ScanSoft's OmniPage Pro 14 Office Wins CNET Editors' Choice Award

Editors Laud Enterprise Features, PDF Capabilities and Overall Accuracy, Announcing the Product as "the OCR Application to Beat"

PEABODY, Mass., January 26, 2004 - ScanSoft, Inc. (Nasdaq: SSFT), the leading supplier of speech and imaging solutions, today announced that OmniPage® Pro 14 Office has received the prestigious CNET Editors' Choice award for the second consecutive year. OmniPage Pro 14 Office is a powerful productivity application that delivers highly accurate document and PDF conversion, replacing the need to manually re-create paper and image-based documents with an automated, electronic process.

The editors' review praised OmniPage's unique enterprise features, including advanced workflow capabilities and expanded PDF functionality, noting, "ScanSoft packs a number of new and enhanced features into OmniPage Pro 14.0 Office, each one valuable to the document conversion process." While the software's accuracy was unmatched by any other vendor, the editors noted, "Perhaps even more important than accuracy are some of the software's new features…including work flows that will handle everything from finding an image file in a specific folder to e-mailing a converted document to a coworker." The complete review by Alfred Poor can be found online at www.cnet.com

"OmniPage Pro 14 Office has been the most successful launch in our company's history, on many levels - from customer satisfaction to early returns from sales," said Robert Weideman, general manager, ScanSoft Productivity Applications. "CNET is one of the most respected news sources in the industry for in-depth product reviews, and we are particularly pleased to see OmniPage recognized for one of its most notable strengths - its value to enterprise organizations."

Building on its legacy of superior OCR accuracy, OmniPage Pro 14 Office provides enhanced workgroup and output capabilities that virtually eliminate the need for time-consuming paper-based processes, saving significant time and money. With this new version, users also have the ability to output any of their scanned and existing documents directly into PDF, .lit or XML files, adding full PDF conversion and output functionality. Advanced workflow capabilities enable users within workgroups to streamline complex network scanning and batch-processing tasks to one simple, automated action, saving more time than ever before.

In addition to a host of new functionality, ScanSoft has enhanced the features that continue to matter most to OCR users - increasing overall accuracy by more than 35 percent and significantly improving format retention - virtually eliminating time spent proofing and "cleaning up" a scanned document. With the integration of advanced voice features, users now have the option to leverage ScanSoft's industry-leading RealSpeak™ text-to-speech software to read aloud entire documents, creating an audio e-book of any document, or simply listening for natural, accurate proofing. With OmniPage Pro 14 Office, it is now easier than ever to re-create and re-purpose electronic and paper documents - even those with formatted text, columns, graphics, tables and spreadsheets.

About ScanSoft, Inc.

ScanSoft, Inc. (Nasdaq: SSFT) is the leading supplier of speech and imaging 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.

Trademark reference: ScanSoft, the ScanSoft logo, RealSpeak, and OmniPage are registered trademarks or trademarks of ScanSoft, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other company or product names may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

The statements in this press release that relate to future plans, events or performance are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including risks associated with market trends, competitive factors, and other risks identified in ScanSoft's SEC filings. Actual results, events or 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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