Conversion Service Updates & Release Notes

Added

• With this release, you can install and run the Conversion Service as native Linux services, without Docker. The packages install systemd units for the Conversion Service, Connector Service, and Web Configurator, and are available for Debian and Ubuntu (.deb) and for RHEL and Rocky Linux (.rpm). They bundle the Xvfb virtual display and the fonts required for HTML and email rendering. For more details, review Conversion Service on Linux.
• With this release, the Conversion Service exposes a built-in Model Context Protocol (MCP) endpoint that lets AI agents convert documents, combine PDFs into dossiers, and read service status, workflows, and statistics through the same engine as the Advanced API. For more details, review MCP server.
• Added an in-app Conversion Service client (Playground) to the Web Configurator. You can upload a file, choose a workflow and profile, run the conversion, and download the result directly in the browser, without configuring a connector first. Available on Linux and Docker. For more details, review Playground.
• Added support for the Extract XML from PDF and Convert to XML workflows in the Web Configurator. Previously, these workflows shipped with the service, but you could configure them only in the Windows-based Configurator. For more details, review the Convert to XML workflow documentation.
• Added connectors that integrate the Conversion Service with AI Smart Redact for AI-based detection and redaction of personally identifiable information (PII). The Schedule Smart Redact output connector submits processed PDFs to the Smart Redact Orchestrator, and the Poll Smart Redact input connector retrieves the redacted PDFs once they’re ready and forwards them to a workflow. The connectors track in-flight jobs in a local database inside the Connector Service.
• Added a Preserve Input Filename toggle to the Folder.Output connector. When you enable this toggle, the connector renames each result file to match the watched-folder input file. This renaming preserves the original file identity, for example, when you convert a single-file archive (ZIP). For more details, review Output folder.
• The Conversion Service now registers a built-in trial license automatically when you don’t supply a license key. As a result, you can start and evaluate the Conversion Service without providing a license key first. To use your own license, set the LICENSEKEY or LICENSEKEY_FILE environment variable as before, or configure them in the Conversion Service Configurator. For more details, review Trial license.

Changed

• New installations report license validation and consumption directly to the Pdftools Licensing Service rather than the License Gateway Service (LGS). The transport is controlled by the license.useLgs setting in appsettings.json, introduced in this release (container override LICENSE__USELGS). New installations default to false (direct), so no LGS container is required. Existing installations are migrated to true, which preserves their current LGS behavior.
• Improved the Web Configurator user experience with a range of fixes. Connection names are now validated both when adding a connection and when saving changes, path pickers apply their changes immediately and clear stale validation errors, and the Save button shows a clear indication when changes are blocked by validation. The Gmail connectors now provide clearer guidance, including Docker Compose hints on the App-Password connectors and a Windows-only callout with immediate validation on the OAuth2 connector. Stamp configuration validation is stricter (unit required, with mutual exclusion between left/right and top/bottom offsets), and the trust-store file upload re-validates when you clear or replace a file.
• Updated font substitution behavior, including PDF/A conversion. With this release, the underlying PDF engine applies improved font substitution. Document layout remains consistent, but when a required font is not embedded or otherwise available, the visual appearance of the substituted font may differ from that of earlier versions. To guarantee an exact visual match, install the specific original fonts in the environment where the Conversion Service runs. The service no longer ships the ZapfDingbats font and falls back to the URW++ D050000L.ttf font instead. As a consequence, documents that rely on ZapfDingbats may show minor visual differences. To preserve the original appearance, install ZapfDingbats in the environment where the Conversion Service runs.

Fixed

• Before this update, emails whose headers contained embedded carriage-return or line-feed characters (for example, .eml files produced by Microsoft Power Automate) used invalid header continuation lines. As a consequence, the converted PDF had an empty Subject, To, and Cc, and the page showed the raw email and its base64-encoded attachments as visible text. With this update, the service collapses embedded CR/LF runs in header values to a single space before serialization. As a result, these emails convert correctly, and the service extracts their attachments as expected.
• Before this update, Archive PDF/A workflows failed when combining a destructured PDF whose parent had to be rasterized during PDF/A conversion, because the service could no longer match the embedded child files to their destructure markers. As a consequence, affected jobs failed. With this update, the Pdf.Combine step reports a Child Removed warning and continues. As a result, these jobs complete instead of failing.
• Before this update, the Connector Service and Web Configurator containers could fail to access their mounted volumes in Docker because of file ownership and permission mismatches. With this update, the containers set up the required volume permissions at startup. As a result, the Connector Service and Web Configurator start and operate correctly against their mounted volumes.
• With this release, the Conversion Service logs errors returned by the Pdftools OCR Service with the OCR job ID and ties them to the originating Conversion Service job and input file. As a result, you can correlate an OCR failure back to the specific job and document that triggered it. For more details, review Service log.

VERSIONS EARLIER THAN 6.12.0 ARE NO LONGER AVAILABLE

Pdftools removed Conversion Service versions earlier than 6.12.0 from the customer portal. Versions 6.12.0 and later remain available.

Added

• Standard Converter for Office documents With this release, the Conversion Service converts Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files to PDF without requiring a Microsoft Office installation, Microsoft 365 subscription, or Office license feature. The Standard Converter is enabled by default and works on both Windows and Docker deployments. For highest visual fidelity, configure a local Microsoft Office installation or the Office for the web service.
  • The Standard Converter supports the following profile options:
    • Track Changes (Word): Renders revision marks (insertions, deletions, formatting changes) in the converted PDF.
    • Allow Scaling (Excel): Scales worksheet columns to fit on one page.
• Added a Force line break option to preserve Rich Text Format (RTF) line breaks in email text. Generic RTF control-word stripping prevents leftover control characters in the output.
• Added an Include external stylesheets option, separate from Include external images, so you can skip external CSS independently.
• Added missing features to the Configurator Web, reducing the gap with the Windows-based Configurator. Additions include:
  • Signing, Stamping, Annotations, and OCR configuration in profiles.
  • Connector configuration in the Integrations tab for all connector types, including the ability to create connectors and edit existing ones.
• Added a Flatten Form Fields toggle in the Compression and Optimization section of the Configurator profile settings. Turn it on to flatten AcroForm fields into static graphics so that filled-in form values render consistently across PDF viewers. The toggle works in the PDF/A-1, PDF/A-2, and PDF/A-3 workflows. The runtime job option is FLATTEN.FORM.FIELDS. For details, see Compression and optimization settings.

Fixed

• Before this update, PPTX files with restricted embedded fonts caused conversion to hang. As a consequence, jobs stalled and didn’t return a result. With this update, the service strips restricted embedded fonts before conversion. As a result, these PPTX files convert without hanging.
• Before this update, the Pdf.Resize step failed with an ArgumentException on PDFs that contain AcroForm fields, which caused affected jobs to fail. With this update, the resize step catches the exception across the full resize block and skips the resize gracefully when the document is incompatible. As a result, jobs that include AcroForm PDFs complete without failing.
• Before this update, deployments that ran both the Connector Service and the Configurator Web Docker containers failed to start when host permissions on the shared connector volume (which holds Connections.xml) didn’t match the container user. As a consequence, operators had to adjust the volume permissions manually before the containers could read or write Connections.xml. With this update, the container entry points adjust the permissions at startup. As a result, the Connector Service and Configurator Web start reliably across host configurations.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Added

• As of this release, your page credits consumption under the License tab in the Conversion Service Configurator.
• Added Gmail connectors for integration with Gmail accounts. The new connectors include:
  • Watched Mailbox (Gmail): Input connectors that convert emails from Gmail mailboxes.
  • Output Mailbox (Gmail): Output connectors that copy processed files to Gmail mailboxes.
  • Send Email (Gmail): Email sending connectors that send notifications and results through Gmail SMTP server.
    Each Gmail connector type supports two authentication methods:
  • App Passwords: Authenticate using Gmail App Passwords, which requires 2-step verification.
  • OAuth 2.0: Authenticate using your organization’s OAuth credentials from Google Cloud Console. Provides organization-level control over email access, independent credential management, and dedicated rate limits that are separate from those of other users.
    All of these connectors include IMAP/SMTP settings optimized for Gmail. For more information, review Gmail connectors documentation.
• You can now extract property values generated through the workflow components and use them where available with the placeholder syntax.
• The Dossier workflow now lets you configure PDF annotations that can be positioned on PDF dossier pages and table of contents pages.

Fixed

• Fixed an issue with widget annotation text not present in the output after PDF/A conversion.
• The MSG files attached to emails have properly rendered characters.
• The license agreement has been updated to the new terms and conditions.

Added

• Added a new Output File Settings section in the Dossier workflow configuration, introducing configurable attributes for invalid filename characters and maximum filename length.
• As of this release, you can now convert JPEG File Interchange Format (JFIF) images to PDF. The JFIF conversion to PDF is included in the following workflow profiles:
  • Conversion
  • Archive PDF/A-2
  • Archive PDF/A-3
  • Archive PDF/A-1
  • Archive TIFF
• As of this release, you can linearize PDF documents during the conversion process. This will create a PDF document that is optimized for fast web viewing. Linearization is available in the following workflow profiles:
  • Conversion
  • Archive PDF/A-2
  • Archive PDF/A-3
  • Archive PDF/A-1

Fixed

• Fixed an issue with a multi-level table of contents creation in the Dossier workflow that failed under certain conditions. For more information, review Dossier documentation.

Added

• As of this release, you can use the Pdftools OCR Service with the Conversion Service. This OCR configuration is compatible with the legacy 3-Heights® OCR Service and doesn’t require any additional configuration for users who have already integrated the legacy OCR. Review Pdftools OCR Service documentation for setup and configuration details.
• You can now choose to hide the default header that is added when converting emails to PDF.

Changed

• The Header time format subsection was renamed to Header in the Email Settings configuration section.
• In the workflow and profile configuration, the 3-Heights® OCR Service engine was renamed to Pdftools OCR Service (3H Legacy Compatible).

Fixed

• Improved support request. Added additional data for better insight in the Configurator.

Added

• You can now add annotations to PDF documents. Annotation can be moved, resized, or removed in a viewer where a user can edit the PDF. Review Stamp and annotation documentation for configuration details and more information.
• With this update, you can set up a fallback time-stamp authority (TSA) in the Conversion Service Configurator. As a result, you can add a backup TSA URL that the Conversion Service will use if the primary TSA isn’t available.

Changed

• The following changes were made in the Conversion Service Configurator:
  • The Document Optimization processing step (included in all PDF/A workflows) was renamed to Compression and Optimization.
  • The Stamping processing step was renamed to Stamp and Annotation.
  • The Warnings configuration section was renamed to Events configuration section.

Fixed

• Fixed an issue where the Event Date in MSG files was not serialized correctly.
• Resolved an error that occurred when converting EML files in Collect Mode was set to Separate for Job in the Conversion workflow.