PEABODY, Mass., December 17, 2003 - ScanSoft, Inc. (Nasdaq: SSFT), the leading supplier of speech and imaging solutions, today announced that Smart Computing magazine has named ScanSoft's PaperPort® Pro 9 Office one of the 50 Hottest PC Products. PaperPort Pro 9 Office, the world's most popular desktop paper and document management application for the PC, is the first desktop product to combine the power of creating PDF files, the convenience of network scanning and the efficiency of document management, into a single, easy-to-use office productivity application.

In the accompanying article, Smart Computing lauded PaperPort for its expanded PDF creation features and noted the product's broad appeal and breadth of features: "Thinking of PaperPort only as a way to turn printed documents into digital files is like thinking of a modern word processor only as a way to type stuff. ScanSoft's venerable OCR (optical character recognition) package has become a full-fledged document management powerhouse." The complete review can be found in the December 2003 issue of Smart Computing.

"PaperPort Pro 9 Office continues to gain adoption and momentum among all types of users, and has been highly praised for its superior scanning and document management technology," said Robert Weideman, general manager, ScanSoft Productivity Applications. "We are pleased that the editors of Smart Computing share our view, and acknowledge the value our productivity solutions bring to customers."

PaperPort's intuitive thumbnail-based presentation allows pages within documents of all kinds - including scanned paper, PDF, Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and more - to be instantly viewed and located without launching the associated application. Its sophisticated full-page optical character recognition (OCR) engine automatically creates search keywords for scanned paper and PDF files, allowing its SimpleSearch® feature to find all matching documents - from standard Microsoft Office and other digital document types, to scanned paper and business cards, as well as PDF files received on email or downloaded from the Web.

PaperPort's DesktopDelivery™ feature reduces the costs associated with manually copying and storing paper documents by automatically delivering scanned pages to the user's PC from local or network scanning devices, including MFPs and digital copiers. DesktopDelivery instantly converts scanned images into PDF files and launches PaperPort, whose drag and drop tools users can use to send the files as email attachments, store the files on the PC or on the network, or print the files in color or black & white.

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.

Trademark reference: ScanSoft, SimpleSearch, DesktopDelivery, and PaperPort are trademarks or registered 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, including without limitation statements concerning the perceived benefits of optical character recognition as described by Smart Computing, 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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