Ricoh's Fast New Multifunction Products are the Latest "PeerlessPowered" Digital Copier Solutions.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 28, 1998--

Peerless Provides Printing Solutions for Two More Digital Copiers

From Ricoh, the Largest B&W Digital Line in the Market

Peerless Systems Corporation (Nasdaq:PRLS), a leader in embedded imaging systems, announced today the delivery of imaging solutions for integration with Ricoh's new digital copier line of multifunction products, Aficio 350 and 450, at speeds of 35 and 45 pages per minute respectively. The most recent "PeerlessPowered" Ricoh products, the Aficio 350 and 450, join the previously announced Aficio 401 product to form a family of high performance, low cost copy, fax and printing systems. Competitively priced as low as $7,825, the new Aficio models are ideally suited for the enterprise and business offices where high quality, superb functionality, high performance and low cost are basic requirements for market acceptance.

"These new products show the direction the digital workgroup market is going -- faster performance, multiple functions in one integrated digital system at affordable prices," said Greg Shipmon, product manager for the corporate marketing division, Ricoh Corporation USA.

"By customizing Peerless' controller technology, we were able to leverage a single embedded controller design across both products. Using these leading-edge technologies gave Ricoh heightened productivity levels in demanding mid-volume environments, while effectively keeping the new Aficio models thousands of dollars less than the competition's," Shipmon added. In addition to Peerless software, the Aficio 350 and 450 are the first announced products to incorporate a 100MHz PowerPC processor chip and QuickPrint 1800, the next generation of Peerless designed ASIC coprocessor. Specific software involved includes the PeerlessPage(tm) operating system, HP-compatible PeerlessPrint(tm)6 printer command language processor, and Peerless' patented Memory Reduction Technology(tm) (MRT(tm)). True Adobe PostScript 3 is included to further expand the MFP's potential applications.

The Aficio 350 and 450 offer send-once, rip-once, print many capabilities, as well as advanced paper handling capabilities including duplex, large paper trays, mailboxes, stapling and even hole punching for complete document printing and duplication. Both Ethernet and Token Ring interfaces are available so the devices can easily be shared over most networks.

"By working together with Ricoh, Peerless was able to design and build a truly advanced MFP product that significantly lowers the cost of acquiring a digital printer/copier/fax device," said Ron Davis, director of marketing for Peerless Systems. "The Ricoh products are shipping with the new generation of Peerless imaging coprocessors, the QuickPrint 1800, which supports the PowerPC processor family. This "PeerlessPowered(tm)" embedded digital copier solution achieves new performance levels of 45ppm, while still maintaining the low cost of an embedded solution."

About Peerless Systems Corporation

Peerless Systems Corporation is a leading provider of software-based embedded imaging systems to original equipment manufacturers of digital document products. Digital document products include printers, copiers, fax machines, scanners and color products, as well as multifunction products that perform a combination of these imaging functions. In order to process digital text and graphics, digital document products rely on a core set of imaging software and supporting electronics, collectively known as an embedded imaging system. The Peerless family of products and engineering services enable the OEM customers to develop digital printers, copiers and multifunction products quickly and cost effectively. The company is located at 2381 Rosecrans Ave., El Segundo, CA 90245. Main telephone: [phone]; facsimile: 310/536-0058; www.peerless.com.

"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995:

With the exception of historical information, the statements set forth above include forward-looking statements that involve risk and uncertainties. These statements include Company beliefs with respect to revenue growth and profitability. The company wishes to caution readers that a number of important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Those factors include the following: the fact that the company's markets are characterized by rapidly changing technology, evolving industry standards and frequent introductions of new products and enhancements, and the company's ability to respond to such changes; fluctuations in OEM shipments which generate the Company's license fee revenue; difficulties which the company may experience in completing the development of turnkey designs for OEM customers, its digital photography technology, its integrated multifunction semiconductor solutions or other products; the fact that the multifunction and color markets targeted by the company are at an early stage of development; the highly competitive nature of the markets for the company's products; the company's ability to attract and retain skilled personnel; the company's reliance on third party suppliers for components used in the company's products; the quarterly variability in the company's bookings and design wins; and the company's reliance on a relatively small number of OEM customers for a large percentage of its revenue. These and other factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements are also discussed in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its recent filings on Form 10-K and 10-Q. The company disclaims any obligation to update these statements for subsequent events.

Peerless Product Backgrounder 

The Peerless technologies and products involved in the
development of the Aficio 350 and 450 include:

1.   PeerlessPage(tm)

         Peerless' object-based imaging system. First introduced in
          1989,  PeerlessPage has continuously evolved and now powers
          digital printers and multifunction devices developed by many
          of the world's largest manufacturers.

2.   PeerlessPrint(tm)6

         The latest generation of Peerless' page description
          language, which  emulates HP's PCL6. PeerlessPrint6
          incorporates PeerlessPrint(tm)5E and PeerlessPrint(tm)XL as
          a single package for complete compatibility with HP LaserJet
          4000 &5000 series.

3.   Adobe PostScript

         Peerless is a co-developer with Adobe for PostScript
          solutions. Peerless offers true Adobe PostScript in its
          products under license from Adobe Systems.

4.   MRT(tm)

         Patented Memory Reduction Technology which minimizes memory
          requirements.

5. All-Pages-Print(tm)

         All-Pages-Print(tm) is the result of integrating an
          optimized imaging  system and Peerless' MRT(tm) technology
          to ensure that every page in the job will print.

6.   PSIO(tm)

         Peerless Standard IO, designed to provide a network
          interface with very broad compatibility for common
          networking standards.

7.   QuickPrint(tm) 1800

         A Peerless-developed ASIC coprocessor which acts as an
          accelerator for the imaging process.

Memory Reduction Technology, Peerless, PeerlessPage, PeerlessPrint PeerlessPowered, AccelePrint, QuickPrint and WinEXPRESS are trademarks of Peerless Systems Corp. All other brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

CONTACT: Peerless Systems Corp., El Segundo

Robin Moore, 310/536-0908

[e-mail]

or

Mesa Communications

Sara Beeler, 310/769-6829

[e-mail]