Bitstream Releases Panorama 5.0 and Font Fusion 5.0

Upgrade Offers Performance Optimizations and Enhanced Rendering Features For
Global Text Composition

Cambridge, MA, July 15, 2009 — Bitstream Inc. (NASDAQ: BITS) announced today the release of version 5.0 of Bitstream Panorama™, the worldwide text composition engine that enables developers to compose and render text in any international language.  This upgrade includes several new APIs, support for fractional sizes and positions, and significant performance enhancements.  In addition, Bitstream announced the release of Font Fusion® 5.0, an upgrade that offers a smaller, faster PFR format and optimizations designed to extend the functionality of the company’s premier font subsystem that renders high-quality characters in any format, at any resolution, on any platform or device. 

Bitstream Panorama is a global text composition engine that enables developers and OEMs to layout, position, substitute and render characters in all of the world’s languages via a single compact API.  Unlike Latin-based languages, Eastern scripts such as Thai, Arabic, Devanagari and Hebrew require complex considerations to compose blocks of text.  Bitstream Panorama seamlessly handles this task, in a fast compact package.

Bitstream Panorama 5.0 includes several significant new features including:

• Support for fractional sizes and positions, enabling developers employ fractional point sizes to fit text into any region.
• Support for rendering text on paths.
• Unicode to Image mapping. This feature allows developers to map a unicode sequence to any image. Applications include translating unicode sequences automatically into simple emoticon images for text messaging.
• Support for floating objects.
• Multiple enhancements designed to increase rendering flexibility.
• The addition of low level access APIs for FontFusion objects.
• Demo enhancements for Windows and Mac platforms.

Bitstream’s Font Fusion provides the highest quality, fastest text output on any device, at any resolution.  Its small footprint is particularly well suited for mobile devices.  It is also used in operating systems, software applications, low-resolution screen devices, high-definition television screens (HDTVs), set-top boxes, printers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and other embedded systems.  It can render virtually any font format, including bitmap, TrueType and OpenType. 

Font Fusion 5.0 includes several new features including:

• Support for fractional sizes, enabling developers to employ fractional point sizes to fit text strings into any region.
• A new optimized PFR format, allowing smaller and faster PFR fonts; 13-21% smaller and 6-8% faster than Bitstream’s previously most compact PFR format.
• Optional OTF support.
• Support for vertical processing.
• Format 16 font headers, supporting large TrueType fonts and including 4 additional data segments for gallery characters (GC), vertical translation (VT), vertical rotation (VR) and vertical exclusion (VE).
• Support for 2D enhanced outline emboldening.
• Performance optimizations and enhanced printer support.

 “Bitstream Panorama and Font Fusion 5.0 are designed for today’s global marketplace – supporting for all of the world’s languages via a single compact API,” said Anna Chagnon, president and CEO of Bitstream.  “This release represents another step in Bitstream’s long line of innovations designed to improve rendering speed, readability and portability on resource-constrained systems with limited memory and screen resolution.”

About Bitstream

Bitstream Inc. (NASDAQ: BITS) is a software development company focused on bringing unique software products to a wide variety of markets. The company’s core software products include award-winning fonts and font rendering software, mobile browsing software, variable data publishing and web-to-print software for personalized marketing. For more information about Bitstream please visit www.bitstream.com.