FineReader's powerful OCR engine provides recognition accuracy that is one and a half to two times better than that offered by competitive products. The softwareÆs Integral Purposeful Adaptive (IPA) perception technology (or IPA-perception technology) combines serial and parallel character recognition techniques to increase recognition on even poor quality documents created by dot-matrix printers, typewriters, photocopiers, and fax machines.

The use of advanced syntactic and semantic natural language expert systems raises recognition levels to an unprecedented level. The knowledge of morphology of a certain languages increases recognition quality. In its initial release version 4.0a, FineReader 4.0 can read 40 languages. In April, the program will be upgraded to Version 4.0b and will include recognition of 53 languages. FineReader allows users to specify a single language or a combination of languages for recognition.

Version 4.0 also features a redesigned interface that allows beginners to start scanning documents at the touch of a button. The Scan & Read Wizard automatically recognizes and analyzes documents to insure that all original formatting, including columns, pictures and tables, is retained. The Block Editing Tool lets users to mark text, pictures and tables either automatically or manually. Blocks can be added, deleted, renumbered, reformatted or resized. The softwareÆs background recognition mode allows users to edit and perform OCR simultaneously in order to speed up input times considerably.

Scanning results can be exported to a variety of applications, including Microsoft Word 6.0, 95 or 97, Microsoft Excel 6.0, 95 or 97, Word Pro 97, and WordPerfect 7.0. Users can also save documents in .RTF, .TXT, .DOC, .CSV, .XLS or .HTML file formats. The program also incorporates ABBYY Morphology, a fully functional spell checking system for 21 languages (including Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, and others).

ABBYY is also offering FineReader 4.0 Professional, which adds forms recognition. FineReader automatically inputs machine-readable forms into information systems and databases and converts printed information into database entries. The program allows input of up to 100,000 documents in twenty-four hours in the client server mode.

FineReader 4.0, which will be available on April 15, is priced at $199 (street). A $99.95 upgrade price will be offered for those upgrading from any OCR package. The Professional version is priced at $399 street ($259 upgrade). The software runs under Windows 98, Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0, and incorporates support for the Intel multiprocessor platform.

ABBYY USA is a member of the ABBYY Group, which distributes and publishes ABBYYÆs products in North America. ABBYY (ABBYY Software House) specializes in the development of software for optical character recognition (OCR), intelligent character recognition (ICR), linguistics, semantics, and electronic lexicography.

ABBYY's products include: the FineReader line of OCR/ICR/OMR software, which allows the automatic input of texts, tables, and forms into a computer; FineReader Development Tools, which allows developers to integrate OCR into their solutions; ABBYY Morphology 22 language spell checker; Lingvo -English-Russian/Russian-English electronic dictionaries; ABBYY Fulltext Retrieval, a seven language full-text retrieval system; and the ABBYY Internet Index Server index and search system . FineReader technology is currently integrated in SamsungÆs Anypage OCR system, SumitomoÆs OK Reader OCR application, NewSoftÆs Presto! OCR Pro, PrimaxÆs PrimaPage OCR

CONTACT:
Ding Tang
President
ABBYY USA
510-226-6717 (Tel)
510-226-6069 (Fax)
dtang@abbyyusa.com