Agfa Unveils First Color Desktop Scanner Specifically Designed for the North American Market.

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 30, 1998--RetailVision Spring `98

SnapScan EZ Offers High-Quality 600 x 1200 ppi and 30-bit Color

Sampling For a Price Less Than $200

Agfa, the worldwide leader in imaging products and systems, today unveiled its first-ever color desktop scanner specifically designed for the North American market, the SnapScan EZ. Available immediately, this personal desktop scanner is one of the first Enhanced Parallel Port (PC compatible) scanners to offer an optical resolution of 600 ppi (pixels per inch) -- while maintaining a price point of under $200.

Targeted specifically at the mass market consumer PC user, the SnapScan EZ is a high-quality (30-bit) color desktop scanner providing a wide array of creative imaging functions normally reserved for high-end professional solutions. The SnapScan EZ is perfect for the first-time user, offering Agfa's unique compact design and one of the lowest price points in the industry.

SnapScan EZ is a single pass, high-speed flatbed desktop scanner that can handle reflective originals of up to 8.5 x 11.7", while offering a true optical resolution of 600 x 1200 ppi and a maximum resolution of 9600 ppi. Overall image quality and flexibility are further enhanced by a tri-linear color CCD and a wide dynamic range of 1.8 D. The SnapScan EZ also offers users the ability to rapidly preview their images, with a preview speed of eight seconds or less.

"Agfa has always been committed to meeting the unique needs of the personal and home office user," said John Phillips, product manager, scanners and digital cameras. "The SnapScan EZ is simply an extension of our goal to provide professional-quality, high performance scanning solutions at an affordable price."

With Agfa's award-winning FotoLook and FotoSnap imaging software, the SnapScan EZ offers functionality never before seen in a home office solution, allowing less experienced users to incorporate color images into everyday documents, such as reports and newsletters.

With the SnapScan EZ, Agfa also guarantees that users get the optimum speed performance out of their scanners. Agfa's embedded OptiSpeed software ensures that scanner speed is automatically tuned to the maximum capabilities of the printer port interface on each computer. Through OptiSpeed and other software embedded in this parallel port scanner, the SnapScan EZ is one of the market's most user-compatible scanning solutions.

Other software bundled with the SnapScan EZ includes Ulead's iPhotoExpress 3.0 SE for Win 95 and Win NT and Caere's OmniPage Limited Edition OCR (Optical Character Recognition) for the PC, which scans and converts hard-copy text into editable format. The SnapScan EZ software bundle also includes the popular Visioneer PaperPort for sending, filing, copying and faxing scanned documents.

SnapScan EZ is available for the PC only and supports both Windows 95 and Windows NT. SnapScan EZ is available now at the manufacturer's suggested price of $199, with a $30 mail-in rebate offer currently in effect.

About Agfa

The Agfa-Gevaert Group is a worldwide manufacturer of imaging products and systems, with annual worldwide sales of $4.5 billion. Agfa-Gevaert manufactures and markets products and systems for the electronic and photographic prepress, medical, and technical diagnostic and amateur and professional photographic markets. Headquartered in Europe, Agfa-Gevaert is wholly-owned by Bayer AG. In the United States, Agfa operates as a division of Bayer Corporation, with headquarters in Ridgefield Park, New Jersey. Bayer, headquartered in Pittsburgh, has major businesses in chemicals, health care and imaging technologies. Agfa is on the World Wide Web at http://www.agfahome.com. -0-

(Product names mentioned herein may be trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective companies.)

EDITOR'S NOTE: Color images of Agfa products are available for download from Agfa's press site on the World Wide Web at http://www.agfapress.com or by contacting Craig Librett or Lee Kemmler at Miller/Shandwick Technologies at 617/536-0470.

In addition, product and company information can be found on Agfa's home page on the World Wide Web at http://www.agfahome.com

CONTACT: Agfa DTP Public Relations

Scott Signore, [phone]

[e-mail]

OR

Miller/Shandwick Technologies

Craig Librett, [phone]

[e-mail]