ABBYY ANNOUNCES THE LAUNCH 
OF ABBYY FINE READER SPRINT FOR MACINTOSH

Now scanner manufacturers can bundle the world's leading OCR-system ABBYY FineReader 4.0 Sprint for both PC and Macintosh platforms.

Hanover, CeBIT, 24th of February 2000 ¡ ABBYY Software House (www.abbyy.com) announces the launch of the first ABBYY product for the Macintosh (Mac) platform û an optical character recognition (OCR) system called ABBYY FineReader 4.0 Sprint for Mac.

According to recent marketing reports, almost 7% of scanners sold worldwide are used with Macintosh systems. Due to the popularity of USB, scanner manufacturers and stores are moving toward a PC/Mac USB combination package, which includes one USB scanner and two sets of software -- for PC and Mac platforms. Scanner manufacturers can now include the world's leading FineReader 4.0 Sprint OCR system for their PC and Mac users. FineReader 4.0 Sprint for Mac will be bundled worldwide with scanners from Acer Peripherals America, Avigramm Technology Corporation and others 

"The major factors in Acer Peripheral's selection of FineReader 4.0 Sprint were its superior OCR accuracy, outstanding page layout retention and ability to export results directly to popular applications," said Richard Park, Director for sales and marketing for Acer Peripheral America Digital Imaging Division. "Scanner users need an intuitive yet powerful OCR solution. Bundling FineReader 4.0 Sprint with Acer scanners will enable them to get the job done quicker and easier."

ôWe are pleased to offer MiniDoc portable scanner users the most powerful OCR solution on the market,ö said James Gan, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Avigramm Technology. "We chose FineReader 4.0 Sprint software because its superior OCR accuracy, ease of use and outstanding result in converting poor quality documents."

ABBYY FineReader 4.0 Sprint for Mac is designed to be bundled with scanners and multifunctional devices. It allows users to easily recognize scanned documents with text, pictures and tables in one of 52 languages. FineReader Sprint for Mac features one-button OCR (ôScan&Readö) to scan a document, recognize the text, tables and pictures, retain the formatting of the original page, and save the recognition results in RTF or TXT formats.

System requirements 

• PowerPC processor, 
• Operating systems: Mac OS 8.x, Mac OS 9.x
• Scanners supported through TWAIN-protocol and Adobe Plug-In.

MitCom Neue Medien GmbH, Munich is a company offering software in Germany for the SmallOffice/HomeOffice (SOHO) and consumer market. Alongside the OCR software Fine Reader, MitCom also offers software products in Personal Productivity, Edutainment, Picture editing for fun, and PC games.
Further Information can be found under the Internet address http://www.mitcom.de.

Acer Peripherals America, Inc. is one of the world's leading computer peripheral manufacturers and suppliers with revenues of over 1.2 billion dollars in 1997. Headquartered in San Jose, California, Acer Peripherals America (APA) is a subsidiary of the Acer Group, the third largest PC manufacturer in the world with over 20 years of experience in the computer industry. APA products are sold throughout North America and include monitors, scanners, optical storage devices, and keyboards. Numerous Acer Peripherals America products have been ranked among the top five in the world. For more information about Acer, visit their web-site at www.acerperipherals.com.

Avigramm Technology Corporation was founded in 1997 and is primarily geared toward the development of Internet-related Audio, Video, Image, and Graphics products. The company also released the MiniDoc scanner, the worldÆs first portable USB scanner with a rechargeable battery built-in. The Scanner is targeted to the Windows and Macintosh consumer markets, and was designed in unique crystal Blue, Orange, Red, and White colors.

Other products to be introduced to the market in the year 2000 are the MiniClip û the smallest USB Video Capture device in the market -- and a portable Internet fax scanner device. Avigramm has over 30 employees working in product development, with international offices in Cologne, Germany and San Jose, California. Avigramm does business in pure OEM/ODM and also does private brand label for international customers in Japan, China, Spain, Italy, USA and others. For more information about Avigramm, visit the companyÆs web-site at www.avigramm.com.tw

Contacts: