bentopdf Release Notes

Dad Joke of the Release

Why did the laptop get cold? Cause it let its Windows open🤣

What's Changed

PDF Comparison Rewrite

• Semantic Text Diffing
  • Word-level diff engine with exact bounding-box highlighting on both documents
  • Handles additions, deletions, modifications, and full page insertions/removals
  • CJK word segmentation for accurate Chinese, Japanese, and Korean comparisons
• Moved-Text Detection
  • Detects paragraphs that moved position between documents (≥3 words, ≥80% Jaccard similarity)
  • Collapsed into single "Moved" changes with purple highlights instead of noisy add/remove pairs
• Style Change Detection
  • Detects font family and font size changes on otherwise identical text
• Content Category Classification
  • Every detected change is automatically classified into one of six categories: Text, Image, Header/Footer, Annotation, Formatting, Background
  • Header/footer detection based on y-position analysis (top/bottom 12% of page)
  • Image comparison via area-overlap matching (detects added, removed, and resized images)
  • Annotation diffing compares subtype, contents, and position
  • Background change detection triggers when visual mismatch exceeds text change coverage
• Smart Page Pairing
  • Automated page-pairing model using content signatures instead of naive page-number matching
  • Correctly handles inserted/deleted pages between document versions
• OCR Support
  • OCR for scanned documents, toggled from the toolbar
  • OCR results cached in LRU cache to avoid redundant processing
  • Low-quality text detection auto-triggers OCR when extracted text is unreliable
• Filter System
  • Change type filter pills: Modified, Added, Deleted, Moved, Style Changed
  • Content category filter pills: Text, Image, Header/Footer, Annotation, Formatting, Background
• PDF Export
  • Four export modes: Split View, Alternating Pages, Left Document Only, Right Document Only
• Bug Fixes
  • Rotation fix: Corrected PDF page rotation functionality with comprehensive test coverage (380 new tests)

By the Community ❤️

• add Korean (ko) translation by @the0807 in #552
• fix correct locale path in translation guide, add missing link attributes in footer, fix wasm version in readme by @iegl3 in #553
• build(deps): bump dompurify from 3.3.1 to 3.3.2 by @dependabot[bot] in #551
• build(deps-dev): bump minimatch from 5.1.6 to 5.1.9 by @dependabot[bot] in #550
• build(deps): bump rollup from 4.55.1 to 4.59.0 by @dependabot[bot] in #522
• minor correction in documentation by @Olivetti in #531
• Pdf to image direct image by @Skillkiller in #215

New Contributors ❤️

• @the0807 made their first contribution in #552 ❤️
• @iegl3 made their first contribution in #553 ❤️
• @Olivetti made their first contribution in #531 ❤️
• @Skillkiller made their first contribution in #215 ❤️

Full Changelog: v2.4.1...v2.5.0
This was a big rewrite, so please try out the new comparison tool and report any bug fixes. Thank you! 🎉

What's Changed

• 1. Quick Look on all Page Previews
     Now on hovering over a page preview a magnifying button allows a quick preview of that particular page
• Enhanced the scale of all page previews for a sharper render
• Bug Fixes and other changes
  Remove blank pages tool was not working correctly and identified all the pages as blank. This has been fixed.
• build(deps): bump svelte from 5.53.1 to 5.53.6 by @dependabot[bot] in #533
• build(deps): bump the npm-dependencies group across 1 directory with 29 updates by @dependabot[bot] in #534
• Update tools.json - Option Apply watermark to all pages by @Stephan-P in #535

Full Changelog: v2.4.0...v2.4.1

Thank you for the support and please test and report any bugs ❤️

What's Changed

• 1. PDF Form Creator Revamp Now along with creating new form fields you can also edit existing fields!
• Barcode support has been added! Now you can choose from any of the following types:
  QR Code, Code 128, Code 39, EAN-13, UPC-A, DataMatrix and PDF417
• 1. Batch Decryption Now multiple PDFs which share the same password can be decrypted

Bug Fixes

CORS Proxy configuration was not added to Dockerfile which led to failed certificate requests. This has been fixed.

New Contributors

• @maxbengtzen made their first contribution in #529 ❤️

Full Changelog: v2.3.3...v2.4.0

Thank you for the support and please test and report any bugs ❤️

Dad Joke of the Release

What do you call a sad strawberry? A blueberry🤣

What's Changed

• 1. PDF Watermark Tool

The PDF Watermark tool has been revamped. You can now set to apply watermark to all pages or a range of pages. A new scale option, along with position and flatten options have been added. Along with this, the watermark can be now placed via drag and drop.

Bug Fixes

• Fix duplicate pages being shown in PDF Multitool #508
• Compact mode not showing up in Simple Mode has been fixed #505
• Workflow Tool had an error loading saved templates. This has been fixed #517 #507
• Update common.json by @Stephan-P in #503
• Update tools.json by @Stephan-P in #504
• build(deps): bump jspdf from 4.1.0 to 4.2.0 by @dependabot[bot] in #498
• build(deps): bump svelte from 5.48.2 to 5.53.1 by @dependabot[bot] in #502
• Updating the portuguese translations for the new tools by @hagibr in #516
• Correction on pdfToExcel.name (Portuguese) by @hagibr in #518
• Adding 'PDF Workflow Builder' and 'Bates Numbering' to toolTranslationKeys by @hagibr in #519
• build(deps-dev): bump qs from 6.14.1 to 6.15.0 by @dependabot[bot] in #496
• build(deps): bump markdown-it from 14.1.0 to 14.1.1 by @dependabot[bot] in #480

New Contributors

@hagibr made their first contribution in #516 ❤️

Full Changelog: v2.3.1...v2.3.3

Thank you everyone for your support. Please test it out and report any bugs and have a great weekend! ❤️

Dad Joke of the Release

What do math teachers wear glasses? It helps with diVision🤣

What's Changed

• Bates Stamping
  You can now use bates stamping on multiple PDFs!
  Choose from pre existing options or customize it

• Collapsible Sections and Compact Mode
  BentoPDF sections can now be collapsed as a dropdown! Since we have now over 100+ tools we now have added a compact mode for BentoPDF. To enable it go to Settings > Preference > Enable Compact Mode

• Fixes & Improvements
  Belarusian translation update by @pavel-miniutka in #486
  fix: httproute invalid syntax and tweak chart by @tzabbi in #493
  chore: update bentopdf version in helm chart by @tzabbi in #494
  chore: pin xlsx version by @diogotcorreia in #501

New Contributors

• @tzabbi made their first contribution in #493
• @diogotcorreia made their first contribution in #501

Full Changelog: v2.2.1...v2.3.0

Full Changelog: v2.3.0...v2.3.1

Dad Joke of the Release

What do you call a moose that everyone knows? Famoose 🤣

What's New

Custom Branding

Replace the default BentoPDF logo, name, and footer text with your own.
3 new build-time variables — VITE_BRAND_NAME, VITE_BRAND_LOGO, VITE_FOOTER_TEXT.
Works across all deployment methods, Docker, static hosting, air-gapped.
Compatible with Simple Mode and all other build options.

Default Language Configuration

Set the default UI language at build time so users see your preferred language on first visit.
New VITE_DEFAULT_LANGUAGE build variable — supports all 15 languages.
Configurable via Docker --build-arg or .env.production.

Air-Gapped Deployment Script

A new scripts/prepare-airgap.sh automates the entire air-gapped deployment process
Interactive mode — run it with no arguments and it walks you through everything.
Downloads WASM packages, builds the Docker image, and exports a self-contained bundle.
Generates a setup.sh for the air-gapped side
Supports all build options (branding, language, Simple Mode, base URL).

Non-Root Dockerfile

New Dockerfile.nonroot is added for deployments where containers must not run as root.

Fixes & Improvements

Divide Pages node fix — fixed workflow node for page division.
Dutch tools.json corrections — Thanks @Stephan-P! ❤️
Updated self-hosting docs (Vercel, Netlify, Cloudflare, AWS, Nginx, Apache, Docker) with branding and language configuration.
Added Scanner Effect, Adjust Colors, and PDF Workflow Builder to README tools table.
As always, thank you very much for your support. If you run into any issues with branding or the air-gapped script, please report them. Thank you and have a great weekend! ❤️

Full Changelog: v2.2.0...v2.2.1

Dad Joke of the Release
What does a house like to wear? Address 🤣

What's New

• 1. Automation Tool (Workflow)
     A fully visual, node based automation tool for chaining PDF operations together. Drag nodes onto a canvas, connect them with wires, hit Run, and watch it go.
     75+ workflow nodes across 6 categories — Input, Edit & Annotate, Organize & Manage, Optimize & Repair, Secure PDF, and Output.
     Supports every input format BentoPDF handles — PDF, Image, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, EPUB, Email, Markdown, JSON, XML, SVG, XPS, MOBI, FB2, CBZ, and more.
     Save/load workflow templates and export/import as JSON.
     Drag and drop nodes from a searchable, categorized toolbox.
     Real time per node execution progress (running, completed, error).
• 1. Image Compression Fix
     Fixed image compression that was previously broken.
     Integrated quality selection for JPG, PNG, and WebP to PDF conversion.
• 1. New Languages
     Arabic (ar) — full translation with RTL layout support.
     Danish (da) — full translation. Thanks @froeand! ❤️
     Belarusian (be) — updated translation. Thanks @pavel-miniutka! ❤️
• 1. Fixes & Improvements
     Watermark rotation fix — position now calculated using polar coordinates for accurate placement at any angle. Thanks @TheScienceotter! ❤️
     Dutch translation corrections. Thanks @Stephan-P! ❤️
     Fixed various ESLint and TypeScript compilation errors across the codebase.
     Helm chart promoted to v1.0.0 for production deployment.
     Fixed gateway and HTTPRoute configuration for production environments.
     Bumped jsPDF from 4.0.0 to 4.1.0.

What's Changed

• Update tools.json by @Stephan-P in #450
• Add danish translation by @froeand in #461
• (Fix) Rotate watermark text around centre of page by @TheScienceotter in #459
• Belarusian translation update by @pavel-miniutka in #458
• Update common.json by @Stephan-P in #457
• build(deps): bump jspdf from 4.0.0 to 4.1.0 by @dependabot[bot] in #454
• Tweak gateway + httproute usage in production helm chart release by @spwoodcock in #453

New Contributors

• @froeand made their first contribution in #461
• @TheScienceotter made their first contribution in #459

As always, thank you very much for your support. The workflow tool was fairly complex, so there may be bugs. Please report them as they arise thank you! ❤️

Full Changelog: v2.1.0...v2.2.0

Dad Joke of the Release

Two guys walk into a bar. The third one ducked 🤣

What's New

1. Zero-Config WASM

In V2 we stopped bundling AGPL libraries but it required additional setup. Now all libraries (PyMuPDF, Ghostscript, CoherentPDF) are now pre-configured with CDN defaults and work immediately after deployment just like before.
Custom/air-gapped deployments can still override via environment variables or the Advanced Settings UI. The steps to do this have been added in the Readme and Docs have been updated to reflect the same.
The WASM Settings page now shows "Pre-configured" status badges with CDN URLs as placeholders.

2. New Tools!

Adjust Colors — Modify brightness, contrast, saturation, and hue, temperature, tint, gamma and sepia of PDF pages.
Scanner Effect — Apply realistic scanner/photocopy effects to PDFs.

3. Bug Fixes

Added i18n translations pass across all 109 tool pages and 13 languages.
Added missing translations for 7 tools (PDF to Word, Extract Images, PDF to Markdown, Prepare PDF for AI, PDF Layers, PDF to PDF/A, Rasterize PDF).
Added data-i18n attributes for file type hints, section headers, how-it-works steps, and upload dropzone text across every page.
30+ new translation keys added to all 12 non-English locales.
Dutch translation corrections — Thanks @Stephan-P! ❤️

Note:
Since, I use Google Translate for the translations, it might not be accurate. I request our users to feel free to correct the translations and raise a PR for the same. We are also looking to translate Bento into other languages, especially Arabic, so translations are more than welcome!

4. Fixes & Improvements

Docker port redirect fix — Locale URLs without trailing slash (e.g., /de, /fr) no longer redirect to the internal container port (8080) instead of the external port.
Removed unused WASM background preloader that added unnecessary load on every page visit.
Added new i18n translations for all 109 tool pages and 13 languages.
Added missing translations for 7 tools (PDF to Word, Extract Images, PDF to Markdown, Prepare PDF for AI, PDF Layers, PDF to PDF/A, Rasterize PDF).
Update translations by @Stephan-P in #445 ❤️
Update translations by @Stephan-P in #444 ❤️

Next Update Sneak Peek

The automation tool is now complete and will be in the next release

Full Changelog: v2.0.0...v2.1.0

Dad Joke of the Release

Where do cats go to get a new tail? A retail store 🤣

⚠️ Breaking Changes

This release moves away from bundling AGPL-licensed libraries such as PyMuPDF, Ghostscript, and CoherentPDF. If your workflow depends on these tools, you’ll now need to configure them manually via the Advanced Settings.

You can supply your own compatible versions of these libraries, as long as they conform to the expected interfaces and formats. This change was made to improve flexibility and maintain a clear separation of concerns.

The simple tutorial can be found here: Tutorial and the docs have been updated to reflect the same.

What's New

• PDF Editor Tool

  • Download button added to the PDF Editor tool - you can now save your edited PDFs with all annotations, redactions, and form data baked in.
  • Multi-document tabs - open multiple PDFs at once in the editor and switch between them with tabs.
  • Link Support - you can now add internal and external page links

• Kubernetes Deployment

  • Helm chart added for Kubernetes deployment - Thanks @spwoodcock ! ❤️
  • Deploy BentoPDF on your cluster with a single helm install.

• New Language Support

  • Dutch (Nederlands) - Thanks @Stephan-P! ❤️
  • Belarusian (Беларуская) - Thanks @pavel-miniutka! ❤️
  • Fixed missing language regex mappings for nl and be across routing, i18n, and service worker.

• Organize PDF - Page Reordering

  • You can now reorder pages using page number strings (e.g. 3,1,2,5-4) in the Organize PDF tool - Thanks @sheing-google! ❤️

• Fixes & Improvements

  • Fixed crop bounds not restoring when navigating between pages - Thanks @LoganK! ❤️
  • Restored embedpdf workflow and fixed external xlsx reference - Thanks @EmeraldPi! ❤️
  • Security: bumped svelte (5.46.1 → 5.48.2) and lodash (4.17.21 → 4.17.23)
  • Fix sign pdf tool bug where the drawing pad wasn't focused on mobile devices
  • Fixed an issue where you had to hard refresh when changing a language
  • Fixed issue of extra url prefixes when navigating to different pages
  • Fixed an issue in PDF multi tool where the page numbers were garbled from lazy loading

• New Contributors ❤️

  • @spwoodcock made their first contribution in #388
  • @sheing-google made their first contribution in #386
  • @LoganK made their first contribution in #405
  • @pavel-miniutka made their first contribution in #432
  • Big thanks to all contributors for making this release happen!

As always, please test and report any issues.

Full Changelog: v1.16.1...v2.0.0