RasterMaster^TM 5.0 for the Java^TM Platform SDK New Features, New Formats, Faster than Ever

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Marketing Department  

Newton, MA (May 25, 2001) – Snowbound Software, the industry leader in Java imaging technology, high performance imaging and annotation SDK's and components, today announced the release of its latest version of their RasterMaster for Java SDK. This set of award-winning high performance, 100% pure Java imaging class libraries is fully cross platform compatible and runs seamlessly on all Windows, UNIX, Macintosh and other platforms. Extremely popular for Internet/Intranet Imaging solutions, Snowbound’s technology is being widely used in banking/finance, medical/healthcare, engineering/manufacturing and many other industries.

Simon Wieczner, CEO of Snowbound states "As the leader in Java imaging technology, Snowbound Software continues to improve and add new features and formats to our Java SDK. We firmly believe that “Imaging for the Web” is the future of e-business and we are committed to leading the way for industry.”

As consumers and businesses demand flawless rendering of images on the Internet, Snowbound delivers the most versatile Java imaging technology. With Snowbound’s SDK, powerful imaging applets can be created that enable browsers for viewing, printing, and manipulating all types of images and documents. These applets can be designed so that the user can download images or documents from the Internet or retrieve them from a local hard drive or network. They automatically run through any browser, like Netscape or Internet Explorer, on any computer platform. There is no installation required. In addition, full applications or server processing components, servlets, can be developed with the SDK. Widely used in industry for scanning volumes of documents for storage and retrieval, servlets can also be used for image manipulation and conversion to more common formats, such as JPEG, GIF or PNG that can be viewed directly through a standard browser without the need for any additional software.

RasterMaster for Java, originally released in February 1998, now offers Java developers and Internet Imaging professionals even greater versatility and functionality. The latest features include the following:

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PDF reading (optional) - this newest and hottest feature of the Java product allows the user to read PDF documents. Java 5.0 can now read in any PDF file providing even more versatility in a single software package without the need for another program, such as Adobe Acrobat.
• Automatic create thumbnails function (Java Extended) – allows creation of thumbnail images, 3K to 6K in size, for quick download and viewing from a web server. Once the thumbnail or series of thumbnails are created, the user can then select the image they need, click on it and download the full resolution image.
• Improved Twain Scanning – provides Twain compatibility through Snowbound Java API calls to a Twain interface (optional).
• Decompressing fax formats – allows the user to read in Group 3 or Group 4 data from many different proprietary formats.
• Promote to 24 bits – automatically promotes any 1, 4, 8 or 16 bit image to 24 bits for saving to JPEG.
• Reading TIFF tags – provides the ability to read the information included in the TIFF file headings.
• Input ASCII Text – allows input of any ASCII file to view, manipulate, print and convert.
• Reading IMNET format – users now have the ability to read the Imnet format.

RasterMaster 5.0 for Java is a powerful set of high performance, cross platform raster imaging components and tools offering over 100 raster image manipulation functions (including anti-aliased display, conversion and saving, deskew and despeckle, image processing and more) and support for more than 70 raster image formats (including TIFF, JPEG, GIF, BMP, ABIC, CMYK, MO:DCA IOCA, MO:DCA PTOCA, EPS, DICOM and more).

RasterMaster 5.0 for Java is available now.

For more information, please contact Snowbound Software by phone +1 617-607-2010 or by visiting www.snowbound.com.

About Snowbound Software Corporation

As the premier provider of imaging solutions for Global 500 companies and end users of privately-labeled products worldwide, Snowbound Software Corporation develops, distributes and fully supports high-performance imaging applets, batch converters, Internet/Intranet viewers, document storage/retrieval systems and SDKs that are designed to increase productivity and profitability across numerous vertical markets. Snowbound’s document retrieval, display and storage solution, SnapServ Enterprise(TM) for the Web, streamlines the workflow process by Web enabling documents for quick, simple and secure access with any browser, over any EJB application server. Other products include RasterMaster(TM) imaging SDKs (for the Java(TM) platform, Windows, .NET, Mac and Unix), and Snapplet(TM) Web imaging applets for the Java platform. Customized product versions are also available to meet special requirements.

Java and all Java based marks are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the U.S, and other countries.