Solution Enhances Productivity of Information Workers Everywhere by Turning PDF into Fully-Formatted Microsoft Word Documents

PEABODY, Mass., April. 22, 2004 - ScanSoft, Inc., the leading supplier of speech and imaging solutions, today announced that PDF Converter, the latest addition to its suite of PDF-based solutions, has received the 2004 Impact Award for PDF in the category of PDF Indexing and Search. PDFzone is the leading online authority for PDF and document management professionals, and its readers are among the most influential PDF buyers on the market. The awards will be given out at the 2004 Adobe Acrobat & PDF Conference, held this week at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort in Orlando, Florida.

Readers of PDFzone selected ScanSoft PDF Converter for its ability to quickly and easily convert PDF files into fully-formatted Microsoft Word documents. In a recent review of the product PDFZone editors reported, "PDF Converter solves the problem by making a new Word document from any PDF, tagged or not. At the heart of the utility is the document structure recognition intelligence built into ScanSoft's OmniPage OCR software, which is designed to divine structure from documents-such as faxes, scanned images of paper documents and others - where there isn't any."

PDF Converter is the latest addition to ScanSoft's suite of PDF-based products, and quickly converts PDF files into fully-formatted Microsoft Office Word 2003 documents. The new product, developed by ScanSoft in collaboration with the Microsoft Office product group, helps to increase productivity for individuals and organizations by allowing users to edit and repurpose the information locked in PDF files.

"We're honored to be recognized by the readers of PDFzone, who are among the most sophisticated users of PDF products, and ultimately, are our customers," said Robert Weideman, senior vice president, ScanSoft Productivity Applications. "This award, coupled with the overwhelming response from our customers and partners, underscores our belief that PDF Converter overcomes many of the productivity challenges associated with PDF, and can become a standard tool for individuals and organizations of all sizes."

Users have historically turned to PDF as a way to view and print electronic documents, but like traditional paper, documents converted into the PDF format cannot be easily edited or repurposed. ScanSoft PDF Converter helps to overcome the limitations of PDF by using sophisticated page segmentation technology to recover the logical elements of the document in Microsoft Word - text, column flow, tables, graphics and captions. As a result, organizations are able to avoid the time and labor costs associated with manually re-creating PDF documents - a savings that can reach $200 or more for a single document.

About PDF zone

PDFzone.com is the online authority for PDF, Adobe Acrobat and related document technologies. The site is dedicated to energizing the PDF community with unbiased news reporting, timely interviews, expert resources and vibrant discussions. PDFzone.com facilitates a worldwide exchange of best practice information through its Web site, related e-mail discussion groups and e-newsletters. Together, these resources provide members of the PDF community with the solid information they need to tackle any PDF, Adobe Acrobat or document technology challenge. For more information about PDFzone, visit www.PDFzone.com.

About ScanSoft, Inc.

ScanSoft, Inc. (Nasdaq: SSFT) is a 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, OmniPage and the ScanSoft logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of ScanSoft, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other company names 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 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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