Brother Introduces 6-in-1 Color Flatbed Multifunction Center for SOHO Businesses.

BRIDGEWATER, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 26, 1999--

Brother's New MFC-9100C is the First Color Flatbed Multifunction

With Stand Alone Faxing for Under $700

Brother International Corporation, a leading manufacturer of fax and multi-function products, announces that it has begun shipping the MFC-9100C.

Brother's newest Multi-Function Center provides the user a flatbed design that enables photocopying or scanning from books or magazines. It also is the first flatbed multifunction to offer the ability to incorporate video frames from a digital camera, camcorder or VCR. The new 6-in-1 MFC-9100C Multi-Function Center provides plain paper faxing, color printing, color flatbed copying, color flatbed scanning, color PC faxing, and color video capture...all for an estimated street price of $699.

The multi-function market has experienced fantastic growth over the last three to five years, and while faxing and printing have remained priorities for users, copying and scanning convenience has become increasingly important in this market. It is expected that flatbed designs for copying or scanning from bound documents will be the next big trend in multi-function products.

"Our new MFC 9100C is targeted to the latest breed of multi-function users that demand the additional flexibility to copy and scan from books and magazines," says Don Cummins, Brother's Vice President of Marketing for Fax, MFCs and Printers. "However, in the past, these users have had to settle for competitors' units that did not include any stand-alone fax functionality. Brother has always provided strong stand- alone fax functionality with our multi-function products, and our movement into flatbed technology will be no exception."

New Flatbed Design and 50 Page Document Feed

The flatbed design allows for convenient color document management with books, magazines, photographs, mounted presentation boards or even three-dimensional objects. It also has a built in 50 page automatic document feeder for hands free faxing, scanning or copying multi-page jobs.

Full-featured Plain Paper Fax

Unlike some flatbed devices that tout faxing via the PC as their only faxing capability, the MFC-9100C works and functions as a full-featured, stand alone, plain paper fax.

Incorporating a 14.4K bps high-speed fax modem, the MFC-9100C lets users send and receive faxes even while printing. It also boasts a robust 8 MB dual access memory for storing up to 600 pages. This feature is perfect for the fast paced office, because it more than supports any out-of-paper reception, broadcasting or Quick Scan needs. And the built in 50 page document feed and large 250 sheet letter/legal paper cassette handles those large sending or receiving jobs.

Building even further on maximizing efficiency and productivity, the MFC-9100C features 116-station auto dialing, and includes fax forwarding, paging and remote retrieval. It also offers easy connection to either an external telephone or answering machine.

1440 DPI Color Printer 

The MFC-9100C delivers high quality color ink jet printing with up to 1440 x 720 dpi resolution. Print speeds of up to 7 PPM monochrome and 4 PPM color means that the fast workflow of busy SOHO offices will not be impeded. The MFC-9100C is compatible with Windows(R) 3.1, 3.11, 95/98 and Windows NT(R) Workstation 4.0. It also comes standard with a parallel cable.

It is also extremely economical to use since it utilizes a 4 separate ink cartridge system, so you only need to replace the color ink that actually runs out.

Convenient Flatbed Color Copier

Now color copies are possible even when the original is from a bound text. The MFC-9100C's flatbed color copier can reproduce such documents with a sharp 1440 x 720 dpi resolution. A convenient built-in 50 page document feeder allows for unattended copying.

The color copier can sort and produce up to 99 copies of originals from letter to legal size. Reduction and enlargement features from 25% to 400% are also standard.

Color Scanner & Video Capture

As with the copying features, flatbed color scanning with the MFC-9100C is fast and easy. It features a scanning resolution of up to 1200 x 1200 dpi (interpolated), a 256 shade gray scale and 24 bit color, making it simple to incorporate graphics and charts into presentations or promotional materials. The award winning ScanSoft(TM) PaperPort(R) (including TextBridge(R) OCR) and Corel(R) Print & Photo House(TM) software come bundled with the MFC-9100C.

For even more flexibility in creating eye-catching materials, the MFC-9100C includes a color video capture port. Using a standard RCA jack, users can import, modify and save frames from VCRs, camcorders and digital cameras using an NTSC cable. Captured images can be printed, faxed, or e-mailed immediately.

Time-saving Color PC Fax and Internet PC Fax Solutions

As users become more sophisticated with office technology, more of them are transmitting documents in a variety of electronic formats such as e-mail attachments. Another alternative for time-critical document delivery is Color PC Fax.

The MFC-9100C can send color faxes via PCs between other Brother Color MFC users with included FaxSpeed Color PC Fax(R) Software.+ It also includes NetCentric(R) PC Internet Fax Software for low cost faxing over the Internet.++

About Brother International Corporation

Bridgewater, N.J. is the corporate headquarters for Brother in the Americas, from Canada to South America. It has fully integrated sales, marketing services, manufacturing, research and development capabilities located in the U.S. In addition to its headquarters in Bridgewater, N.J., Brother has branches in California, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Tennessee and Texas, as well as subsidiaries in Ohio, Canada, Brazil, Chile and Mexico. Additional information may be obtained from the Brother fax-back system toll-free at 800/521-2846 or by visiting their Web site at www.brother.com.

+ Included is a free "read program" to copy for non-MFC-9100c users. All color faxing is via a PC and FaxSpeed Color PC Fax(R) Software.

++ Requires an account with NetCentric(R) Internet Fax service provider.