January 22, 2002 - Contex Scanning Technology, the leading manufacturer of wide format color scanners and related productivity software, has introduced WIDEmail, a new generation of scanning productivity tools. WIDEmail is the first scanning application in the industry that directly scans originals from a Contex wide format scanner into a MAPI compliance mail system using our exclusive "One-Touch" scan button. WIDEmail opens up new opportunities for all scanning segments in the industry. Copy shops can email a copy of a scanned image directly to the end user for approval or an engineering department can email drawings from a central repository to a client or co-worker on demand. WIDEmail uses Contex's latest auto size detection technology to automate the scanning process and avoids any additional user intervention while scanning. After a single touch of the WIDEmail button on the scanner, the scanner automatically detects the document size and immediately scans the document. After the document has been scanned, the user's default email system is automatically launched with an attached JPEG of the scanned image. At this point, the only thing left for the user to do is simply enter a recipients email address and add any comments just as they would in a typical email message. WIDEmail uses the popular JPEG compression technique to reduce the large amount of scanned data to a size that is suitable for sending through an email system, including those who are limited to the use of a modem line. "WIDEmail takes advantage of the one-touch scanning feature that has been incorporated into Contex's latest generation of Wide format scanners. These advanced features add convenience and cost savings, thus allowing customers to work smarter as well as harder" stated Bill Mitchell, Contex's National Sales Manager for the US. WIDEmail comes standard with every Contex scanner and is supported on Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows 2000 and the Windows XP platforms utilizing the new STI (Still Image Interface) standard in Windows. WIDEmail is a very powerful productivity tool for the CAD, GIS, Reprographic, Graphic Arts, and Photo markets, allowing professionals direct scanning of wide format documents into an email system.