Pdftools Products
All Pdftools Release Notes (55)
- Apr 16, 2026
- Date parsed from source:Apr 16, 2026
- First seen by Releasebot:Apr 16, 2026
Version 5.15.0
PDF Web Viewer adds ink annotations, annotation author settings, programmatic annotation creation, DPR controls, and keyboard navigation improvements, while also fixing sticky note, touchscreen redaction, image upload, thumbnail spacing, and FDF redaction save issues.
Added
- Viewer users can create ink annotations (freehand drawings) on PDF documents, customize the stroke color, opacity, and line width, erase parts of the drawing, and edit annotations by moving, resizing, locking, or deleting them.
- Developers can set the annotation author using the user option in ViewerConfig during initialization, or the setUser() method on PdfToolsViewer at runtime. The getUser() method returns the configured user. The viewer applies this value when creating or editing annotations.
- The document.addAnnotation() method lets developers add annotations to PDF documents programmatically.
- Developers can configure the device pixel ratio (DPR) using the devicePixelRatio option in ViewerConfig to balance rendering sharpness and performance. Higher values increase sharpness, while lower values improve performance.
- Viewer users can navigate sidebar panels with the keyboard, move the focus between elements using the Tab key, navigate menu items with the arrow keys, and activate buttons with the Enter or Spacebar keys.
Changed
- The viewer.initialize() method throws an error when called on an already initialized viewer instance. Developers must dispose of the existing instance before reinitializing. Use viewer.addEventListener("PdfTools.viewer.initialized") to detect when initialization completes.
- Updated embedded fonts for improved license compliance.
Fixed
- Before this update, the lock/unlock button in the sticky note modal didn’t reflect the current annotation state. With this update, the button stays synchronized with the contextual menu.
- Before this update, viewer users couldn’t create redaction annotations on touchscreen devices. This has been resolved.
- Image upload validates file types and prevents viewer users from selecting unsupported formats.
- The thumbnail panel displays equal left and right margins.
- Redaction annotations are included when saving documents as FDF.
- Apr 2, 2026
- Date parsed from source:Apr 2, 2026
- First seen by Releasebot:Apr 2, 2026
Version 1.16.0
PDF Tools SDK adds OCR pre-processing for PDF workflows and improves PDF/A conversion with better event tracking and error reporting. It also fixes API event handlers so resources are released correctly, reducing memory growth over time.
Added
- OCR pre-processing for PDF workflows. Apply OCR to scanned PDFs and images through Pdftools SDK workflows (PDF to PDF/A conversion, conformance validation, digital signing). Connect to an OCR service endpoint to perform recognition without changing application logic. For more details, refer to OCR.
Fixed
- Before this update, certain conversion events, such as XMP metadata information loss, weren’t tracked through the Pdftools SDK error reporting during PDF/A conversion. As a consequence, applications using the SDK didn’t receive these error flags, and conversion issues could go unreported. With this release, conversion event tracking is consistent across all usage paths, and XMP metadata-related errors are properly reported.
- Before this update, generated API interface event handlers didn’t release resources correctly. As a consequence, applications experienced increasing memory consumption over time. With this release, event handlers release resources as expected.
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- Mar 13, 2026
- Date parsed from source:Mar 13, 2026
- First seen by Releasebot:Mar 16, 2026
Conversion Service by Pdftools
6.10.0
Conversion Service releases new XML conversion workflow and forward proxy support, renames and streamlines workflows, removes the Accessibility workflow, and fixes Word field code value retention in converted documents for improved accuracy and reliability.
Added
- Convert documents into structured XML data using the Convert to XML workflow. For more details, review Convert to XML workflow documentation.
- With this release, Licensing Gateway Service supports forward proxy configuration. For more details, review Configure a forward proxy.
Changed
- Renamed workflows in the Conversion Service Configurator to better describe their purpose. The following workflows have been renamed:
- Previous name | New name
- Conversion | Convert to PDF
- Dossier | Create Dossier PDF
- Archive PDF/A-1 | Archive as PDF/A-1
- Archive PDF/A-2 | Archive as PDF/A-2
- Archive PDF/A-3 | Archive as PDF/A-3
- Invoice | Prepare Invoice PDF
- Sign | Sign PDF
- Archive TIFF | Archive as TIFF
- Extraction | Extract XML from PDF
- Removed the Accessibility workflow from the Conversion Service.
Fixed
- Before this update, when converting Word documents containing field codes (such as { FILENAME }), the field values displayed Conversion Service temporary folder paths instead of the original values. With this update, field codes retain their original values in the converted documents.
- Mar 11, 2026
- Date parsed from source:Mar 11, 2026
- First seen by Releasebot:Mar 16, 2026
Version 1.15.0
PDF Tools SDK releases a comprehensive update: adds ForbidImplicitUpgrade to ConversionOptions, updates HEIF/HEIC load behavior, replaces JBIG2 decoding, improves font substitution and swaps ZapfDingbats with an alternative, refreshes Unicode mapping, auto-loads the native Java library, upgrades libxml2, and fixes multiple stability and correctness issues across PDF/A processing, extraction, and date handling.
Added
- ForbidImplicitUpgrade option on ConversionOptions to prevent automatic PDF/A conformance level upgrades during conversion.
Changed
HEIF/HEIC codec library dynamically linked
The native library requires the HEIF/HEIC decoding library at load time, even if your application doesn’t use HEIF/HEIC functionality. If the decoding library isn’t found, the native library fails to load. The required binaries are included in the distribution, but ensure your service, container layout, library search paths, and permissions allow the library to be found.
Action:
After updating, verify that your deployment loads correctly even if HEIF/HEIC processing is not used.JBIG2 decoding update
The JBIG2 decoding implementation has been replaced. JBIG2-encoded images render identically, but error messages related to JBIG2 processing may differ from previous versions.
Action:
If you process PDFs with JBIG2-encoded images, consider validating against a representative document set.Updated font substitution for missing fonts (including PDF/A)
When PDFs reference fonts that aren’t embedded and are unavailable on the host, the software substitutes fallback fonts. The updated fallback fonts support a larger glyph set and better fitting to original glyph dimensions. Layout should remain stable, but visual appearance differs from both the original font and previous versions.
Action:
If exact reproduction is required, install the original font in your environment.ZapfDingbats font delivery change
ZapfDingbats is no longer shipped. The fallback font URW++ D050000L.ttf is used instead, but it doesn’t provide full coverage and may differ slightly in appearance.
Action:
If exact ZapfDingbats reproduction is required, install the font in your environment.Refreshed internal mapping tables
Character mapping tables used for Unicode and glyph mapping have been updated. Changes are primarily additive (new code points) with occasional correctness fixes.
Java: native library loaded automatically
Before this release, Java applications had to explicitly locate and load the Pdftools SDK native binary using System.load() or System.loadLibrary() before calling any SDK function. With this release, the native binary is loaded automatically at runtime.
The Maven dependency has also been simplified: the platform-specific native artifact classifier is no longer needed.
Action:
Remove any System.load() or System.loadLibrary() calls for the Pdftools SDK native library from your code. In your code pom.xml , replace the two-dependency block (main JAR + native artifact) with a single dependency on pdftools-sdk . Refer to the Java getting started guide for the updated configuration.Upgraded libxml2 from version 2.10.3 to 2.15.0. Error messages related to XML processing may differ from previous versions.
Fixed
- Debug-level log messages are written to the file output sink when file logging is configured via PDF_TRACE_OUTPUT or PDFT_LOG_OUTPUT.
- Fixed a crash when repairing PDFs with XMP metadata dates missing timezone information.
- PDF/A conversion no longer fails when the document contains a /Tabs entry written as a string instead of a name object.
- PDF/A conversion no longer fails when the document contains a CIDFont dictionary without a /Type entry.
- The remove-PieceInfo option (eStripPieceInfo ) also removes PieceInfo dictionaries from XObject resources.
- Before this update, on Linux, PDF dates were computed using the UTC offset of the current time instead of the UTC offset applicable to the date being processed. As a consequence, PDF dates could be off by one hour when the document’s date and the current time fell in different daylight saving time (DST) periods. With this release, the UTC offset is correctly derived from the date being processed.
- Before this update, the JBIG2 decoder placed no limit on memory allocations, which could cause excessive memory consumption when processing PDFs with malformed or unusually large JBIG2-encoded images. With this release, JBIG2 memory allocation is capped at 2 GB.
- Before this update, calling Extractor.ExtractText() using the C# binding on Linux produced incorrect output. As a consequence, non-ASCII UTF-8 characters were silently dropped from the extracted text. With this release, text extraction produces correct UTF-8 output on Linux.
- Mar 11, 2026
- Date parsed from source:Mar 11, 2026
- First seen by Releasebot:Mar 16, 2026
- Modified by Releasebot:Apr 21, 2026
Version 1.12.0
Toolbox Add-On releases broader native loading and rendering updates, including automatic Java library loading, refreshed font substitution, JBIG2 decoding changes, updated mapping tables, dynamic HEIF/HEIC support, and a libxml2 upgrade for improved PDF and XML processing.
Changed
- HEIF/HEIC codec library dynamically linked
The native library requires the HEIF/HEIC decoding library at load time, even if your application doesn’t use HEIF/HEIC functionality. If the decoding library isn’t found, the native library fails to load. The required binaries are included in the distribution, but ensure your service, container layout, library search paths, and permissions allow the library to be found.
Action: After updating, verify that your deployment loads correctly even if HEIF/HEIC processing is not used.
- JBIG2 decoding update
The JBIG2 decoding implementation has been replaced. JBIG2-encoded images render identically, but error messages related to JBIG2 processing may differ from previous versions.
Action: If you process PDFs with JBIG2-encoded images, consider validating against a representative document set.
- Updated font substitution for missing fonts (including PDF/A)
When PDFs reference fonts that aren’t embedded and are unavailable on the host, the software substitutes fallback fonts. The updated fallback fonts support a larger glyph set and better fitting to original glyph dimensions. Layout should remain stable, but visual appearance differs from both the original font and previous versions.
Action: If exact reproduction is required, install the original font in your environment.
- ZapfDingbats font delivery change
ZapfDingbats is no longer shipped. The fallback font URW++ D050000L.ttf is used instead, but it doesn’t provide full coverage and may differ slightly in appearance.
Action: If exact ZapfDingbats reproduction is required, install the font in your environment.
- Refreshed internal mapping tables
Character mapping tables used for Unicode and glyph mapping have been updated. Changes are primarily additive (new code points) with occasional correctness fixes.
- Java: native library loaded automatically
Before this release, Java applications had to explicitly locate and load the Toolbox add-on native binary using System.load() or System.loadLibrary() before calling any SDK function. With this release, the native binary is loaded automatically at runtime.
The Maven dependency has also been simplified: the platform-specific native artifact classifier is no longer needed.
Action: Remove any System.load() or System.loadLibrary() calls for the Toolbox add-on native library from your code. If you use Maven or Gradle, replace the two-dependency block (main JAR + native artifact) with a single dependency on toolbox. If you manage JARs manually, ensure both toolbox and toolbox-native JARs are on your classpath, and remove any native binaries (.dll, .so, .dylib) you previously placed in your project. Refer to the Java getting started guide for the updated configuration.
- Upgraded libxml2 from version 2.10.3 to 2.15.0. Error messages related to XML processing may differ from previous versions.
- Mar 3, 2026
- Date parsed from source:Mar 3, 2026
- First seen by Releasebot:Mar 16, 2026
Version 5.14.0
PDF Web Viewer releases new shapes annotations with editable borders, colors, and sizes; adds dark-themed tooltips, FDF support, and a saveAsFdf option; shows a loading spinner and progress bar; allows setting inputDocument to skip upload. Redesigned thumbnails and upload screens, improved flow. UI and stability fixes across panels and mobile margins.
Added
- Viewer users can create rectangle and ellipse shape annotations. Users can customize the border color, fill color, and border width, and edit these annotations by moving, resizing, locking, or deleting them.
- Toolbar buttons display dark-themed tooltips on hover.
- PDF Viewer SDK supports FDF (Forms Data Format). Save or download documents as FDF by setting the
saveAsFdf
option to
true
:
viewer.document.save({saveAsFdf:
true
}) ; - A loading spinner and progress bar provide visual feedback while the viewer uploads and opens documents.
- Viewer users can set the input document parameter when initializing the viewer to skip the document upload screen:
viewer.initialize({inputDocument: {uri:
'url_to_a_file'
} ,
...}) ;
viewer.initialize({inputDocument: {data: file} ,
...}) ;
Changed
- Redesigned the thumbnails panel. The active page displays with a blue highlight.
- Toolbar dropdown components (zoom, fit mode, page layout, and pagination) close automatically when users click outside or open another dropdown.
- The pagination component supports page number input, letting users navigate to a specific page directly.
- Updated icons throughout the viewer, including the file open icon and line ending icons in the annotation popover.
- Redesigned the document upload screen.
- Rewrote the document opening flow, removing code duplication and memory leaks.
Fixed
- Toolbar icons no longer shift position when navigating to pages with two or more digits.
- Dropdown panels (zoom, fit mode, layout, and annotation popovers) no longer overlap. Opening one panel closes any other open panel.
- Opening the search or thumbnails panel no longer deactivates the active plugin.
- The sticky notes popover closes immediately when activating stamp or redaction plugins, rather than waiting for the sidebar to open.
- Before this update, the app layout used a deprecated layout system. As a result, page margins were inconsistent on mobile and tablet devices. With this update, the app layout uses a consistent margin system across desktop, mobile, and tablet devices.
- Mar 2, 2026
- Date parsed from source:Mar 2, 2026
- First seen by Releasebot:Mar 16, 2026
Conversion Service by Pdftools
6.9.1
Conversion Service releases a Word-to-PDF fix that stops refreshing external links and uses cached content to avoid security prompts and timeouts.
Changed
- During Word-to-PDF conversion, Word opens documents without updating external links (UpdateLinksAtOpen = false). Previously, documents with external image or data references combined with <w:updateFields w:val=“true”/> triggered a security dialog that blocked COM automation, causing Word to stop responding and time out. The underlying issue was fixed, and as a result, documents with linked external content, such as images on network shares, use the cached version stored in the document rather than refreshing links during conversion.
- Feb 24, 2026
- Date parsed from source:Feb 24, 2026
- First seen by Releasebot:Mar 16, 2026
Conversion Service by Pdftools
6.9.0
Conversion Service releases a practical update: it adds S/MIME signed email conversion, introduces a Configurator progress spinner, reorganizes warnings by subcategories with input-type visibility, updates the license, and fixes HTML/whitespace issues that impacted PDFs and email headers.
Added
- Added support for converting S/MIME signed emails (.p7m). Before this change, signed emails failed to convert. As of this release, the Conversion Service unwraps the signature and converts the email content. Signature validity isn’t verified. Encrypted signed emails aren’t supported.
- Added a progress indicator (spinner) in the Configurator during service start, stop, and restart operations. The spinner replaces the service control buttons while an operation runs, providing visual feedback and preventing accidental duplicate operations.
Changed
- Warning events in the Conversion Service Configurator now use subcategories within their top-level categories, such as Document Integrity, External Resources, Visual Fidelity, and Removed Features under the General category. Each warning also displays which input file types it applies to (PDF, HTML/email, Image, and Office). This makes it easier to find and understand relevant warnings when configuring workflow profiles.
- Updated Conversion Service license agreement.
Fixed
- Fixed trailing
tags and whitespace-only nodes in email HTML bodies causing extra blank pages in PDF output. - Fixed attachment names overlapping in email headers by preserving valid XML whitespace characters (tabs, newlines) when sanitizing HTML.
- Jan 23, 2026
- Date parsed from source:Jan 23, 2026
- First seen by Releasebot:Mar 16, 2026
Version 5.13.0
PDF Web Viewer releases redaction features enabling text selection, rectangles, and page-range redactions with a dedicated Redact panel to lock or delete annotations, plus download of a redacted document. It debounces zoom events, refactors the API for fewer params, improves builds and bundles, and standardizes action icons.
Added
- Viewer users can create redaction annotations by selecting text, drawing rectangles on the document, or redacting the current page or a specified range of pages. A dedicated Redact panel displays all redaction annotations, allowing users to lock them to prevent accidental edits or delete them.
- Viewer users can download a redacted version of the document using Apply Redactions button in the Redact panel. Annotations are not included in the downloaded file.
Changed
- Zoom level change events are debounced, which enhances performance when users rapidly zoom in and out of documents.
- Refactored the PDF Viewer SDK API. As a result, the API has reduced the number of parameters and configuration options, delivering the same functionality with greater simplicity and usability.
- Improved and faster build process, valid source maps, and reliable ECMAScript Modules (ESM) and Universal Module Definition (UMD) bundles.
Fixed
- Replaced delete and lock icons across all context menus with consistently sized icons, making actions easier to identify.
- Jan 21, 2026
- Date parsed from source:Jan 21, 2026
- First seen by Releasebot:Mar 16, 2026
Conversion Service by Pdftools
6.8.0
Conversion Service releases OTLP support for exporting traces, logs, and metrics to observability backends like Grafana, Datadog, Seq, and Jaeger, plus an offline activation wizard and a license expiration display in the Configurator. It improves metadata handling, license validation, removes a startup popup and .NET 4.7 requirement, and fixes memory leaks and PDF form resizing issues.
Added
- Added OpenTelemetry (OTLP) support for exporting traces, logs, and metrics to observability backends such as Grafana, Datadog, Seq, and Jaeger. For more information, review OpenTelemetry (OTLP) documentation.
- Added an offline activation wizard in the Conversion Service Configurator for managing license keys in full offline mode. For more details, review Full offline mode activation section.
- Added license expiration date display in the Configurator.
Changed
- Custom XMP metadata handling preserves existing document metadata (Author, Title, Subject, Keywords) when setting individual XMP fields, such as xmp:CreatorTool.
- License state validation now detects licenses that have been removed from the online Licensing Gateway Service (LGS). As a result, licenses that were previously hard to remove are now properly cleared from the Conversion Service Configurator.
- Removed License not added pop-up on Configurator startup.
- Removed .NET Framework 4.7 requirement from the installer.
Fixed
- Fixed Configurator memory leak caused by event handlers.
- Fixed license validation incorrectly marking licenses as invalid when using a remote LGS.
- Fixed Archive workflows failing with ArgumentException when resizing PDF forms containing AcroForm fields.
- Dec 18, 2025
- Date parsed from source:Dec 18, 2025
- First seen by Releasebot:Mar 16, 2026
Version 5.12.1
PDF Web Viewer releases a major update with rich text and image annotations, inline editing and drag-to-move, plus redaction text markup support. It adds a plugin API for custom extensions, accessibility highlights, and keyboard-driven text selection. UI components gain full keyboard and screen reader support.
Added
- Users can add text annotations (free-text notes) to PDFs, supporting rich text formatting with options for font family, font size, text color, alignment, and styles such as bold, italic, and underline. Text annotations can be edited inline, moved by dragging, or deleted.
- Users can now add image annotations to PDFs by selecting and placing an image on the document. Existing image annotations can be moved, resized, deleted, or locked.
- With this release, the PDF Web Viewer enables developers to create custom plugins using a dedicated plugin API. Developers can register, activate, and deactivate plugins, create layers for drawing on the document view, and add buttons to control plugin state.
- The PDF Web SDK exposes accessibility events and keyboard interactions through the TextSelectionPlugin. The cursorPositionChanged event enables tracking of cursor position changes. The keyDown event exposes keyboard interactions. In text selection mode, users can click on text to display a cursor. They can move the text using the arrow keys. Users can select text with Shift + Arrow, navigate word by word with Ctrl or Cmd + Arrow, and select word by word with Shift + Ctrl or Cmd + Arrow.
- Added support for redaction annotations as a TextMarkupType in the PDF Web SDK. As a result, developers can implement redaction annotation creation in their applications.
Changed
The textSelectionChanged event now provides additional geometry data. This includes selection quadrilaterals with page numbers, start and end page numbers, and the selected text content. The following method was changed:
The following methods changed:
textSelectionChanged()
From:
textSelectionChanged: (selectedText: string) => void
To:
textSelectionChanged: (textSelectionData: TextSelection) => voidThe PDF Web Viewer enhanced web components for improved accessibility, introducing updated button, menu, dropdown, and toolbar components. All components are now fully keyboard accessible and screen reader compatible.
The following methods changed:
hideComponents()
From:
hideComponents: (components: HideableComponentConfigName[]) => void
To:
hideComponents: (paths: string[] | string[][]) => void
showComponents()
From:
showComponents: (components: HideableComponentConfigName[]) => void
To:
showComponents: (paths: string[] | string[][]) => void
overrideButtonBehavior()
From:
overrideButtonBehavior: (buttonName: string, eventName: string, callback: () => void ) => void
To:
overrideButtonBehavior: (path: string | string[], eventName: OverridableButtonEventType, callback: () => void) => void;
- Dec 17, 2025
- Date parsed from source:Dec 17, 2025
- First seen by Releasebot:Mar 16, 2026
Version 1.11.1
Toolbox Add-On now supports using a proxy for license validation, with details in the licensing documentation.
Fixed
- Toolbox add-on now supports using a proxy for license validation. For more information, review Configure proxy in the Toolbox add-on licensing documentation.
- Dec 17, 2025
- Date parsed from source:Dec 17, 2025
- First seen by Releasebot:Mar 16, 2026
Conversion Service by Pdftools
6.7.0
Conversion Service releases new features and UI improvements: XML extraction from OCR results via the Extraction workflow, Docker mail connectors with Connections.xml import and mail secrets, per-item processing of email bodies/attachments, license-based access control, quick file removal in the client, improved workflow UI, a splash screen, and Docker image size reductions. Office conversion defaults off; stronger OCR error logging.
Added
- As of this release, you can extract XML data from documents processed by the Pdftools OCR Service using the Extraction workflow. This workflow uses the Result Mode option in the Configurator OCR Settings to output the structured XML from OCR results.
- Added mail connectors in Docker deployments.
- You can now import Connections.xml and configure mail secrets in Docker.
- Mail connectors can now process email body and attachments separately.
- Added license-based access control for the Conversion Service Configurator. Most of the tabs are now hidden when no valid license key is set and are displayed when you activate a valid license key.
- Added quick file removal options in the Conversion Service Client user interface, including a right-click context menu with Remove selected and a trash icon when you hold the pointer over items in the input list for deletion.
- Improved the Processing Steps user interface in workflows. Optional processing steps now display clickable links that scroll to the relevant configuration section with checkmarks or warning icons indicating whether settings are complete.
- Added a splash screen for the Conversion Service Configurator.
Changed
- Conversion Service Docker image size reduced by ~4% (1.87 GB to 1.8 GB).
- Configuration Updater Docker image size reduced by ~45% (238.75 MB to 131.75 MB).
- Office conversion is disabled by default. You can configure an Office user from the pre-processing step in workflow setup or in the Conversion Service tab. Once configured, a prompt asks whether to enable Office conversion for all workflow profiles or leave it disabled for manual configuration per profile.
Fixed
- Improved OCR error logging with more descriptive messages when OCR Service errors occur.
- Updated vulnerable packages for improved security.
- Optimized the Conversion Service Configurator graphical interface performance.
- Nov 26, 2025
- Date parsed from source:Nov 26, 2025
- First seen by Releasebot:Mar 16, 2026
Conversion Service by Pdftools
6.6.1
Conversion Service releases a new optimization profile option Keep Metadata to preserve custom PDF metadata during conversion.
Added
- Added profile option Keep Metadata in optimization profile configuration that preserves custom metadata in output PDFs. Previously, certain optimization profiles could remove custom metadata during the conversion process.
- Oct 29, 2025
- Date parsed from source:Oct 29, 2025
- First seen by Releasebot:Mar 16, 2026
Version 1.14.0
PDF Tools SDK releases enhanced logging configuration and log level controls, switches to zlib-ng for faster compression, and fixes include conformance retrieval, Windows certificate loading for IIS, and widget annotation appearance checks.
Added
- Enhanced logging configuration environment variables:
- PDFT_LOG_OUTPUT for output control, replacing PDF_TRACE_OUTPUT. The PDF_TRACE_OUTPUT also remains supported for backward compatibility.
- PDFT_LOG for log level filters. The comma-separated format: *:error,libbase:info , where * sets the default level.
Changed
- Switched from the zlib to zlib-ng library, significantly improving performance when compressing and decompressing Flate streams by using SIMD instructions.
Fixed
- Corrected conformance retrieval logic in the GetConformance method to properly handle invalid ConversionOptions values.
- Certificate loading on Windows now includes Local Machine store in addition to Current User store, resolving certificate access issues for Internet Information Services (IIS) applications running under service accounts.
- Widget annotation appearance generation now correctly checks for rich text value (RV) entry instead of rich text style (DS) entry when determining whether to create appearance streams.