Be Inc. Licenses Font Technology
From Bitstream Inc.

RELEASED MARCH 31, 1997

For more information contact

North America & Pacific:
Colleen Cronin, Bitstream Inc., ccronin@bitstream.com
(617) 520-8329
Alex Osadzinski, alex@be.com
+1 (650) 462-4126

Europe:
Leon Harrewyn, Bitstream b.v., lharrewyn@bitstream.com
+31 20 5200 300
Jean Calmon, Be Inc., jcalmon@beeurope.com
(33) 1 49 06 73 75

Be Inc. Licenses Font Technology From Bitstream Inc.
Be, Inc. to Integrate Bitstream's TrueType and Type 1 Font Processors
and Fonts into the BeOS.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (March 31, 1997) Bitstream Inc. (Nasdaq: BITS) today announced that Be Inc. of Menlo Park, California, has licensed Bitstream's advanced TrueType and PostScript Type 1 font processors as well as a core set of fonts for incorporation into the Be Operating System (BeOS).

The BeOS is Be's new multiprocessor-based, multithreaded, object oriented operating system designed to deliver high-performance for media and content creation applications. Nearly 5,000 developers are now working with the BeOS in areas such as digital audio, digital video, Internet design, servers and 3-D image processing. Bitstream's font processors will provide BeOS developers with a complete typographic technology solution and provide BeOS users worldwide with the ability to display industry-standard TrueType and PostScript Type 1 fonts.

"We investigated a number of options for type and font technologies in the BeOS, and Bitstream was clearly the best solution." said Mark Gonzales, Be's vice president of product marketing. "With this technology we'll be able to offer BeOS developers and users high quality type imaging, in addition to Unicode and antialiasing support, while retaining high performance."

The initial implementation of Bitstream's technology was released to developers earlier this month in the BeOS DR8.3 update. The technology will be fully integrated in the next release, the BeOS Preview Release, slated to ship to developers and customers in May.

"Bitstream is honored to be the font technology solution of choice for the innovative BeOS," said Ray Boelig, president and chairman of the board of Bitstream Inc. "We have been extremely impressed with Be's operating system since it was first introduced and are pleased to see that many others agree--as evidenced by the technology's growing popularity and adoption within the industry."

About Bitstream's Type Technologies Bitstream is a pre-eminent independent supplier of type products and enabling technologies developed to solve the text and typographic problems faced in the printing, publishing and graphic arts industries. Bitstream's retail and OEM type products are derived from its world-class Typeface Library of nearly 1,400 Latin and non-Latin typefaces. Bitstream also offers custom type services to OEMs, ISVs, and corporations as well as a number of award-winning font utilities and font collections to end users. Bitstream's enabling technologies consist of font processors, a necessary component in operating systems and laser printers that interpret type information stored within a document and generate the indicated characters in the required size and resolution as determined by the application, the output device or user-defined specification.

Be, Inc. was founded by Jean-Louis Gasse in 1990 to overcome the limitations of existing computer architecture. With a team of industry-leading engineers and business executives in the United States and Europe, the company has positioned itself to become a key player in fast-growing application markets. Be, Inc. is headquartered in Menlo Park, California. More information on Be, Inc. and its products may be obtained from the company's home page at http://www.be.com.


About Bitstream Inc.

Bitstream develops and markets software products and technologies to enhance the creation, transport, viewing and printing of electronic documents. Bitstream licenses type libraries and font technology to hundreds of hardware and software developers worldwide. Headquartered in Cambridge, Mass. USA, Bitstream is traded on the National Market System under the Nasdaq symbol BITS, and licenses its products and technologies directly and through subsidiaries, business agents and distributors in the US, Europe and the Pacific Rim. For more information, please contact Bitstream at 617-497-6222 (North and South Americas and Pacific Rim), +31 20 5200 300 (Europe) and +44 1734 254 229 (United Kingdom) or visit the company's home page on the World Wide Web at http://www.bitstream.com.


Be is a registered trademark, and BeOS, the Be logo and the BeOS logo are trademarks of Be, Inc. Bitstream is a registered trademark of Bitstream Inc. TrueType is a registered trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. PostScript is a trademark of Adobe Systems, Inc. that may be registered in certain jurisdictions. All other trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners.