LEAD TECHNOLOGIES ANNOUNCES THE RELEASE OF LEADTOOLS 10.1
Offering 10.1 as a Free Upgrade to Registered Version 10 Customers

Charlotte, NC (December 11, 1998) – LEAD Technologies, Inc., a LEADing provider of imaging development toolkits worldwide, announced today that it is releasing version 10.1 of LEADTOOLS. LEADTOOLS is an imaging toolkit that allows developers to add advanced imaging technology quickly and easily to their applications without writing massive amounts of code from scratch. LEADTOOLS version 10.1 has been optimized to make the most of the database connectivity advantages in Microsoft's Visual Studio™ development system 6.0. Additionally, LEADTOOLS contains a new comprehensive C++ class library, annotation enhancements and Intel® MMX™ optimized JPEG.

Rich Little, president of LEAD states, "Version 10.1 is a tremendous toolkit for any developer interested in imaging, speed and database connectivity. This new version contains LEAD’s fastest JPEG code and most comprehensive database support to date. We are continuously looking for ways to reward our loyal developers and we are happy to offer this upgrade free of charge to version 10 LEADTOOLS users."

For the ActiveX user, LEADTOOLS version 10.1 makes it easier than ever to add still frame, multimedia, document and medical imaging into applications written with Microsoft tools.

The new version offers complete Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0 database connectivity using OLE DB (JET, ODBC, Oracle and SQL Server). This means developers can add high-performance data access to images, from any data source on any platform. With Universal Data Access, image data can be stored and retrieved to and from any data source using OLE DB, ActiveX Data Objects, or ODBC. When combined with LEADTOOLS' ability to save images in more than 50 different image formats, this new connectivity provides the basis for high-performance database imaging applications. (LEADTOOLS 10.1 continues LEAD's tradition of supporting the other leading development products including Delphi & C++ Builder.)

For the API user, LEADTOOLS 10.1 adds a new C++ class library (available only in the Pro and Express products) to give developers another choice in development environments.

The C++ library is comprehensive and provides a class library for all 16 LEADTOOLS imaging technology categories. With LEADTOOLS’ new C++ class library developers get the control of low-level access and the ease of object oriented programming. High level classes are provided to give the developer full user-interface "control windows" that handle image display, zooming, scrolling, annotation and animation automatically. These classes can be used as is, with little code on the user’s part. Users can also derive from these objects or from base objects to create classes more specific to their needs. In addition, low-level classes are provided to give the developer the same low-level access that straight API programmers receive.

For the LEADTOOLS Express user, enhancements have been made to LEADTOOLS already comprehensive Annotation capabilities.

LEADTOOLS Express products allow users to annotate color, grayscale and document images with text, highlights, sticky notes, audio, ellipses, buttons, lines, arrows, redaction (blackout), hotspots, freehand scribble and much more. The user can now select an annotation object that is beneath another object, without having to change the enumeration order. Example: for objects that have an interior fill (ex. Rectangle, Ellipse), if the fill mode is transparent and the fill style is solid, the object will only be selected if the user clicks on the border of the object. If the fill mode is anything other than transparent, an annotation object can be selected by clicking on its interior. Developers can group and ungroup annotation objects so that several annotation objects can be treated as one object. In addition, the user has the ability to customize, disable and enable L_AnnSetAutoTextmenu items defined in the annotation automation menu.

Other Annotation enhancements include:

• Minimized flicker effect for annotation object display.
• Better boundary checking - users can no longer create or move objects outside the root container.
• Added Annotation object enumeration for ActiveX control - users do not need to call the DLL functions for enumeration of annotation objects.

Other new 10.1 additions:

• LEAD’s fastest JPEG and CMP with Intel® MMX™ optimization
• Support for lossless JPEG
• Enhanced Windows Metafile file format support
• ISAPI and ASP Examples

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About LEAD Technologies, Inc.
Founded in 1990, LEAD grew out of years of research headed by Moe Daher to find a comprehensive compression standard for digital images. LEAD is now the world-leading supplier of imaging development toolkits, providing technology of the future, today. LEAD brings to the market the most innovative and technically superior products that provide the greatest possible value for its customers. LEAD's award winning imaging technology is chosen by Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, Intel, Boeing, Xerox and thousands of other companies for use in their high volume applications and internal systems.