Caere Announces the Availability of OmniForm Internet Publisher; Forms solution for intranets and the Internet bridges paper, electronic and cyberspace worlds.

LOS GATOS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 10, 1997--Caere Corporation (NASDAQ:CAER) today announced the availability of OmniForm Internet Publisher, a groundbreaking forms solution for intranets and the Internet. With its ability to create electronic forms that preserve the look and feel of scanned paper originals and the higher level of functionality it provides, the product offers significant advantages over ordinary HTML forms. Combining the user-benefits of both paper and electronic forms, OmniForm Internet Publisher produces superior forms for intranets and the Internet.

OmniForm Internet Publisher allows internet site managers and Webmasters to easily convert existing paper forms to browser-ready electronic formats -- or create new forms from scratch -- for publishing to intranets and the World Wide Web. Also, the product introduces the Open Forms Markup Language (OFML), an open, text-based format for electronic forms on intranets and the Internet that provides significant advantages over current Web-based forms. OFML presents forms that look just like paper originals and allows users to embed "intelligence" such as calculations and validation parameters into these forms. In addition to OFML, OmniForm Internet Publisher saves forms as HTML and PDF, and these formats can be viewed within supported browsers where users can fill in forms, print a hardcopy, and submit form data.

"With OmniForm Internet Publisher, gone are the days of the `dumb and ugly' forms that we see today on most intranet and Internet sites," said Chad Kinzelberg, vice president of marketing. "The product makes it easy to create great looking electronic forms that look like paper originals and embed intelligence such as validation and calculations into them. OmniForm Internet Publisher makes forms `smart and attractive'."

The Product

OmniForm Internet Publisher provides the tools Webmasters or intranet site managers need to convert scanned paper forms into an electronic form that can then be published to the Internet or intranet sites in a variety of browser-ready formats. The product facilitates the major steps of the Internet/intranet electronic forms process, including:

-- converting paper forms or creating new electronic ones,

-- saving forms in browser-ready formats,

-- form filling, printing, and submission and

-- database connectivity by supporting several methods of linking data to existing databases.

Forms Conversion and Creation

OmniForm Internet Publisher includes Caere's Logical Form Recognition technology to identify and recreate form elements including fields, tables, check boxes, and comb fields automatically. The product also includes Caere's leading optical character recognition (OCR) software to convert text elements to editable text automatically. Using these technologies, the product eliminates the need to manually recreate existing forms within HTML authoring programs for publishing. In addition, the product includes powerful forms creation capabilities that allow users to enhance forms or create forms from scratch.

Saving Forms in Browser-ready Formats

Once a paper form has been converted into an electronic form, OmniForm Internet Publisher allows the form to be saved in any of the 3 browser-ready formats -- OFML, HTML, or PDF:

1) OFML (Open Forms Markup Language) is Caere's text-based format for Web-based forms. The format is introduced with OmniForm Internet Publisher and provides significant advantages over HTML forms, including:

-- absolute positioning of form elements. This enables a user to publish an exact replica of an original paper form, complete with text and form elements in place. Absolute positioning benefits the form publisher because the form looks great. Viewers of OFML forms also benefit because the forms look like paper forms right in the browser, which eases the viewer's adoption of electronic forms. In addition, OFML forms maintain the absolute positioning of form elements when printed.

-- ability to add "intelligence" to forms with calculations. Mathematical formulas either are automatically created by the product or can be easily created by the user who can select from 32 functions including addition, multiplication, division, and percentages. With these formulas, viewers of the form are not required to manually figure totals, sales tax, and the like. These calculations are performed automatically within the user's browser.

-- client-based validation assures that forms are properly filled out by immediately alerting the person filling out the form of incorrectly filled fields. Prior to posting the form, the publisher can identify fields that must be filled in (or filled in a specific way) using the product's validation capabilities. Validation fields are quickly and easily created in OmniForm Internet Publisher, eliminating the need for special CGI scripting to perform these validations. Furthermore, validation of OFML forms is done on the client side. In contrast, HTML only offers server-based validation, which can alert the form filler of incorrectly filled out fields only after the server rejects the form. With OFML's client-based validation, the form filler eliminates the frustration of returned forms, while the form publisher benefits by eliminating unnecessary traffic on the web server.

-- multiple page forms. Unlike HTML, which supports single page forms, OFML allows for multiple-page forms. The feature is another example of OmniForm Internet Publisher's ability to maintain the integrity of the original paper form.

To view OFML forms and to take advantage of these features, users need OmniForm Internet Publisher Browser Filler Plug-in, a small (approx. 300K) plug-in which is available on the Caere home page and is distributable by Webmasters and intranet site managers.

2. HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) is the standard for creating Web pages and the language supported by all Web browsers. It is designed for those who do not need to preserve the look of a form but rather need to provide universal support. Users of OmniForm Internet Publisher will enjoy the elimination of complex, time-consuming programming requirements of HTML, since the product generates HTML code with a simple Save As option. However, publishers still face some of the limitations of the HTML programming language, including limited formatting and the low functionality of HTML forms (which do not support capabilities like calculations).

3. PDF is Adobe's portable document format and is important for organizations that have standardized on this format. When outputting to PDF, OmniForm Internet Publisher will automatically create Form Marks, a new capability in the recently-shipping Acrobat 3.0. To view PDF forms, users need the Acrobat plug-in from Adobe.

Form Filling, Printing and Submission

Once the OFML, HTML, or PDF forms are posted to the Internet or intranet site, viewers can view, print, and fill out the forms from within supported Web browsers. In order to fill out forms, users simply "tab and type." In addition, viewers can submit entered data to the server using the Submit button within their Web browsers. All data is submitted in standard HTML format for processing at the server.

Database Connectivity for Data Collection

The HTML data can be linked to databases using several methods including: 1) Common Gateway Interface (CGI) scripting, 2) Microsoft Windows NT's Internet Database Connectivity (IDC) capabilities under Internet Information Server (IIS), and 3) middleware products such as ExperTelligence's WebBase. Also, any Web server capable of receiving HTML form data can be deployed to process data returned to it.

With these methods, data can be moved into virtually any processing system including legacy databases or workflow environments. In addition, with these methods, incoming data can act as a catalyst to move data out of a database which can be used to dynamically create new forms on-the-fly. Webmasters and intranet site managers not familiar with these methods can download free-of-charge CGI scripts from the Caere home page that will convert HTML form data to a tab delimited text format which is accepted by popular database and spreadsheet applications.

Pricing and Availability

OmniForm Internet Publisher for the Windows 95 and Windows NT environments is available through major software resellers and mail order. The expected street price is $895.

OmniForm Internet Publisher Browser Filler Plug-in is available for Windows 3.1 and Windows 95/NT users and is compatible with Netscape Navigator 2.0 or above and Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0 or above. The Filler Plug-in is free of charge and is freely distributable by Webmasters and intranet site managers. Caere expects to announce a Browser Filler for Macintosh users in a forthcoming press release.

The Company

Caere Corporation (NASDAQ:CAER) is the world leader in optical character recognition (OCR) technology and a leading developer of desktop forms conversion and document management products. Caere products bridge the gap between the paper and digital worlds by converting static, paper documents into dynamic, electronic information. Caere products include the OmniPage, WordScan, M/Series, and Recognita families of OCR software; OmniForm and OmniForm Internet Publisher family of forms conversion software; PageKeeper family of personal document management software; Recognita Forms, forms processing software; and a broad array of hardware/software solutions for document processing and OCR and barcode reading. Caere is headquartered in Los Gatos, California. Its subsidiaries, Caere GmbH and Recognita Rt., are located in Munich and Budapest, respectively. -0-

Note to Editors: Caere, OmniPage, OmniPage Pro, OmniForm, PageKeeper, and WordScan are registered trademarks, and OmniForm Internet Publisher and M/Series are trademarks of Caere Corporation, in the United States and/or other countries.

The Company notes that the above projected product shipments are forward-looking statements that are subject to change based on numerous factors including, but not limited to, work stoppages, engineering delays, quality assurance testing delays, successful completion of beta site testing, the scheduling of orders, changes in operating systems, a significant change in the competitive environments, and timely delivery by component suppliers.

CONTACT: Caere Corporation

Patrick Crisp, Public Relations Manager

408-395-7000 ext. 2049

[e-mail]

or

Bill Bean, Product Manager

408-395-5148 ext. 2139

[e-mail]