Year 2021 Docotic.Pdf notices

Updated on December 31, 2021

This page contains all Docotic.Pdf release notices for year 2021.

Visit the Docotic.Pdf page for more information and download links. The full Version History for 2021 releases is also available.

We would appreciate if you let us know about your experience with the library. Your questions and feature suggestions are also welcome. Write us an e-mail or contact us via the support form. We love to hear from our users.

Much improved metadata API in Docotic.Pdf 8.4

December 29, 2021

We released Docotic.Pdf 8.4 and its add-ons on our site and NuGet.

Most of the changes in this version are related to XMP Metadata and Document Info. We significantly changed the API in response to our customers' requests. Please find references to all the new methods and properties in the Version History document.

In version 8.4, we added the ability to compare XMP metadata in different documents. And now it is possible to synchronize XMP Metadata and Document Info explicitly. The implicit synchronization at the save time is still possible, but it is now an obsolete feature, and we'll remove it in the next version.

Using the latest version, you can change the creation and modified dates of PDF documents. And there is a new method for unembedding XMP metadata.

The new version brings a very important change to the save options. The PdfDocument.SaveOptions property is marked obsolete, and we no longer recommend using it. Instead, please create an instance of PdfSaveOptions, set the object up as needed, and use it with one of the new PdfDocument.Save and PdfDocument.SignAndSave overloads.

The new version also fixes some bugs reported by our customers and prospects. For example, there are fixes for document encryption, images processing, and text extraction.

Docotic.Pdf 8.3 consumes less memory and works faster

October 20, 2021

Docotic.Pdf 8.3 and its add-ons are now available on our site and NuGet.

This release fixes some significant issues, so we recommend everyone to update. The new version of the library consumes much less memory when drawing documents, extracting text from them, or otherwise processing PDFs.

We reviewed the log messages which the library emits. As the result, version 8.3 produces messages that are more clear and meaningful.

In the free HTML to PDF add-on, we added the ability to convert HTML to PDF pages with a transparent background. This ability is handy if you overlay produced pages on top of some other content. The links to the new property and sample code are in the Version History document.

Convert PDF to CMYK images. Or HTML to PDF in Azure.

October 6, 2021

We have released Docotic.Pdf 8.2 and its add-ons on our site and NuGet.

In this version, we added the ability to save PDF pages as CMYK JPEG and CMYK TIFF images. And the ability to specify JPEG compression quality for both RGB and CMYK flavors. Please check the Version History document linked above for the links to the new methods.

We also added some new abilities to the free HTML to PDF add-on. You can use pre-installed Chromium or download Chromium to the custom location, or disable Chromium Sandbox. All these abilities are for converting HTML to PDF in Azure Functions and Azure App Services.

In response to one of our customer's requests, we implemented methods to remove paths and images from PDF pages. And we added sample codes for these methods.

To provide a better API, we had to make some breaking changes. We changed the return type for PdfPageObject.Layer, PdfXObject.Layer, and PdfWidget.Layer properties. The PdfSaveOptions.Version property and the PdfFont.Unembed method now work a bit differently. See the updated documentation for all these methods and properties for more information.

As always, we fixed quite some bugs. The fixes relate to the parsing of fonts, extraction of images, text extraction, memory consumption, and many other areas.

Convert HTML to PDF using Docotic.Pdf and the new add-on

July 9, 2021

Docotic.Pdf 8.1 is ready to use. You can download it and its add-ons on our site and NuGet.

The main news is the introduction of free BitMiracle.Docotic.Pdf.HtmlToPdf add-on HTML to PDF conversion. The add-on is available on NuGet and in the zip, we distribute from our site.

The add-on can produce PDF documents from the most complex HTML documents with scripts and styles because it uses Chromium under the hood. The web standards compliance is great (please try for yourself). To showcase the capabilities of the new add-on, we prepared an article and a new group of sample codes.

In version 8.1, we introduce the ability to access low-level PDF page dictionaries. We have added a new hierarchy of types for COS objects. With this ability, you can implement support for custom keys and values in page dictionaries.

Docotic.Pdf 8.1 adds support for 3D and Rich Media annotations. Now the library can create, read, and modify these types of annotations.

The new version draws pages, extract page objects, and resizes images faster than before. We fixed bugs related to the parsing of huge PDFs larger than 2 GB.

Docotic.Pdf no longer depends on System.Drawing

March 15, 2021

Docotic.Pdf 8.0 is available on our site and NuGet.

This is the first version that does not depend on System.Drawing APIs. This change will ease the use of the library in ASP.NET and ASP.NET Core. Removing this dependency also provides significant improvements for everyone who uses the library in Linux and macOS environments. AWS Lambda functions also benefit from the change.

It is still possible for our customers to use the library to draw a PDF document on a System.Drawing.Graphics surface, for example. Alongside this release, we introduce free BitMiracle.Docotic.Pdf.Gdi add-on for anyone who really needs to inter-operate with System.Drawing APIs. The add-on is available on NuGet and in the zip we distribute from our site.

Docotic.Pdf 8.0 brings support for OpenType CFF fonts. This is something our customers asked us about. There are other changes made in response to customer requests.

Encryption API changes in Docotic.Pdf 7.5

February 5, 2021

We have released Docotic.Pdf 7.5 on our site and NuGet.

We made a lot of changes and improvements to the library's encryption API in this release. And there is one more very important change: the library can now extract right-to-left and bidirectional text in the correct order.

Starting from version 7.5, the library can inspect and decrypt certificate-protected documents. And it is now possible to encrypt any PDF document with one or more certificates.

The new features required us to make a lot of changes to the existing encryption API. We added new classes for different types of encryption and decryption handlers. There is also a new clarified way to check if a PDF document is encrypted. To ease migration from the older API, we added 2021 Encryption API Migration Guide.

We changed text extraction methods in PdfDocument, PdfPage, and PdfCanvas to extract right-to-left and bidirectional text according to the logical order. From now on, these methods also normalize Hebrew and Arabic codepoints from Alphabetic and Arabic Presentation Forms. The text extraction methods now better process column-based and tabular layouts.

In the new version, there are some not so big new features. We added some new sample codes and updated some existing ones. And we fixed quite some bugs.

A lot of properties and methods were marked obsolete in the new version. In all cases, there is a new way to achieve the same.

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