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Version: Version 1.9

Release notes

Learn about the latest updates of:

Pdftools SDK​

Version 1.9.1​

14 April 2025

Added​

  • With this release, we are launching a new Python Jupyter notebooks repository demonstrating the core functionality of the Pdftools SDK, including step-by-step examples for key features and use cases.

Fixed​

  • Previously, rendering PDFs with the wrong alternate colorspaces could cause the Pdftools SDK to crash. With this update, the rendering engine now falls back to CMYK rendering if the alternate color transform cannot be created, preventing the crash.
  • Prior to this update, a crash occurred when IIS processes terminated, causing the Pdftools SDK DLL to unload without properly releasing its resources. With this release, the issue has been resolved, allowing the DLL to safely unload even when shutdown hooks fail to execute as expected.
  • Previously, document timestamps (ETSI.RFC3161) were not recognized if the PDF lacked an explicit declaration of the correct signature type. This update ensures that timestamps are correctly validated as long as the signature itself is valid and the signed content remains intact.

Version 1.9​

14 March 2025

Added​

  • Improved support for HEIC files.

Fixed​

  • Previously, under certain circumstances, a regression caused the decryption of encrypted PDFs to fail. The issue is fixed with this release.
  • Fixed a bug that caused crashes when handling JPEG images in the Pdftools SDK on 32-bit Windows system.
  • Improved handling of a specific faulty PostScript string syntax to ensure correct parsing of ToUnicode maps.

Version 1.8​

20 January 2025

Added​

  • Pdftools SDK now natively supports Microsoft Windows ARM64 processor architecture.
  • During PDF/A conversion, you can now add embed associated files using the AddAssociatedFile method.
  • Test whether any update leading to a specific revision does not contain a digital signature using the new HasNonSigningUpdates property.
  • Suppress rendering of text when converting a PDF to an image using the new RenderText property.
  • With this update, you can force an image to fill the page (respecting the image's aspect ratio) using the ForceFit property.
  • With this update, the Pdftools SDK introduces a new Pythonic, object-oriented interface with structured classes, native Python types for data handling, and enhanced error management through exceptions. For more details on how to try the new Pythonic interface, review the Python getting started guide.

Fixed​

  • Missing firstChar or lastChar entries in damaged font dictionaries are restored when enough information is available.
  • Fixed issue for PDFs with signed signature fields without any appearance.
  • There was an issue when the SDK tried to get resources by HTTPS in the visual appearance of JSON or XML configuration files. The issue was fixed with this update.

Version 1.7​

28 June 2024

Added​

  • The Pdftools SDK now lets you adjust the image quality using the ImageQuality property when converting a PDF file to PDF/A. This setting is used when images must be recompressed during the conversion process.
  • You can now use pip package manager to install the Pdftools SDK. Use pip install https://pdftools-public-downloads-production.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/productkits/PDFSDK/latest/pdftools_sdk-latest.tar.gz to install the Python version of the Pdftools SDK from our servers.

Fixed​

  • Corrected an issue where Unicode characters were sometimes converted incorrectly when using the Python version of the Pdftools SDK.
  • Fixed a bug where some ZUGFeRD v3 invoice XML files were not correctly recognized by the AddInvoiceXml method when creating a ZUGFeRD invoice.

Version 1.6​

31 May 2024

Added​

Fixed​

  • Previously, a default value was always used for the PDF Producer value. With this update, the issue was fixed, and the PDF Producer value is now set correctly using the producerSuffix parameter of the Initialize(licenseKey, producerSuffix) method.
  • The validation of a digital signature's Appearance has been improved, to prevent inconsistent boundary values.

Version 1.5​

17 April 2024

Added​

  • You can now apply Mixed Raster Content (MRC) optimization to a PDF document using the Optimize feature of the PDftools SDK. MRC optimization is intended for compressing scanned PDF files that contain large amounts of text.
  • It is now possible to set the values for ThresholdDPI and ReduceColorComplexity when optimizing PDF files. This addition gives you more control over how images in the document are resampled and compressed.

Changed​

  • The OptimizeDocument method of the PDF optimizer will now attempt to apply lossless compression for images with bitonal (Group4 or JBIG2 compression) and indexed (Flate or LZW compression) color spaces.

Version 1.4​

5 March 2024

Added​

  • Before this update, only the common name (CN) of a signing certificate could be retrieved. With this update, you can get the full distinguished name (DN) of a signing certificate. The DN format is RFC 4514. The DN includes the legal name, country, and other information about the person or authority who owns the certificate.
  • Before this update, you could only read and write to file streams with the C API. As of this update, you can also use memory streams with the C API.

Version 1.3​

13 October 2023

Added​

  • DocumentAssembler class. This class allows you to combine multiple input PDF documents into one output document, or split one input PDF document into multiple output documents.
  • You can now include a customizable signature appearance when Signing a PDF document. A signature's appearance may be any combination of text, images, and other PDF documents.
  • Linux: Added new distribution for older Linux systems (glibc 2.12+).

Changed​

  • Before version 1.3.3 you needed to use an evaluation license key to try the Pdftools SDK. With version 1.3.3, you can use the Pdftools SDK without a license key with watermarked output files. As a result, you can try the Pdftools SDK without any license key. To remove the watermark from the output files, contact the Pdftools sales team through the Contact page to get a full license.

Version 1.2​

25 August 2023

  • Added the MetadataSettings class. This class allows you to set Metadata in the output PDF document, by providing them in the producer method's OutputOptions.

Changed​

  • Linux: The minimum required glibc version was upgraded from 2.27 to 2.34.

Version 1.1​

31 May 2023

Added​

  • Signature validation for the digital signing functionality. This allows you to extract signing certificate information and trust chain information, and perform validation of time-stamps, handle expired certificates, use custom trust stores, and check for the latest document revision.

Changed​

  • Updated C API ZIP archive layout: The C API ZIP archive directory layout has been updated (see Getting-started).
  • Updated Java API ZIP archive layout: The Java API ZIP archive directory layout has been updated (see Getting-started).

Toolbox add-on​

Version 1.6.1​

14 April 2025

Added​

  • With this release, we are launching a new Python Jupyter notebooks repository demonstrating the core functionality of the Toolbox add-on, including step-by-step examples for key features and use cases.

Fixed​

  • Previously, a crash occurred when IIS processes terminated, causing the Toolbox add-on DLL to unload without properly releasing its resources. This issue has been resolved, allowing the DLL to safely unload even when shutdown hooks fail to execute as expected.
  • Previously, PDFs utilizing Type 3 fonts appeared visually distorted after copying elements using ContentElement.Copy. This bug has been resolved, and the copied elements are now rendered correctly.

Version 1.6​

14 March 2025

Added​

  • Improved support for HEIC files.

Fixed​

  • Prior to this release, the image conversion functionality was not working in Python. As of this update, the underlying issue is fixed by using aliases for imports when needed. Aliases are also added to some built-in methods from providers to fix inconsistencies.
  • Previously, radio buttons were improperly copied to the output documents.
  • Previously, under certain circumstances, a regression caused the decryption of encrypted PDFs to fail. The issue is fixed with this release.
  • Fixed a bug that caused crashes when handling JPEG images in the Toolbox add-on on 32-bit Windows system.
  • Improved handling of a specific faulty PostScript string syntax to ensure correct parsing of ToUnicode maps.
  • The Python version of the content addition sample Add data matrix to PDF now correctly places the matrix on the page.
  • The Python code sample Extract all text from PDF now correctly reports page numbers when displaying extracted text to the console.

Version 1.5​

24 January 2025

Added​

  • The Toolbox add-on now natively supports Microsoft Windows ARM64 processor architecture.
  • You can now copy a page without copying its graphical content using the new DoNotCopyContent option. This is helpful for content removal workflows that have to fully preserve a page's metadata, annotations, and widgets.

Fixed​

  • A bug where the soft mask of an image was lost during copying has been fixed.
  • This update fixes an issue where the Toolbox add-on incorrectly handled x-advance information of the text painting operator, leading to wrongly placed glyphs.

Version 1.4​

28 November 2024

Added​

  • You can now set the Hidden flag for Widget classes. When this flag is set, the Widget is invisible and unavailable to user interaction.

  • You can now get and set the Locked flag for Widget class. When a Widget class is Locked its properties can't be changed.

  • As of this update, you can also get and set the FontSize for the CombTextField and the ListBox classes.

Version 1.3​

9 October 2024

Added​

  • The Pdf.Structure namespace has been added to the Toolbox add-on. You can use the classes and methods in this namespace to add structure information ("tags") to the generated PDF content for use cases such as PDF accessibility. With this update, you can Tag content created using the ContentGenerator and link the content to the document's Structure Tree. You can also create custom tags by adding them to the document's RoleMap.

  • As of this update, you can determine whether a font is embedded in a PDF by checking the IsEmbedded property of the Font object.

  • You can now redact a rectangular area of an image using the Redact method of the Image class. This changes the content of the image so that all pixels within the defined rectangle are set to the same color.

Fixed​

  • With this update, you can set the URI for the LicensingService using the Sdk class of the Toolbox add-on. Before this fix, the default value for the LicensingService was always used.

  • Before this update, the Toolbox add-on sometimes could terminate unexpectedly when:

    The underlying issues were fixed. As a result, the Toolbox add-on no longer crashes in the described scenarios.

Version 1.2​

22 July 2024

Added​

  • Image sampling accesses and handles the raw pixel data of an image in a sequential order without altering the resolution. This involves reading or setting the pixel values directly, often in the context of image processing or manipulation at the most detailed level. You can now get and set image samples using the Toolbox add-on. Review the Image.Samples property in the API documentation for more information.

  • As of this update, you can set the URL for the Licensing Service using the Sdk Class of the Toolbox add-on. This URL is used for trial licenses and page-based licenses.

Version 1.1​

28 June 2024

Added​

  • It is now possible to retrieve information about a content element's Optional Content Membership using the Toolbox add-on for the Pdftools SDK. Optional Content Membership is defined by Optional Content Groups (also called layers) whose state determines whether a content element is visible or invisible.

  • You can now retrieve the Rotation (None, Clockwise, UpsideDown, or CounterClockwise) of a page using the Toolbox add-on for the Pdftools SDK.

Version 1.0​

24 April 2024

Added​

  • Integrated the Toolbox add-on into the Pdftools SDK. Now all the functionality from the PDF Toolbox SDK is included with your Pdftools SDK license.

Pdftools SDK Shell Tool​

Version 1.5​

28 June 2024

Added​

  • You can now pass an optional -q <qual> parameter to the convert command in the Pdftools SDK Shell Tool, to set the image quality using the ImageQuality property when converting a PDF file to PDF/A. This setting is used when images must be recompressed during the PDF/A conversion process.

Version 1.4​

10 June 2024

Added​

  • Support for converting a PDF document and an XML file to a PDF/A invoice in ZUGFeRD or Factur-X format. You can now pass an optional -xml <file> parameter to the convert command of the Pdftools SDK Shell Tool to embed the specified XML file and create the invoice.
  • You can now rotate a page when copying it from one PDF to another. Pass the optional -rot <value> parameter to the merge command to rotate a set of pages by the specified value (90, 180, or 270 degrees) before adding them to the output file.
  • Support for digital signature functionality using the Pdftools SDK Shell Tool. You can now sign, certify, and timestamp PDF files. You can also add and list signature fields, and check the validity of the digital signatures in a PDF document.

Version 1.3​

25 April 2024

Added​

  • Support for mixed raster content (MRC) optimization. You can now use the mixed raster content optimization profile by using the optimize-mrc command with the Pdftools SDK Shell Tool.
  • You can now enable or disable the reduce color complexity by using the -drc option when performing PDF optimization.

Version 1.2​

12 April 2024

Added​

  • Support PDF to PDF/A file conversion. All supported PDF and PDF/A versions are listed in Supported PDF versions.
  • Support PDF file validation of conformance with PDF or PDF/A standards listed in Supported PDF versions.
  • Before version 1.2 the Pdftools SDK Shell Tool was only available as a framework-dependent .NET application. Now you can also download the Pdftools SDK Shell Tool as a self-contained application for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Version 1.1​

19 January 2024

Added​

  • Support for merging and splitting PDF files to assemble new output documents.
  • Support for rendering a PDF files to an image suitable for fax, archiving, or viewing.

Version 1.0​

22 September 2023

Added​

  • Support for converting images to PDF or PDF/A files
  • Support compression and optimization of PDF files for web, archive, or print, and the compression to minimize the file size.