LEAD TECHNOLOGIES ANNOUNCES THE RELEASE OF
LEADTOOLS VERSION 12

Charlotte, NC (May 30, 2000) - LEAD Technologies, Inc., the leading provider of toolkits designed to help software developers integrate raster, document, multimedia, vector and medical imaging into their applications, today announced the release of version 12 of it's imaging product line. Version 12 provides new and enhanced features in all 5 of LEAD's imaging engines, raster, document, multimedia, vector and medical. Additionally, version12 places special emphasis on speed by optimizing memory management, which increases the performance of all LEADTOOLS functions.

New in LEADTOOLS' Raster Imaging engine:

• Load and save TIFF files with CMP compression
• Faster JPEG optimized for MMX Pentium II and III - 100% faster compression, 50% faster decompression
• Load and save uncompressed SGI files
• Load and save RLE compressed SGI files
• LEADTOOLS provides a magnifying glass tool for zooming in on an image.
• A new Magic wand is now available. The magic wand allows a region to be created from an X & Y location and a color tolerance.
• A new picturized algorithm has been implemented providing more options for selection and use of images
  Visit http://www.leadtools.com/home2/VertMkts/RasterEngine.htm for a complete list of new features

New in LEADTOOLS' Document Imaging engine:

• Loading and saving TIFF files with JBIG compression is now supported.
• 1-bit TIFF files now load 40%-80% faster.
• New document clean-up features including hole-punch removal, line removal, border removal, invert text, smooth filter, and dot removal. Additionally, region of interest has been enhanced to allow preview of changes and composite viewing of the modified regions.
• Updated Barcode engine
  Visit http://www.leadtools.com/home2/VertMkts/DocEngine.htm for a complete list of new features

New in LEADTOOLS' Multimedia Imaging engine:

• Added support for saving Multimedia files via DirectShow® in Multimedia toolkits.
• Enhanced NT compatibility in Multimedia tools.
• More control over saving audio streams.
• Programatic configuration of video/audio codecs has been added.

New in LEADTOOLS' Vector Imaging engine:

• DWG (AutoCad file format) is now supported.
• DWF (AutoCad file format) is now supported.
• Saving vector images as a DXF inside a TIFF file is now supported.
• Contains a comprehensive drawing toolkit · More than 14 new primitive objects types including vertex, line, rectangle, polyline, pologon, polybezier curves, ellipse, circle, arc, text, pie, chord, polydraw and raster.
• Improved Layer support - group objects into layers, copy or move objects between layers, lock individual layers, and process multiple layers. Add, edit, delete, rotate, translate and scale layers.
• Maintain 3D text as compressed vector data.
  Visit http://www.leadtools.com/home2/VertMkts/VecEngine.htm for a complete list of new features

New in LEADTOOLS' Medical Imaging engine:

• Latest version of the DICOM 3.0 specification is supported. (rev. December 1999)
• Additional new DICOM classes are supported including Radiotherapy Beams Treatment Record Storage, Radiotherapy Brachy Treatment Record Storage, Visible Light Endoscopic Image Storage and more...
• Optimized DICOM image load processing while loading a DICOM Images, resulting with a faster LUT table, faster palette, and faster color space conversion.
• Added a caching mechanism between disk and memory to optimize speed.
• Includes a new DICOM server demo.
  Visit http://www.leadtools.com/home2/VertMkts/MedEngine.htm for a complete list of new features

Other important global changes in version 12 include:

• A reduction in the number of TLS slots (thread local storage) used by all LEADTOOLS DLLs. This frees up system resources and reduces the likely-hood of conflicts.
• Reduction in the main control size of the ActiveX, while at the same increasing functionality. The result of a smaller control will be less memory limitation problems that sometimes occur with some development environments.
• The ActiveX can now manipulate TIFF pages that contain up to 2 billion pages (the API and C++ Class library already have this capability).

An evaluation copy of LEADTOOLS v.12, including comprehensive functionality from all of the LEADTOOLS engines and pre-written source code demos, is available for download from LEAD's web site http://www.leadtools.com.

For more information on LEADTOOLS Imaging Toolkits, visit our web site, call LEAD at 704-332-5532, or email sales@leadtools.com

-###-

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 system.