Pdftools Release Notes

Added

• PDF/UA conversion keeps the alternate text that images and other figures already have in the input document. Alternate text that can’t be carried over is reported with an AlternateTextLost warning. To turn this off, disable Keep authored alternate text in the profile, or set the PDFUAKEEPALTTEXT job option to false. For more details, review Alternate text.
• service.office.excelPrintCommunication setting in appsettings.json, also available as Printer Communication on the Conversion Service tab of the Conversion Service Configurator. Set it to false to export Excel workbooks without querying the printer driver, which makes workbooks with many sheets convert much faster. The page size then comes from the workbook’s page setup only. The default is true, which keeps the previous behavior. Applies to local Microsoft Office installations. For more details, review Excel printer communication.

Changed

• The PDF/UA conformance of the output document reflects the validation result. If a document doesn’t meet PDF/UA requirements, the service removes the PDF/UA identifier from the output document to prevent an incorrect conformance claim.

Fixed

• Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files embedded in an Office document weren’t extracted when the document contained no other embedded objects, for example when they were inserted as icons.
• csconfig profiles show, export, and import failed on Linux and in Docker, and a container started with IMPORT_PROFILES stopped with exit code 1. Profile exports also import across Windows and Linux installations. For more details, review Import profiles only.

Added

• The pageShadow property on DocumentView lets developers customize the CSS box-shadow of document pages. The property accepts a PageShadowOptions object with default (shadow for all pages) and currentPage (shadow for the active page) values. Set the property at initialization via DocumentViewOptions or at runtime via the getter/setter. In the PDF Web Viewer, these values can also be customized using the --pdftools-viewer-page-shadow and --pdftools-viewer-current-page-shadow CSS variables.
• The DocumentPrintOptions type supports two new properties for improved print output:
  • autorotate: When enabled, counter-rotates pages to print content upright, undoing any rotation applied in the viewer.
  • fitToSize: When enabled (default), scales content to fit within the paper size.

Changed

• The RgbaColor.toHexString() and RgbColor.toHexString() methods return consistent, CSS-compatible hexadecimal strings. Output is uppercase with leading zeros (for example, #000000 instead of #0 for black, or #FF0000FF for opaque red with alpha).
• LineAnnotation.color type changed: The color property on LineAnnotation now returns RgbColor instead of RgbaColor. Code that reads the a (alpha) member from this property will fail to compile. Line annotations support transparency through the opacity property, so the color’s alpha channel was redundant. Update affected code to use RgbColor or remove alpha channel access.

Fixed

• Before this update, rotated pages displayed incorrectly in the browser’s print dialog. With this update, the print preview correctly reflects page rotation.
• Before this update, freehand drawings weren’t saved when you saved or printed the document unless you deselected the annotation first. With this update, saving or printing the document commits the active freehand drawing, matching the behavior of other annotation types.
• Before this update, a document upload screen appeared when opening a document, even though developers set the inputDocument initialization option. This was a regression introduced in version 5.18.0. With this update, the document upload screen no longer appears when loading a document.
• Before this update, second-level property popups (color picker, line thickness, line endings) stayed open until the user clicked the close button. With this update, these popups close automatically when the user clicks outside, matching first-level popup behavior.
• Before this update, switching documents while one was still loading caused a TypeError: Cannot read properties of null (reading 'documentCanvasSize') error in the console. With this update, the viewer handles document switching during load without errors.
• Before this update, jumping to a distant page (for example, from page 1 to page 3090) fired pageAddedToViewport for every skipped page, causing thousands of events and freezing the browser. With this update, the event fires only for pages that actually enter the viewport’s sliding window.

Added

• Remove redundant graphics state save and restore pairs (q / Q) when optimizing, with the RemovalOptions.RemoveRedundantGraphicsStates property. The page appearance doesn’t change, and deeply nested content stays within the nesting limit of PDF/A-1. The property is false by default. For details, refer to the RemovalOptions API reference:
  • C
  • Java
  • .NET
  • Python

Fixed

• Before this update, the .NET garbage collector could release a native object while a call on it was still running, so applications under load could crash with an access violation. With this release, this no longer happens. Using a disposed object throws an ObjectDisposedException, which derives from InvalidOperationException.
• Before this update, signing and signature validation leaked memory. With this release, they no longer leak memory.
• Before this update, merging duplicate fonts during optimization could make text unsearchable, or crash on malformed fonts. With this release, the optimizer skips merges that would break text extraction.
• Before this update, flattening forms removed the text of rich text fields. With this release, the text is preserved, without its rich text formatting.
• Before this update, OCR with legacy OCR fonts could write character codes that the font doesn’t define, so the output failed PDF/A validation. With this release, OCR only writes defined character codes.
• Before this update, PDF/A validation didn’t detect references to the .notdef glyph, which PDF/A-2 and later prohibit (ISO 19005-2, clause 6.2.11.8). With this release, validation reports them as errors, so documents that passed before are correctly reported as non-conforming.
• Before this update, rendering a page with a corrupt page size could exhaust the available memory. With this release, rendering such pages fails with an error instead.
• Before this update, text extraction could return incorrect characters for some fonts without Unicode information. With this release, Unicode recovery is improved.

Added

• Read the Content (the displayed text or an alternate description) and Name (the unique identifier on the page) of link annotations with the matching Link properties. For details, refer to the Link API reference:
  • C
  • Java
  • .NET
  • Python
• Inspect fonts in more detail with the Font members RawBaseFont, DescriptorFlags, HasUnicodes, and GetGlyphName(), which simplify migrating from the 3-Heights® PDF Extract API. For details, refer to the Font API reference:
  • C
  • Java
  • .NET
  • Python

Fixed

• Before this update, the .NET garbage collector could release a native object while a call on it was still running, so applications under load could crash with an access violation. With this release, this no longer happens. Using a disposed object throws an ObjectDisposedException, which derives from InvalidOperationException.
• Before this update, releasing an optional content membership after its document was closed could crash the application. With this release, it raises an error instead.
• Before this update, the text of rich text form fields could be missing in the output document. With this release, the text is preserved, without its rich text formatting.
• Before this update, text extraction could return incorrect characters for some fonts without Unicode information. With this release, Unicode recovery is improved.

Added

• Accessible PDF/UA-1 output on the Convert to PDF and Archive as PDF/A-2 workflows, disabled by default:
  • Enable it per profile, or per job with the PDFUA job option.
  • On Archive as PDF/A-2, the output conforms to both PDF/A-2a and PDF/UA-1.
  • Enabling PDF/UA doubles page credits: 2 per page on Convert to PDF, 4 on Archive as PDF/A-2.
  • For more details, review PDF/UA accessibility.
• The Conversion Service validates the PDF/UA output against ISO 14289-1 and reports the requirements a document fails. For more details, review PDF/UA accessibility.
• Conversion jobs and tasks appear in your monitoring tool through the OpenTelemetry export, with the duration, page count, and queue wait of each job. For more details, review OpenTelemetry (OTLP).
• Standard Converter support for password-protected Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents using AES encryption, supplied with the DOC.PASSWORD option. For more details, review Office conversion.

Changed

• Improvements to Office document conversion in the Standard Converter. The supported input formats and the profile options are unchanged.

Fixed

• A document whose page tree referenced itself kept a worker busy until the task timeout ended the job. The service detects the cycle and rejects the document immediately.
• A creation date that can’t be interpreted, such as 0000-00-00T00:00:00Z, made Pdf.SetMetadata stop the job with a corrupt-file error. The service drops the date and reports a MetadataRemoved warning instead.
• PDF/A conversion failed on documents whose /Info dictionary held oversized entries. Archive as PDF/A-2 and Archive as PDF/A-3 shorten them with sanitize-info-dict-strings, disabled by default.
• Installations running ABBYY FineReader Engine 12.5 failed to initialize OCR after updating to 6.12, reporting Arguments check failed. Expected: isValidFREngineModule. The service ships a plugin for each FineReader Engine 12 release line and selects one per profile with Engine Version in OCR Settings. The default, Auto (detect installed version), reads the version of the installed engine, so existing profiles need no change. To override the detection, select 12.5 and older or 12.7 and newer.
• Conversion through a local Microsoft Office installation stopped the job when reading the page count of a Word or PowerPoint document failed.
• The Connector Service stopped with an unhandled NullReferenceException when delivery failed after the job had succeeded.
• The Conversion Service Configurator didn’t apply the configured proxy settings when it contacted the licensing service. As of this release, the Configurator applies the configured proxy settings.
• The Conversion Service Configurator stopped responding when it opened a Send Email connection, because it validated the connection before it finished initializing every setting. The Configurator finishes the initialization first, so the connection opens.
• The Configurator Web listed workflows by their technical name, such as Conversion, in the Create New Profile, Import Profiles, and Export Profiles dialog boxes, instead of the display name used elsewhere in the interface, such as Convert to PDF. Each dialog box uses the display name, and an exported profile file carries it.

Added

• The thumbnails panel includes a counterclockwise rotation icon, letting viewer users rotate pages by -90°.
• The annotationColors option in ViewerConfig lets you define the color palette that viewer users can pick from annotation color pickers, either for all annotation types or per annotation type. To read or change the palette at runtime, use the getAnnotationColors() and setAnnotationColors() methods on PdfToolsViewer.

Changed

• The text highlight top bar is replaced with a popover, following viewer design principles and improving user experience.
• On mobile and tablet devices, the viewer defaults to fit-to-page mode when opening documents.

Fixed

• Before this update, setting the theme option in ViewerConfig during initialization did not apply the theme when it differed from the operating system preferences. With this update, the viewer correctly applies the configured theme regardless of OS preferences.
• Before this update, read-only form fields were editable. With this update, the viewer correctly prevents editing of read-only form fields.

Fixed

• Before this update, the Pdftools SDK could calculate the color complexity of images that use indexed color spaces incorrectly, due to an index overflow and unchecked lookup-table access at the table boundaries. As a consequence, affected indexed images could render incorrectly. With this release, index handling prevents the overflow and lookup-table access is bounds-checked. As a result, indexed images render reliably.

• Before this update, Pdftools SDK for Java could fail to extract its native libraries when the Pdftools SDK JAR file was repackaged into another JAR. As a consequence, the runtime failed to start or load in some environments. With this release, native library extraction handles repackaged JARs correctly, and the extraction flow produces more detailed diagnostic information. As a result, runtime initialization is reliable for repackaged JARs, and loading issues are easier to investigate with Pdftools support.

Fixed

• Before this update, Toolbox add-on could calculate the color complexity of images that use indexed color spaces incorrectly, due to an index overflow and unchecked lookup-table access at the table boundaries. As a consequence, affected indexed images could render incorrectly. With this release, index handling prevents the overflow and lookup-table access is bounds-checked. As a result, indexed images render reliably.

• Before this update, Toolbox add-on for Java could fail to extract its native libraries when the Toolbox add-on JAR file was repackaged into another JAR. As a consequence, the runtime failed to start or load in some environments. With this release, native library extraction handles repackaged JARs correctly, and the extraction flow produces more detailed diagnostic information. As a result, runtime initialization is reliable for repackaged JARs, and loading issues are easier to investigate with Pdftools support.

Fixed

• Before this update, the Toolbox add-on for Java extracted its native libraries to the temporary directory, where they accumulated over time. As a consequence, disk usage in the temporary directory grew with repeated use. With this release, the Toolbox add-on stores the extracted native libraries in a persistent per-user cache; if the cache location is unusable, the SDK falls back to extracting into the temporary directory. As a result, the libraries no longer accumulate, and initialization is faster after the first run.
• Before this update, the Toolbox add-on ignored color key masks (transparency) when rendering indexed images with fewer than 8 bits per component. As a consequence, masked pixels rendered opaque instead of transparent. With this release, the Toolbox add-on applies color key masks to these images, and masked pixels render transparent as expected.

Added

• Indexed (palette-based) PNG output

Render PDF pages to smaller PNG files, suitable for thumbnails, web previews, and high-volume archiving. With this release, Pdftools SDK supports the PngColorSpace.Indexed color space for PNG output. Instead of a full color value, each pixel stores a short reference into a palette of up to 256 colors. Typical document pages, such as text, tables, and line art, contain only a few distinct colors. They keep their visual quality at a much smaller file size. Choose the palette size using the PngImageOptions.BitsPerPixel property. Indexed output is always opaque. For technical details, such as valid values, defaults, and error behavior, refer to the PngImageOptions API reference for your language:

• C
• Java
• .NET
• Python

Fixed

• Before this update, the Pdftools SDK for Java extracted its native libraries to the temporary directory, where they accumulated over time. As a consequence, disk usage in the temporary directory grew with repeated use. With this release, the Pdftools SDK stores the extracted native libraries in a persistent per-user cache; if the cache location is unusable, the SDK falls back to extracting into the temporary directory. As a result, the libraries no longer accumulate, and initialization is faster after the first run.
• Before this update, the Pdftools SDK ignored color key masks (transparency) when rendering indexed images with fewer than 8 bits per component. As a consequence, masked pixels rendered opaque instead of transparent. With this release, the Pdftools SDK applies color key masks to these images, and masked pixels render transparent as expected.

Added

• displayName field on the workflow objects returned by the Advanced API List available workflows endpoint, so the Playground and other API clients can show a workflow’s human-readable name instead of its technical name.

Fixed

This release fixes the following issues.

• The Standard Converter no longer omits watermarks defined in Word (.docx) documents from the converted PDF.
• Emails exported from Microsoft Word or Outlook, including messages forwarded through Gmail, no longer convert with a blank leading page caused by named-page markup in the exported HTML.
• The alt-text placeholder for a skipped external image no longer distorts the converted email’s layout when the image declares a width but no height.
• The Configurator Web displays the correct major.minor.patch version; earlier releases read the assembly version and always showed the patch component as zero.
• Profile import in both the Configurator Web and the Conversion Service Configurator compares only the major and minor version, so you can import a profile across patch releases within a minor line (for example, 6.12.1 into 6.12.0).
• The Conversion Service Configurator no longer becomes unresponsive to input on the splash screen when the Windows Defender troubleshooting check is slow or Windows Defender is unavailable, because the check runs asynchronously under a timeout.
• Certificate host name validation no longer fails on non-English operating systems (for example, French Windows), because the check reads Subject Alternative Name (SAN) DNS names independently of the display language and matches them against the host name following RFC 6125.

Fixed

• Before this update, the MRC optimizer removed the cmap and name tables from CID-only OpenType FontFile3 streams, producing font programs that strict OpenType validators rejected, although most viewers still rendered them correctly. With this release, table stripping is restricted to FontFile2 TrueType fonts, so embedded OpenType FontFile3 streams remain spec-compliant after optimization.

• Before this update, the ResolutionDPI and ThresholdDPI settings on the Web and MinimalFileSize optimization profiles affected only color and grayscale images, leaving bitonal images untouched. As a consequence, lowering the target resolution didn’t shrink files that contained high-resolution bitonal images. With this release, these settings also apply to bitonal images when explicitly configured.

• As of this release, Pdftools SDK no longer supports a glibc 2.12 build. The minimum supported glibc version is 2.17. Earlier releases of Pdftools SDK keep their glibc 2.12 build. If you need glibc 2.12 support in a newer releases of Pdftools SDK, contact Pdftools through the Contact page.

• Before this update, the revocation status of intermediate Certificate Authority (CA) certificates in the signing chain wasn’t reflected in the overall signature validity. As a consequence, a signature backed by a revoked intermediate CA could still be reported as valid. With this release, intermediate CA certificates are validated and their revocation propagates to the overall signature result.

• Before this update, post-analysis failures during PDF to PDF/A conversion were reported with a generic message that didn’t identify the object or page that caused the failure. As a consequence, applications had no diagnostic information to surface. With this release, the message includes the failing object ID, page number, and a count of any additional recorded errors, so applications can present actionable feedback.

Added

• Read the in-page scroll position of fit-height and fit-width bookmark destinations. The FitHeightDestination type exposes a Left property (the page location shown at the left border of the viewport), and the FitWidthDestination type exposes a Top property (the page location shown at the top of the viewport). Each returns null when the position before the jump is retained.

Changed

• As of this release, Toolbox add-on no longer supports a glibc 2.12 build. The minimum supported glibc version is 2.17. Earlier releases of Toolbox add-on keep their glibc 2.12 build. If you need glibc 2.12 support in a newer releases of Toolbox add-on, contact Pdftools through the Contact page.

Fixed

• Before this update, inspecting the font of an extracted text fragment through TextFragment.Font.BaseFont could crash the host application when the source PDF contained malformed font data, such as a missing FontDescriptor. As a consequence, applications that enumerated text fragments could terminate unexpectedly. With this release, the failure is reported as a regular SDK error, so applications can handle it gracefully.

• Before this update, creating a fit-height or fit-width destination discarded its horizontal (FitH) or vertical (FitV) scroll coordinate, so the viewport position was lost. With this release, FitHeightDestination.Create() accepts an optional left argument and FitWidthDestination.Create() accepts an optional top argument. As a result, the coordinate is preserved on the created destination and honored by viewers. Both parameters default to null, so existing code is unaffected.

Added

• A theming manager handles viewer CSS tokens with predefined light and dark themes. The theme option in ViewerConfig selects the active theme ('light', 'dark', or 'auto' for system preference). Developers can register custom themes using customThemes and override theme variables at runtime. Methods on PdfToolsViewer: addTheme(), clearThemeVariableOverrides(), getAvailableThemes(), getTheme(), overrideThemeVariables(), and setTheme().

• Viewer users can remove annotations using an eraser tool in the sidebar. Dragging a path deletes all overlapping annotations. A redaction-specific eraser removes only redaction annotations. Deleted annotations disappear from the document view, the annotation panel, and the redaction panel.

• The PDF Viewer SDK displays an alert when users close the tab or open a new document with unsaved changes. The promptOnUnsavedChange option in ViewerConfig controls this behavior (enabled by default).

• The disableMultipleImageInsert option in ViewerConfig deactivates the image annotation popover after each image is placed, preventing multiple insertions of the same image.

Changed

• Theme configuration replaced

The customCssVars configuration option is replaced by customThemes in ViewerConfig, letting developers register semantic theme definitions at initialization. A theme option selects the active theme.

Migration: Replace customCssVars: { '--var': 'value' } with customThemes: { myTheme: { interactive: { primary: '#value' } } } and set theme: 'myTheme'.

Fixed

• Before this update, annotations on rotated pages were positioned incorrectly and couldn’t be selected for editing. This affected free-text, stamp, sticky note, line, ink, shape, text markup, and redaction annotations. With this update, annotations respect page rotation. As a result, annotations display and behave correctly on rotated pages.

• Before this update, resizing an annotation to a small size and then zooming sometimes caused rendering errors and unstable behavior. With this update, viewer users can resize annotations to any size and zoom without rendering issues.