Publishing Manager and Output Manager Software Offer Flexibility For High-Volume Printing; Canon Also Strengthens imageWARE Document and Scan Manager NEW YORK--April 23, 2002-- Canon U.S.A., Inc., a subsidiary of Canon Inc. today announces enhancements to its imageWARE suite of software products that will greatly enhance customers' ability to effectively manage information while further leveraging their investments in office equipment technology. Canon's imageWARE Publishing Manager 2002 software bundles several key bookbinding and document composition features that enable multiple users to complete document layout, composition and finishing from their desktops, distribute the final product across a network and maximize the printing of these documents within an enterprise. imageWARE Output Manager 2002 software optimizes print workflow in the office, delivers print resource redundancy and ensures the optimal delivery and completion of end-user executed print jobs. Canon will demonstrate these new software applications at the Canon Digital Solution Forum and the On Demand Digital Printing & Publishing Conference, both taking place at New York's Jacob Javits Convention Center April 23 - 25. "These additions to Canon's imageWARE software will greatly strengthen our position as a full-service provider for print workflow, print-on-demand job creation and overall information management," said Dennis Amorosano, director and assistant general manager for Canon's Copier and Network Office Systems Division. "imageWARE Publishing Manager will make many valuable publishing features found in professional print shops more universally available to general office users, while with Output Manager, organizations both large and small can maximize their printing resources and optimize print workflow," Amorosano added. imageWARE Publishing Manager imageWARE Publishing Manager is designed to simplify the production of documents requiring multiple inserts and content types, such as manuals, brochures, catalogs, proposals, reports, books and presentations. The software's easy-to-use features include: * Combining documents made by multiple applications (such as Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint) * Re-ordering pages in a newly created file * Creating and saving document-specific print and finishing settings * Customizing documents, such as reports and presentations, intended for multiple recipients * Creating Variable Data Zones capable of accepting variable data content during document printing Using imageWARE Publishing Manager, both novice and expert users alike can easily create and publish documents containing varying content, chapters, inserts and tabs, as well as other variable elements. Upon finalizing their documents, users can then easily produce their work, taking advantage of the advanced paper handling and finishing capabilities of Canon's imageRUNNER products. imageWARE Publishing Manager is ideally suited for Canon's production-level imageRUNNER devices, including the imageRUNNER 550/60/600/7200/8500/85 and 105 as well as the new imageRUNNER C2058. imageWARE Output Manager By improving the monitoring and control of printers within an enterprise, imageWARE Output Manager improves printing reliability, increases the productivity and efficiency of network printing and enables network administrators to mange printing resources more effectively. Optimized for Canon's imagePlatform devices, imageWARE Output Manager also supports third party printers and includes the following features: * Print Job Status Notification * Manual and Automatic Print Redirection - sending documents to another printer if a problem exists * Job Monitoring and Control/Scheduling Functions - allowing spooling of client and server jobs to shared and selected printers, establishing print priority paths and scheduling print jobs * Split Job Printing - distributing print jobs by content or by volume, to ensure faster printing * Broadcast Printing - sending a print job to up to 32 devices, across a workgroup or organization imageWARE Output Manager will be offered in two configurations. The Standard Edition is suitable for Client installations, allowing users to register locally installed printers for greater print workflow efficiency. A Workgroup Edition is available for installation on a Network Server, providing Administrators with the same capabilities as the Client and establishing an effective output management environment for both workgroup and departmental users. As the imageWARE suite of software products are fully integrated, users whose systems have the Publishing Manager, Output Manager and Document Manager applications can capture, manage and distribute large documents across their organizations, easily complete the layout and customization of documents and ensure they are printed exactly as required. imageWARE Document Manager Enhancements For 2002, Canon has enhanced both the structure and feature set of imageWARE Document Manager. Enhancements to the 2002 software including Windows XP compatibility, content searching by natural sentences, expanding the imageRUNNER mail box browsing function and adding a document "binder" function so multiple application files can be bound into one file and published using Canon's imageRUNNER's finishing capabilities. In addition to enhancing imageWARE Document Manager, Canon has also improved imageWARE Scan Manager and the imageWARE Gateway. Scan Manager enhancements include forms and barcode recognition, while imageWARE Gateway will now provide easier document transfer to Scan Manager for document indexing. Existing imageWARE Document and Scan Manager customers with current software maintenance agreements will receive the latest version of this software upon its release, at no additional cost. For more information on all of the capabilities of the imageWARE software suite, visit www.imageWARE.com. Availability imageWARE Publishing Manager, imageWARE Output Manager and the imageWARE Document Manager enhancements are all scheduled for release during the second half of 2002. imageWARE Publishing Manager and imageWARE Output Manager will be sold through authorized Canon U.S.A. dealers and Canon Business Solutions locations. imageWARE Document and Scan Manager will continue to be sold and supported by Sintaks, Canon U.S.A.'s systems integration subsidiary company. Pricing for these new software modules will be announced at the time of official availability.