic process. The product also helps businesses save time and money by instantly turning paper and PDF files - letters, contracts, spreadsheets, magazine articles, manuals and more - into documents that can be edited, archived and shared. OmniPage Pro 12 sets a new standard for OCR accuracy and page layout retention, and provides a new set of XML, network scanning, automation and republishing capabilities that expand the usefulness of OCR for any business.

As a global leader in OCR and PDF conversion, ScanSoft has developed a network of distributor, reseller and value-added reseller partners who deliver a high level of customer service and support throughout the world. As members of the ScanSoft Solution Partner program, these organizations are trained and certified on all new releases of ScanSoft productivity applications.

Availability

ScanSoft OmniPage Pro 12 is available immediately through ScanSoft's global network of authorized resellers or through its direct sales organization. For additional information on features, pricing and volume licensing programs, please visit www.ScanSoft.com.

About ScanSoft, Inc.

ScanSoft, Inc. (Nasdaq: SSFT) is a 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 more information regarding ScanSoft products and technologies, please visit www.ScanSoft.com.

ScanSoft, OmniPage and OmniPage Pro are registered trademarks or trademarks of ScanSoft, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other company or product names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

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.

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