Montreal, Quebec, Canada-- December 16, 1999--The Widecom Group Inc. (NASDAQ:WIDE) today announced that after four years in development, it has completed the technology and commenced production of its revolutionary large format color digital printer.
 

The Widecom large format color printer has the ability to print at a width of three feet and at a speed of 1800 square feet per hour at a cost of just 12.2¢ per square foot including paper. Consequently, it can print 300 posters of a two foot x three foot size in one hour, at a cost of 73.2¢ each, resulting in a dramatic reduction in the cost of competitive processes. Images from the Widecom printer provide high-gloss, high gamut output on inexpensive paper, yet also provide a high level of resistance to water and UV light without the need for special inks, coatings or laminations. A recent study by SpencerLab, (www.spencerlab.com) comparing the Hewlett-Packard DesignJet 3800CP with the Epson Stylus Pro 9000, found that a 33”x 44” castle poster took 27 minutes and 56 minutes respectively to produce, and cost $4.42 and $4.94 respectively, for ink cartridges alone. After adding the cost of gloss paper (found from manufacturer’s web sites) the cost of 33”x44” posters by these machines is calculated to be $14.60 and $15.12, respectively.

Widecom’s machine can print 33 x 44 inch posters at a speed of 22 seconds per poster Raja Tuli, CEO of Widecom, stated, “We believe this technology will not only revolutionize the large poster market, currently used for exhibit graphics, point of sale displays, signs and other advertising, but, significantly, also create a brand new consumer sector for people who want to enlarge outputs from digital cameras or those scanned into online photo albums and retain the full clarity of the original, whatever the source.” A study by IT Strategies estimates that the pay-for-print market for wide format output (wider than 2 feet) is expected to grow from $11.7 billion in 1999 to over $18.5 billion by the end of 2002. It also estimates that the average per square foot retail price (including lamination) of $7.78 for glossy posters will drop to $6.21 in 2002. A $7.78 per square foot cost translates to $46.68 for a two feet x three feet poster. Widecom believes its new printer will allow it to sell a two foot x three foot poster for $5. Widecom, incorporated in 1990, is rapidly becoming one of the world’s leading suppliers of high performance, wide-format scanning and printing technology. Widecom markets its products through international distributors and Value-Added Resellers (VARs) across six continents. Widecom’s corporate headquarters is located near Toronto; its advanced research joint venture, Technologie Novimage Inc. is located in Montreal. To service and support its North American VARs, Widecom has sales and support offices in San Francisco, Houston, Pittsburgh and Toronto. The Company also manufactures its own print heads at its Montreal and Pittsburgh facilities.

This press release includes statements which may constitute forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provision of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. This information may Involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements.  Factors which would cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to factors detailed in the Company’s Securities and Exchange Commission filings