PDF24 Creator Changelog

This is the official changelog of PDF24 Creator. Here you can find all release notes and the descriptions of all changes to the software.

Feature
Improvement
Bugfix

Version 11.17.0

06.03.2024

Toolbox: Place watermark in the background

The watermark tool has received a new option that allows you to place a watermark in the background. This is better for some documents than putting the watermark over the content. If the watermark is placed under the content, it may happen that the watermark is not visible because it is hidden by the content. Therefore, a watermark overlaying the content is the preferred option.

Toolbox: Improved command line option functionality

The `-processJob` command line option, which allows you to control the Toolbox functions on the command line, deleted all output files after the Toolbox process ended. This meant that the results could no longer be accessed. This has been improved. Output files are now excluded from automatic file deletion when the process exits.

Toolbox: Webview2 updated to version 122.0.2365.66

Updater: Added link to release notes

A link to the release notes has been added to the message that an update is available. This allows the user to better decide whether an update is relevant or not.

Updater: Another option for finding updates

With this new option we can define that a specific update should not be delivered for a specific version, e.g. because a version is already quite current and an automatic update to the latest version is not necessary. However, a manual update check will find the current version.

Allgemein: Language files updated

The English and German language files are complete. There are still some texts in other language files that have not yet been translated. Anyone is welcome to take part in translating the language files. Language files are located in the `lang` folder. A `_readme.txt` file is also located in this folder.

Reader: Layer view implemented and added

The new layer view is located in the sidebar of a document. If a PDF file contains layers, this new view can be used to show/hide layers. Renaming layer labels is also possible.

Reader: Open multiple files at the same time

The file open icon can now be used to open multiple files at the same time. The file selection now allows you to select multiple files, which are then opened in the reader.

Reader: Added dropdown icon to tab container

The new drop-down icon opens a menu that makes it easier to find and select an open file. This new icon is particularly helpful when many files have been opened.

Reader: Tab display improved

The visual appearance of tabs and tab container elements has been improved. The new implementation is a bit more modern.

Reader: New text passages found delete old ones

If you search for a text in the search field, the location found will appear. If you continue searching, the new position will appear and the old position will also be deleted. This makes forward and backward searching easier.

Reader: Search function improved

The user is now shown a small search status message where they can see a status message and stop the current search. Previously the user had to wait for the search to complete, but searching larger files can take some time and during this time the reader could not be used. The new status message has improved this and the app responds to user input while searching. While searching you can also open another document in another tab.

Reader: General annotation menu extended

For some specific annotation types, add/modify comment menu items have been added to the general annotation menu.

Reader: Fixed text block selection cursor

The cursor in the interactive text block selection tool was incorrect and has been corrected.

Reader: Save file compressed

The save file Compressed option has been added to the Save File menu. This option allows saving the current file in compressed form.

Reader: Save file with profile

The save file with profile option has been added to the save file menu. This option allows saving the current file using an output profile.

Reader: Copy and save image via context menu

The page context menu has received new options for copying and saving images. To do this, the user must right-click on an image object. Using the context menu, the user can then copy this image to the clipboard or save it as a file.

Reader: Measuring tool was faulty with rotated pages

If the user rotated pages and used the measuring tool, no correct values were displayed. When not rotated, the values were correct. This problem has been fixed so that the displayed values are also correct in the rotated state.

Reader: PDFium updated to latest version

Version 11.16.0

01.02.2024

Updater: Improved download speed

Downloading the update no longer takes as long as in older versions. Internally, the user interface was updated too often, which had a negative impact on the download speed.

Updater: MSI updates are now possible

We have extended the updater and integrated the option to also update MSI installations. When installing via the MSI, the setting that updates are searched for and installed now remains active. If you do not want this, you can deactivate this via the switch `AUTOUPDATE=No` on the command line.

Toolbox: Fixed a problem when creating a file preview

The PDF file preview was not displayed after adding 5 password-protected PDF files. There was an internal error with password-protected files and the internal worker that generates the preview was not released again to be able to work on further files. This problem has been fixed.

Toolbox: OpenAction in merged PDF files removed

When merging PDFs, any existing OpenAction is now removed so that the PDF is always opened on the first page.

Toolbox: Color correction in the dark design

The color for start files was changed for the dark theme. The color came from the light theme, but that was not dark enough.

Common: Integrated options for memory usage when starting the JRE

Added options to control the `MaxRAMPercentage` and the `Xmx` command line arguments of JRE calls to solve memory issues. More information can be found in the manual.

Reader: Components updated

Webview2 has been updated to version 120.0.2210.144. JRE has been updated to version 17.0.10+7. QPDF has been updated to version 11.8.0. PDFium has been updated to the latest version.

DocTool: Bookmarks when merging on the command line

Added `[-bookmark bookmarkCmd]` to the `-join` handler to keep, delete or create bookmarks. More informationen is available in the manual.

Reader: Page jumping due to scrollbar removed

Sometimes the displayed page jumps a few pixels to the left after opening a PDF file due to the added vertical scrollbar. This is somewhat annoying and we have optimized this so that it no longer occurs.

Reader: Cursor corrected in snapshot mode

The cursor in snapshot mode was not set correctly. This is now the cross cursor.

Reader: Artifacts in snapshot mode removed

Artifacts were removed in snapshot mode. Artifacts occurred when the snapshot rectangle was outside a page.

Reader: Measurement tool added

The new measuring tool can be used to measure distances in PDF pages. The measurement tool can be selected via the toolbar in the Reader.

Version 11.15.2

08.12.2023

Reader: Keyboard input for the PDF preview handler

The PDF preview handler did not receive the focus after it was clicked, so that keystrokes were not sent to the PDF preview handler, which meant that you could not copy text from the preview, for example. The problem has been fixed.

Installer: MSI installation program improved due to CVE-2023-49147

The MSI installation program has an unpleasant behavior regarding the automatic elevation of rights when certain flags are passed to the `msiexec` program. A normal user could exploit this behavior and open a console with elevated system rights in a roundabout way. With the improvements in the MSI package, this is no longer possible.

Toolbox: Swiss franc abbreviation changed to CHF

Common: Updates to the language files

Version 11.15.1

23.11.2023

Creator: Problem when opening a file via command line fixed

There was a problem transferring a file to `pdf24-Creator.exe` via command line. An error had crept in here, which has been fixed. Since many users open files with the Creator and this has now led to problems, we have created version 11.15.1, which fixes exactly this problem.

Version 11.15.0

21.11.2023

DocTool: Fewer temporary changes of the standard printer to the PDF printer

Removed 3 places in the code where the default printer is temporarily changed to the PDF printer. For the conversion of Word, Excel and PowerPoint, it is no longer necessary for the PDF printer to be the default printer.

Toolbox: Inserting the same image twice in the PDF editor now possible

It is now possible to insert the same image twice in a row in the PDF editing tool. Previously, you could only insert the same image once.

Toolbox: EXIF-Polyfill removed

The custom EXIF code has been removed as Webview2 is able to handle it and display the images in the correct orientation. This also fixes a problem with incorrect image orientation in the overlay file preview.

Toolbox: Fixed problem when canceling a render task

A problem with canceling the current rendering task when rendering a PDF page has been fixed.

Toolbox: Signature import improved

The import of signatures has been improved. The color and black options are available. Storage has been changed to `localStorage`. Vectorized images are now often much smaller, so saving should not be a problem in most cases. If a signature cannot be saved for the next use, an info message is displayed. A message is also displayed if the user closes the window and changes have been made that have not yet been saved.

Toolbox: Dark theme improved

Toolbox: Modified Flag added to some tools

The "Edit", "Annotate", "Sign" and "Redact" tools have been provided with a modified flag. If the modified flag is set, the user must now confirm if they want to return to the start page without saving the change. If the modified bit is not set, no confirmation is displayed. Saving the file deletes the modified flag.

Toolbox: Toolbar for editing, blackening and signing tool improved

Toolbox: Problem with opening modal dialogs fixed

Modal dialogs that are opened within the Web Message Handler are problematic. So we have changed this. This fixes a problem when opening the output profile manager, for example.

Reader: Insert text annotations integrated

Text can now be highlighted, underlined and striked out via the context menu of the selected text. If a text is already highlighted, underlined or striked out, the context menu offers the option of changing the color, removing the annotation and adding a comment.

Reader: Insert comments into page

Comments can be added to a page via the context menu. This special annotation can be moved using drag & drop.

Reader: SHIFT + space bar to scroll current view upwards

Pressing the SHIFT + spacebar key combination now scrolls the current view upwards to make the previously invisible part visible.

Reader: Tooltip for annotations improved

The tooltip for annotations has been improved. A separate implementation is now used. Umlauts are now also displayed correctly. The tooltip displays the content string of an annotation.

Reader: Ctrl+O to open a file

Reader: Text selection improved

The char box is now used for text selection and no longer just the surrounding box of the character. This makes the selection areas better and more attractive. The speed of rendering the text selection has also been improved.

Reader: PDFBox updated to version 2.0.30

Reader: JRE updated to LTS version 17.0.9_9

Reader: Webview2 updated to version 119.0.2151.58

Reader: Ghostscript updated to version 10.02.1

Version 11.14.0

05.10.2023

Toolbox: Fixed problem starting Output Profile Manager

Fixed an issue launching the Output Profile Manager from the Toolbox. After closing the profile manager, the toolbox could crash.

Toolbox: Many improvements to RTL layouts

RTL stands for Right-To-Left. These layouts are used for Arabic and Hebrew languages. Several bugs have been fixed and many things have been improved to improve the user experience when using Arabic and Hebrew.

Toolbox: New drag and drop implementation

The drag-and-drop implementation is used to sort files and pages in some tools. The older implementation had problems with RTL layouts, so it had to be replaced. With the new version these problems have been fixed.

Toolbox: Mouse Over Info on added pages in the PDF merge tool

In page mode in the PDF merge tool, the user can add individual pages to a new PDF. These pages have now been given a mouse over overlay so that the user can now see better which page it is.

Toolbox: Page preview for added pages in the PDF merge tool

The PDF page preview icon now also works for added pages in the PDF Merge tool. Previously, the magnification icon was visible, but the magnification did not open. This issue has been resolved.

Toolbox: Improved tooltips of some UIs

Tooltips could overlap dropdown UI elements, which should not be covered. This has been improved.

Creator: New background for the page preview elements

Since the preview elements are square, the new hatched background makes it easier to see whether a page has horizontal or vertical orientation.

Creator: Show and hide file explorer via new icon

There is a new icon in the open files toolbar. With this icon you can quickly turn the file explorer on and off. Without File Explorer, more pages are visible, making it easier to assemble files.

Creator: Another size for the page preview

There is now another size for the page preview. The new level scales the suggestion elements to half the window height. This means that exactly two documents are visible one below the other in the window. On larger monitors it is easier to see the content of the pages without opening the larger preview by double-clicking.

OCR: Language selection field improved

The language selection field was sometimes displayed incorrectly and has therefore been improved. The display of the language selection should now be problem-free.

Reader: Info icon was not visible

The info icon in the notification area was not visible. The name for this icon was incorrect and could not be loaded.

Reader: Text selection has been improved

The new text selection has become much better. Several problems have been solved with the new implementation. Text in columns can now be selected without selecting text in an adjacent column. Cross-page text selection has also been improved. Overall, text selection also runs a bit smoother.

Reader: PDFium updated to the latest version

Many improvements and fixes have been added to the PDFium project, which now benefit PDF24 Reader as well.

Reader: Use the spacebar to scroll down the view

Pressing the spacebar will now scroll the current view down to reveal the next invisible part.

Common: Ghostscript implementation of watermarks and page numbers available again

Ghostscript implementation of watermarks and page numbers has been added back as an option as this is required for the 9.x versions. At the same time, a problem was also fixed so that adding watermarks and page numbers now works again in the 9.4.0 version.

Common: All language files updated and new ones added

All language files have been updated so that all missing elements are now translated. 13 new language files have also been added. There are now 51 language files available.

Common: Ghostscript updated to version 10.02.0

Common: QPDF updated to version 11.6.1

Common: JRE updated to version 17.0.8.1

Common: Webview2 update to version 117.0.2045.31

Version 11.13.2

14.07.2023

Reader: Problem with the PrintTo command fixed

Added a fix to the PrintTo command. There was a case where printing to a printer could cause the Reader to crash. This problem has been investigated and fixed.

Reader: Problem regarding OneNote fixed

Dropping a PDF into OneNote could cause the PDF24 Reader to crash. The PDF was therefore not imported into OneNote.

Toolbox: Changed too light background color in dark theme

In the dark theme, a background color that was too light in one area of the UI was replaced with a darker one. This was not done before, so the dark theme was not as nice anymore.

Toolbox: Display of result files improved

The display of the result files was improved. Especially with longer file names, they overlapped with other parts of the GUI, which was a bit awkward. We have optimized these parts so that the names are now truncated to fit the fields, and we have also optimized the file name change feature based on the changes in this release. The fields are also responsive now, so the size adjusts to the size of the screen.

Common: Ghostscript updated to version 10.01.2

This version of Ghostscript fixes the security issue CVE-2023-36664. This vulnerability has been rated as critical. Therefore, it is recommended to update the software. PDF24 Creator 11.13.2 therefore ships the latest Ghostscript version 10.01.2, in which the issue has been fixed. Accordingly, we recommend updating PDF24 Creator.

Version 11.13.1

01.07.2023

Toolbox: Electronic invoice generator improved

Invoice field BT-115 was not updated when an invoice was imported. BT-113, BT-114, BT-115 not visible in generated invoice.

Toolbox: Output of electronic invoices improved

The electronic invoice generator did not generate XML files for the XInvoice format and the ZUGFeRD format was incorrect. This version fixes these problems.

PDF Printer: Fixed problem with automatic saving

Fixed a problem with the auto save mode and the paper/overlay function. On some systems, the paper/overlay was not applied correctly. This is a local issue due to incorrect conversion of floating point numbers.

Common: Conversion of floating point numbers improved

Several other places in the code have been corrected as a precautionary measure, which could be problematic when converting floating point numbers for certain locales.

PDF Lib: Problem with the transformation matrix fixed

Fixed a problem with the transformation matrix used for the overlay function to place the overlay. This also affects the OCR tool and the Overlay and Paper function of the output profiles.

PDF Lib: Recognition of existing text improved

Fixed a problem with detection of pre-existing text for certain PDF files that have a certain type of error in the content stream of a page.

Profiles: Confirm deletion of output profiles

Deleting output profiles must now be confirmed to avoid accidental clicks on the "Delete" button.

Version 11.13.0

26.06.2023

Doctool: Added function to convert HTML files to PDFs

This version brings the possibility to convert HTML files to PDF via command line. This is possible via the `-convertToPDF` switch.

Doctool: Allow overwriting files or not

PDF24 Creator 11.11.1 allowed the DocTool to overwrite existing files if the user so desires. However, there is one use case where this behavior is not desired. To cover this case, the `docTool.forceMakeNameUnique [DWORD32]` option can now be used to control how the DocTool should behave. If this value is set to 1, a unique file name will be generated in any case, as was the case in older versions.

Doctool: Outputs on the command line now visible

Process outputs are now printed on the console when the Doctool is used on the command line. Previously, DocTool outputs could not be traced on the command line.

Common: Consideration of locales when converting numbers

When converting numbers, the locale is now taken into account and set for certain functions to ensure a specific number format. Without a correct locale, there may be problems with some functions. Currently, this is only an issue when the console is opened because this changes the locale in the app. This change can then cause problems for some users. This issue has been improved.

Common: Missing characters in the console due to incorrect encoding

Fixed a problem with missing characters in the console when the console is open. We now call setlocale with an empty string to set the default locale for the user or system system. This fixes the problem with the output in the console.

Common: Three memory leak sources found and removed

These memory leaks are not particularly critical because the PDF24 apps are usually closed again quite quickly and thus the memory is freed up again, but we do not like memory leaks and have thus investigated and fixed them.

Reader: PDF24 Reader now takes into account the DPI of the monitor

Enabled `PER_MONITOR_AWARE_V2` to fix problems with the PDF preview when used in a multi-monitor environment with different DPI values. With this improvement, the PDF preview now behaves correctly even if you move it between monitors.

Reader: Printing multiple PDFs via command line

Multiple PDF files can be printed at once via the command line. To do this, use the command line as described so far in the manual. To pass another document now, you can place this further document behind the other one. Then both documents will be printed one after the other.

Reader: Jump targets now better visible

Making the destination visible via bookmarks has been improved. The target area of the page is now taken into account to display the corresponding point of the target. Previously, only a "Go to page" was performed, but this was not good enough for certain views and zoom sizes.

Reader: Faster text selection

With some PDFs PDF24 Reader could freeze when text was selected. We have analyzed this and improved the implementation. The new version is now much faster and also selecting many words via for example `STRG+A` is now smooth, even with the files that caused problems.

Reader: PDFium updated to BRANCH chromium/5846

This means that PDFium's improvements will also benefit PDF24 Reader.

Assistant: Better visible background color for selected file elements

FileTools: Better visible background color for selected file elements

Creator:

When trying to save a modified PDF with PDF24 Creator and the destination file was opened with another program and blocked, the error message "Error=32 File copy error from=tempFile to=destinationFile" appears. This message could only be confirmed with an OK button - saving failed. The OK button has now been replaced with a Retry and Cancel button, so that you now also have the option to close the application that is blocking the destination file and then try to save again using the Retry button.

Toolbox: New color of the primary button

The color of the primary button is now slightly darker to improve the color contrast of background and font.

Toolbox: Green check mark to emphasize offline processing

A small green check mark next to the text "Works offline" emphasizes that PDF24 processes files offline.

Toolbox: Create electronic invoices integrated

The tool for creating electronic invoices is now also available offline in PDF24 Creator. Now you can create invoices offline according to ZUGFeRD and XInvoice standards.

Toolbox: CMaps problem in PDF editor fixed

PDF files using CMaps were not displayed correctly in the editor because of a problem with the CMaps URL. The problem has been fixed.

Toolbox: PDF compression failed when console was open

When the black console (F12) was opened, PDF compression failed. The problem is fixed.

Toolbox: Execution of Toolbox functions via command line

A command line switch has been added to start Toolbox functions via the command line. This means that it is now possible to do almost everything that the Toolbox offers via the command line. A detailed description of this function is not yet available. Until the documentation is available in the manual, feel free to contact PDF24 directly.

Toolbox: Fixed a crash caused by converting empty number fields

For some tools, the toolbox crashed if one of the integer values was left empty. In this case the conversion failed and the toolbox crashed. This issue is fixed.

PDFLib: Output of floating point numbers improved

The way of outputting floating point numbers has been improved. Zeros at the end are now removed, which makes the PDF slightly smaller.

Ghostscript: PDF/A creation and problem with umlauts and other characters fixed

PDF/A are created with the help of Ghostscript. However, there was a problem that metadata is discarded when using umlauts and other Unicode characters. We have investigated and fixed the problem and sent this patch to the Ghostscript developers. The report can be found here: https://bugs.ghostscript.com/show_bug.cgi?id=706781

Version 11.12.1

24.05.2023

Toolbox: Sorting files improved

With some tools (e.g. PDF Merge) you can sort file elements. We have updated this function so that it now works the same way as with PDF24 Online Tools. So this is now consistent again.

Toolbox: Styling for the file boxes improved

We have also aligned the styling for the file boxes with the styling of the online tools, as this has been further improved there. This means that this is also consistent again.

Toolbox: Fixed problem with detecting installed fonts

Fixed a font sorting issue related to an empty font family name. If the name of a font family is not available, the sorting fails and the list of font families cannot be created. This affects e.g. tool "edit pdf" in the toolbox.

Reader: Open PDF files with other file extension

PDF24 Reader can now open PDF files that do not have the .pdf file extension. For some users this function is relevant.

Common: Updated some language files

Version 11.12.0

10.05.2023

Common: Components updated

This release updates some components that are included in PDF24 Creator. The following components have been updated: OpenJDK 17.0.7, Webview2 113.0.1774.35, Ghostscript 10.01.1, Language files

Common: Overlay problem fixed

Fixed a problem with the overlay method. An overlay could not be applied if the PDF contained a page without defining any content stream. This problem has been fixed.

Toolbox: Split and merge optimizations

Sometimes after splitting or merging PDFs, some output files were too large because elements that were not yet needed were included. Sometimes too much data is included in a final PDF if the data is referenced in a page, even if it is not actually needed. Improvements have been made to the detection of these so that the resulting files are now smaller after splitting or merging for certain PDFs.

Toolbox: Improvements in converting PDF to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint

There is also an updated component responsible for converting PDF to Office files. The new component brings improvements in converting PDF to Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

Reader: Printing multiple page ranges

In PDF24 Reader it was previously only possible to print one page range at a time. This has been improved so that now also several page ranges can be defined in the print dialog and finally printed.

Reader: Delete and rotate page in Reader

The functions Delete page, Rotate page left and Rotate page right have been added to the context menu of a page. The changes of this function are permanent and can be saved. If a page is not oriented correctly or if you need to delete one or the other page, you can now also do this very quickly via the PDF24 Reader. More such functions are on the TODO.

ShellExt: Windows Explorer could crash when using the DLL

Fixed a problem that could cause Windows Explorer to crash. The shell extension DLL signaled Windows Explorer too early that the DLL could be unloaded, although it was still in use. On some systems, extensions in the form of a DLL are apparently unloaded quite quickly, which then ultimately led to this problem. On many other systems, like our test systems, this problem did not exist and therefore the analysis and fixing of the problem was a bit more difficult. The issue was investigated and the problem was fixed.

Version 11.11.1

12.04.2023

PDF Preview: Problem with registration fixed

Fixed a problem with registering the PDF preview handler with the EXE installer. There were two missing fields that prevented the preview handler from loading in some applications, e.g. Outlook.

DocTool: Overwriting of files for many functions now possible

For most file operations, existing files can now be overwritten if the user chooses to do so. Previously, the user was prompted to overwrite, but a unique file name was still generated under which the file was eventually saved.

Reader: Opened files can now be overwritten

In previous versions, there was an error message that the file is blocked because it is opened by Reader. We have now implemented a solution for this situation. You can now overwrite the file opened in the reader when you save it via the reader. So you can now fill in form fields and save them under the same filename.

Reader: Lock/unlock system (Windows + L) could change the background color of the toolbar

On some systems, the background color of the toolbar in Reader changed when the system was locked and unlocked again via Windows key + L. This problem could be reproduced and fixed. This issue could be reproduced and fixed.

Reader: Set focus on the password input field

A small optimization has been made when asking for a password. There is now a focus on the password input field when the password input field appears, so that the user can enter the password directly without having to click with the mouse in the input field. This makes it a bit faster to enter the password.

Reader: New scalable icons

This version now also brings new icons for the Reader that are better suited for different screens. The icons are now sharp on screens with different DPI scaling. Previously, raster icons were used and the new version now uses vector icons. This gives the Reader a better look.

Reader: Using the legacy print dialog under Windows 11

Under Windows 11, the old Windows print dialog is used when printing from the Reader, which was used until Windows 10. The new dialog is somehow not so well thought out and some functions in this dialog can not be controlled and used. Therefore, we now enforce the dialog that was used until Windows 10. In the near future we will offer our own print dialog with extended functions incl. print preview, which will then replace the native dialog.

Reader: PDFium updated to the latest version

Reader: Improved display of character selection in form fields

Highlighting of selected characters in form fields have been improved. Areas are now cropped to prevent certain areas from being drawn twice, as drawing twice results in darker areas.

Reader: CTRL + X support for form input fields

CTRL + X can now be used to cut selected characters in input fields. CTRL + C and CTRL + V were already supported, but CTRL + X was still missing.

Reader: CTRL + LEFT/RIGHT key combination deleted characters instead of selecting them

The key combination CTRL + LEFT/RIGHT deleted the character next to the caret, but should select it. The problem is now fixed. CTRL + LEFT/RIGHT now selects the character next to the caret.

Reader: Print snapshot and current view maximized

In the previous version, the function was implemented that you can print the snapshot and the current view. We have extended this function so that you can now print them maximized. So you can print an area with maximum size on one sheet.

Version 11.11.0

23.03.2023

Common: QPDF updated to version 11.3.0

Common: Webview2 updated to version 111.0.1661.41

Common: wxWidgets updated to current version

PDF Printer: Keep multiple hyphens in file name

Multiple consecutive hyphens are now no longer removed from the file name, as some users require this.

DocTool: Compression function added to the DocTool command line

The compression function can be used via the command line switch '-compress'. With this switch it is possible to compress files with the DocTool. The shell extension uses this function.

Shell Extension: New DLL available

The first version of the new shell extension in the form of a DLL is available. The new DLL makes working with files in Windows Explorer more convenient. Many functions are now available directly in the context menu of a file. This change increases productivity and saves time when working with PDF files. Shell extension settings also work again now. The shell extension DLL can be registered and thus used in Windows via the MSI property 'USESHELLEXTENSIONDLL=Yes' and via the corresponding checkbox in the EXE installer. The new shell extension DLL is not active by default, but still the old static variant.

Toolbox: Invoice tool sometimes did not create PDFs

The invoice tool in the Toolbox did not create PDFs if the invoice number contained a character that cannot be used for file names, such as a slash (/). This problem has been fixed.

Toolbox: Another problem with loading fonts fixed

Fixed another font loading issue related to the "Edit PDF" tool. An error occurred and the font selection remained empty. Further improvements have been made here.

Toolbox: Change/unify page size tool added

The tool for changing or unifying the page size was already available online. Now it is also available offline in PDF24 Creator.

Toolbox: Split PDF Tool optimized

The new version of the Split PDF tool creates smaller files for some specific PDFs. Sometimes it is the case that many objects remain in the file because they are referenced in annotations. We have checked some cases. The current implementation is now able to remove references so that only the objects needed for the extracted parts remain in the file. There may be other cases that are not yet considered. If this is the case, feel free to send us a PDF so we can analyze this.

Toolbox: PDF merging tool optimized

The new version is able to retain page/outline tree elements of merged items, and the new version is also better at handling link annotations to merged pages. As much information as possible should be retained and the new optimized version of the tool has made significant progress in this regard.

Toolbox: Icon for switching the scissors in the Split PDF Tool

With the new icon you can switch the scissors in the Split PDF Tool. With this you can achieve that a scizzuor is used after each page. Then you can disable individual scissors to not split after certain pages. This facilitates some use cases.

Toolbox: Overlay handler uses new implementation

The overlay handler has been changed to a different implementation that can handle PDFs with crop boxes. This change also affects the "Edit PDF", "Annotate PDF", "Blacken PDF" and "Sign PDF" tools. If you have experienced problems with shifted text after saving in the past, this new version will most likely fix the problem.

Reader: Fixed crash issue

We have fixed a crash issue when a GOTO action in a page has invalid information and thus the GOTO cannot be executed.

Reader: Jump to a page using the thumbnail view

The following problem existed in older versions: Click thumbnail, scroll down, click selected thumbnail again, does not jump back. This condition has been improved so that it jumps back to the page even if the thumbnail has been clicked before.

Reader: Optimization of the scrolling during rotation change

This new optimizer scrolls to the location that was visible before the rotation was changed. This avoids jumping around when changing the page rotation, which was annoying in previous versions.

Reader: Zoom change scroll optimizer improved

The new version of the optimizer uses the current mouse position as a gravity point, so the area around the mouse position remains in the viewport. This makes zooming with the mouse wheel + CTRL much more comfortable.

Reader: Page background a little brighter

The page background is now a bit lighter, because the color contrast between white pages and too dark background is a challenge for the eyes.

Reader: Problems with the preview view fixed

Rotated pages are now correctly displayed in the preview. Changing the rotation of the pages is now also reflected immediately in the preview. The preview elements now also have a small padding, which improves the display.

Reader: Intermediate states in thumbnail window by zooming and rotating eliminated

Zooming and rotating pages could result in multiple state changes in the thumbnail window, which was bad. This has been improved and the intermediate state has been removed.

Reader: Eliminated another reason for crash

Double-clicking on a word containing only one letter and pressing CTRL+F could cause a crash. This has now been fixed.

Reader: Copy selected word to the search input field using CTRL+F

Selecting a word and pressing CTRL+F no longer copied the selected word to the search input field. This is fixed.

Reader: Click on icon "Fit to window" improved

Clicking the "Fit to Window" icon updates the scale value so that a page fits completely within the viewport. Also, the scroll bars are now updated so that the most visible page in the viewport is fully visible.

Reader: Aktuelle Seite drucken verfügbar

Die Option "Aktuelle Seite drucken" ist jetzt im Windows-Druckdialog aktiviert, mit der Sie die am meisten sichtbare Seite drucken können. Das Drucken von mehreren Seitenbereichen folgt in der kommenden Version.

Reader: A temporary file was not deleted

In the function `JsPlatform_Mail` a temporary file was not deleted. This problem is fixed.

Reader: Javascript mail function call without data

Calling the Javascript mail function without data should send the current file as a copy. PDF24 did not do this. This has now been improved and the current file is attached to the mail dialog.

Reader: Page context menu extended

There are now new entries in the context menu of a page. The user can print the page via the context menu. Likewise, one can also print the current view area.

Reader: Multiple files can be opened with one command line call

Previously, you could only open one file with Reader on the command line. Now you can open more than one file.

Reader: Fixed a problem with the snapshot function of a scrolled view

Fixed an issue with the snapshot function related to a scrolled view. The snapshot rectangle was not displayed correctly. This has been improved and the visual representation is now correct.

Reader: Snapshot function has new continuation functions

Previously, the snapshot was copied directly to the clipboard. Now the user can choose what to do with the snapshot via a menu. The user can copy the snapshot to the clipboard, save it as a file or print it.

Version 11.10.2

10.02.2023

Reader: New possibility to disable Javascript and XFA

Javascript and XFA can now also be disabled via `reader.enableJavaScript` and `reader.enableXfa`. These options can be used in the HKCU and HKLM section of the registry.

Reader: Fixed a problem with wrong display page size

Fixed an issue with incorrect page size in the UI, especially when the sidebar is open with thumbnails. This could happen if the page sizes and orientations are different in the PDF. This issue is fixed.

Reader: Problem with pixelated pages fixed

Fixed another problem with pixelated pages when a PDF is loaded and the sidebar is visible. Internally, in the main view, it was then rendered with wrong size and scaled up. This problem is off the table.

Reader: Horizontal scrolling via SHIFT + WHEEL

With SHIFT + WHEEL you can now scroll a page horizontally. This behavior is also available in other PDF readers.

Reader: PDFium updated to the latest version

PDFium is the core component of PDF24 Reader. In the PDFium project there were again some improvements, which now also benefit the PDF24 Reader.

Toolbox: PDF Editor uses the crop box to calculate the overlay transformation

In the PDF Editor, an overlay is created that is placed over the PDF. Here, the crop box is now taken into account so that the final generated PDF after saving looks exactly as in the edit view. In older versions there were misplaced elements due to the missing support for the crop box. Affected tools are Edit PDF, Annotate PDF and Redact PDF.

Reader: Further optimization in the redact tool

The redaction tool now also deletes resources from redacted pages, as the resources may contain images and overlays with confidential information that could be subsequently read from the PDF.

Common: Standard context menu of Webview2 can be deactivated

The `webview2.enableContextMenu` registry option can now be used to enable/disable the default context menu of Webview2.

Common: Webview2 updated to version 109.0.1518.78

Common: JRE updated to version 19.0.2

Common: Language files updated

TWAIN: Issue regarding not visible scanned page fixed

A scanned file was sometimes not sent to the Creator where the file can be saved. There was an error and the scanner middleware app deleted the file too early, so the Creator could not get the file. This issue has now been fixed as well.

OCR: Automatic page rotation for the profiles deactivated

When applying a profile, auto page rotation is now disabled as it is controlled by an OCR option and executed by the OCR processor. Previously, you had to create a custom profile with the auto-rotation option disabled in the profile, but this is cumbersome.

OCR: No application of a profile when file is skipped

If a file was skipped, e.g. because of recognized text, then the engine now also does not apply the profile after the text recognition phase. That is, if the file was skipped, it is passed on without any further changes.

OCR: Grid lines enabled

The grid lines of the list view are now enabled, which is helpful if you load and process a lot of files.

OCR: Fixed crash problem

A crash problem when processing multiple files in parallel has been fixed. Internally, due to concurrency, a condition could occur that ultimately caused the app to crash. This reported issue has been investigated and fixed.

OCR: Better visual feedback when adding many files

When you add many files at once, there is now better feedback and the list updates when a new file is loaded. Previously, the UI only redisplayed at the end when all files were loaded.

Creator: OLE drag & drop functions improved

The OLE drag and drop functions have been revised and improved to fix two issues with the drag and drop handlers. This optimizes the way files and other information are created and how data is exchanged. This improves compatibility with other programs.

PDF Printer: $id placeholder in shell command

The $id placeholder is now available in the shell command which can be set when the PDF printer automatically saves a file. Previously this placeholder was only available in the file name.

Version 11.10.1

20.01.2023

Reader: Second PDF not always displayed correctly

When opening a PDF in PDF24 Reader and then minifying the Reader and then opening another PDF in the Reader, the second PDF was not always displayed correctly in the Reader. When placing the elements, the minified state prevented the second PDF from being displayed at full size. This unsightly problem has been fixed.

Reader: Bookmark icon was not grayed out

The bookmark area icon in the sidebar of a PDF was no longer grayed out if there is no page directory. This problem has been fixed.

Common: Language files updated

Installer: Small optimization in EXE Installer

The Webview2 component is now optional. Added a check whether Weview2 is already installed or not if the Webview2 component is deselected. Without Webview2 the toolbox cannot start. If Webview2 is not selected and Webview2 is not yet installed, then a corresponding message is displayed and the user must activate Webview2.

Version 11.10.0

17.01.2023

Reader: Bring to the foreground

It was reported to us that PDF24 Reader is not brought to the foreground when another file is opened in PDF24 Reader. Only the taskbar icon was blinking. We have analyzed and optimized this issue so that PDF24 Reader now comes to the foreground.

Reader: CTRL+TAB is now supported

With the key combination CTRL+TAB you can switch the currently opened PDF to the next one. If only one PDF is open, it is not possible to switch to the next one.

Reader: PDFium update to the latest version

With the new version of PDFium, the improvements to these components now also benefit PDF24 Reader.

Reader: Fixed quick print problem when printing to network printers

In one of the last versions, a problem came up again that the quick print on a network printer did not work anymore. Here we have analyzed again why this was the case again. Here we have made further additions so that the problem no longer occurs.

Toolbox: Added multiple pages per sheet function

In the toolbox, the new tool that was recently added online has also been added. With the "Multiple pages per sheet" tool you can convert a PDF into a PDF that contains multiple pages per sheet.

Toolbox: New options in the blackening/redact tool

The blackening function can now be controlled via two new parameters. You can set the DPI and image quality via the Windows Registry. These two options influence the quality of the blackened/redacted pages. The two options are 'blackenSecurity.dpi' and 'blackenSecurity.jpgQuality'. See the manual for more information.

Toolbox: New security provider for the blacken/redaction function

The blackened pages go through a function that ensures that the blackened pages are really safe. To achieve this, the pages are rendered as an image and then replaced with the actual page. This then makes it impossible to make the redacted content visible again. Here we have added a new mode and set it as default. The new provider is more powerful and often produces smaller PDF files because it is able to determine the best image format for a given page. The provider can be changed via "blackenSecurity.provider".

Toolbox: "NoOnlinePdfTools" option did not hide the link to the online tools anymore

In the Toolbox, the tile for the Online PDF Tools was no longer hidden via the 'NoOnlinePdfTools' option. We have fixed this problem.

OCR: Deskew pages function improved

For one particular PDF page, the straighten pages feature did not work correctly. We have investigated this and have made improvements so that this page can also be deskewed correctly.

OCR: New message column added

The new column displays the last message of the OCR recognition, so that the user can better see what is happening.

OCR: Window placement is saved

Window placement is saved when the tool is closed and restored the next time it is launched, so that the user does not have to reposition or resize every time the tool is opened.

Common: JRE updated to version 19.0.1

Common: Language files updated

Common: Webview2 updated to version 109.0.1518.52

Common: Encryption of PDFs with special passwords

Encryption of PDF files now supports passwords that start with a hyphen (-). This was not possible before.

Common: Updating a component for conversion of files

The component responsible for converting PDFs to Word, Excel and PowerPoint has been updated. The improvements in this component now also benefit PDF24.

Common: Improvement in UI Lib

There was also a small improvement in the UI component that is used in some interfaces. The improvement reduces flickering when launching some apps. The startup speed has also been latently improved.

Launcher: Tiles left-aligned and arrangement rethought

In the launcher, it is a good idea to arrange the tiles left-justified. This is now also the case. We have also slightly changed the arrangement to display the frequently used functions further up.

Installer: WebView2 is now optional

In both EXE Installer and MSI, WebView2 is now an optional component that can be deselected during installation. This then saves some space on the hard disk. The option should only be deselected if WebView2 is provided by Windows, which should be the case if you keep your Windows up to date.

The EXE installer is based on Inno Setup. How to disable components via command line here is best read in the manual. The name of the component here is `webview2`.

With the MSI setup you can also define on the command line which components should be activated/deactivated. The ID of the component here is `Webview2`.

Installer: File context menu is created by the installer

The shell context menu is now created by the installer and not by the backend. During installation, the user can decide whether to add shell context menu items or not. Via command line you can control here as well.

Version 11.9.1

02.01.2023

Common: Code for querying the feature status optimized

The new code makes the query a bit more flexible, which also makes it easier for admins to configure. In the toolbox, there are changes in this area and an admin can now configure the toolbox or the visible tiles more easily.

Common: Code parts for hiding functions extended

The code parts responsible for hiding functions/tiles in the Toolbox have been improved and more metadata has been added to allow more functions to be disabled via the Windows registry. See the manual for more information.

DocTool: Word to PDF and Excel to PDF issue fixed

Word to PDF automation now sets the `wdDoNotSaveChanges` flag when closing a file to prevent a save dialog at the end which blocks the whole conversion process. Why the dialog sometimes appears and sometimes not is still unclear. In the end we just export a PDF without changing the actual file. In the Excel to PDF function, we clear the `SaveChanges` flag to prevent a possible dialog here as well.

Reader: Changed form fields, focus in the field and subsequent saving/printing

In PDF24 Reader there was still a problem with form fields. If a form field was changed, the focus was left in the field and then saved or printed, then the changes from this field were not saved or printed. This problem is fixed. Whenever saving or printing, we force the focus to be removed beforehand so that the changes in the field are saved and printed as well.

Reader: Initialization of the print dialog improved

The print dialog is initialized with the settings of the default printer when the user clicks on the print icon. In this way, the saved default settings of the printer are applied. Most applications behave similarly.

Reader: Initialization of the print dialog improved

If a form field in a PDF is modified, the PDF is marked as modified. If the PDF is saved, this flag is reset. If the flag is set and a PDF is closed, a message is displayed stating that this PDF has not yet been saved. Here the user can then decide via Yes/No whether to save or not. This prevents accidental closing without saving.

Reader: Fixed crash with a specific PDF

PDF24 Reader crashed on a certain PDF with start actions. This has been analyzed and the problem was fixed.

Reader: Switching to tabbed mode improved

Switching to tabbed mode when loading a second PDF file has been improved. The transition is smoother and intermediate artifacts that sometimes occurred are no longer present.

Reader: Message box when opening links or external files

When the user clicks on a link in a PDF, a message is now displayed whether the corresponding URL should be opened in the default browser or not. The target URL is visible in the message box. Likewise, opening an external file via link is now supported. Here, too, a message is displayed in which the file to be opened is shown. The user can then decide whether to allow the file to be opened or not.

Version 11.9.0

14.12.2022

Reader: Startup time significantly improved

The startup performance has been improved significantly. This is especially noticeable when opening PDF files with many pages. In older versions, it can take a while before the first page is visible on the screen. In this version, the number of pages has little effect on the time it takes to display the first page. This makes it much more fun to work with PDF24 Reader. Compared to other PDF Readers, PDF24 Reader now does not have to hide when it comes to the startup time of larger files.

Reader: PDF preview now also possible with 32-bit apps

We have created a new special `PdfPreviewHandler.x86.dll` which provides PDF preview for 32-bit applications. This special version of the dll is required for 32-bit applications to load the PDF preview. If you have installed e.g. Outlook x86 on your x64 system, then the preview in Outlook is now possible with the new DLL. During the installation this special DLL is registered in the WOW6432Node section of the Windows registry.

Reader: Zoom tool "Adjust width and height" optimized

The "Adjust width and height" zoom tool has been optimized. When the horizontal scrollbar is visible, the height of the scrollbar must be taken into account, because in the "Adjust width and height" mode the scrollbars are not visible. Previously, the entire available area was not included in the calculation, so a margin remained at the bottom if the scrollbar was visible before.

Reader: Too large info icon in the info bar is now smaller

DPI scaling was applied twice, so the icon in the info bar was too large. This problem is fixed.

Creator: File name was partially not taken over

In the previous version there was a problem with the file name, which was not taken over when loading certain files. For example, if you loaded a Word file, it was given a generic name. The problem is fixed.

Creator: UI rendering artifact issues fixed

In some cases, artifacts could appear in the UI during certain actions, which are unattractive from the user's point of view. We have investigated these cases and fixed problems. Furthermore, we have made further optimizations to provide a more responsive UI without artifacts.

Creator: No more error message after canceling the password input dialog

When a password protected PDF is loaded, a dialog is displayed where the user can enter a password. This dialog can also be cancelled or closed. If this dialog is closed or canceled, then no further error message is displayed, because the user has already decided to cancel.

DocTool: Office files are opened read-only for conversion

For the conversion of Office files we use the COM interface. Here the files are loaded and then exported as PDF. Here it is enough to open the Office files read-only, which we do now and which is also more secure.

Toolbox: User fonts now visible in the toolbox

The fonts installed per user are now also visible in the Toolbox. These fonts are located in the folder `%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Fonts`.

Toolbox: Fixed bug with fonts without name

Sometimes it can happen that fonts do not have a name. This has led to problems in the PDF24 Toolbox because this name is assumed. We have improved this. If the name is not available, then family name is now used as a fallback. This means that such fonts can now also be used.

Allgemein: Signature problem with the mail function fixed

In version 11.8.0 the mail functions were optimized. However, this had led to the problem that the automatic signature in Outlook was no longer present in the mail. We have investigated this problem and changed the new functions so that the signature is now preserved.

Common: Ghostscript now also sees the user font directory

The user font directory has been added to ghostscript's `sFONTPATH` argument, so Ghostscript is now able to find user fonts.

Common: Fixed problem with shell command in PDF printer

A PDF printer can be configured to save automatically. Here you can also configure a shell command. We have fixed a bug here that prevented the command from being executed correctly if the command string contained quotes, but they are usually necessary due to spaces.

Common: PDF printer backend optimized

Added a solution to the problem that the PDF printer did not work when either the backend user server or the print job has elevated permissions and the other does not. In this case the print job got stuck in the queue. We have now provided a solution for this problem so that this constellation no longer leads to a problem.

Common: Core components further optimized

Some core components have been improved again to further increase speed and make some things faster.

Common: Webview2 updated to version 108.0.1462.46

Common: QPDF updated to version 11.2.0

Common: Language files updated

Version 11.8.0

30.11.2022

Toolbox: Tooltips now also support line breaks

In some places we use tooltips that also contain line breaks. However, these were not supported before and the tooltip was displayed in one line. Here we have improved so that line breaks are now also displayed. This makes it easier for the user to understand the tooltip information faster.

Toolbox: PDF pages extract tool improved

The button to create the final PDF is now only active if some pages are marked. If no pages are marked, then nothing needs to be extracted. Furthermore there are new icons to mark all, even and odd pages and to unmark and toggle them. These help when working with the tool, especially when processing a PDF that contains many pages.

Toolbox: Page mode improved in PDF merge tool

The button for merging the selected pages now shows the number of pages that will be included in the final PDF. Furthermore, you can select a range of pages by clicking on one page and then a second page by holding down the SHIFT key. There are also new icons to toggle the selection and to select even or odd pages. This makes the use of this tool even more comfortable, especially for PDF files with many pages.

Toolbox: PDF split tool further improved

In the backend, we now use the same code base for the split functions that we use for our online tools. This has several advantages, for us and for the user, because this code base is better. We have also changed and enhanced the user interface so that all 4 split modes (pages per PDF, even/odd pages, custom, halve pages) are now usable from the new code base. With the new split pages mode you can now also split pages into 2 halves and thus e.g. split pages in A3 format into 2 A4 pages each or pages in A4 format into two A5 pages each.

Toolbox: Tool for deleting PDF pages improved

The delete PDF pages tool has also received an improvement. There are also some new icons here, which can be used to mark, toggle and unmark pages, or mark even and odd pages.

Toolbox: Crop tool improved

In the crop tool, it is now possible to change the values of an existing cropbox that may be present. The tool now works relatively. If there is an existing crop box, the margin values are added to or subtracted from the current values. In this way, the visible part of the media box can be reduced or enlarged. If there is no cropbox, the mediabox is used as a base as in the previous version.

Toolbox: Removed favorites filter next to search box

Since the favorites are displayed in a separate block above all other tools, this favorites filter is no longer necessary. This has been removed.

Toolbox: PDF editing, signing, annotating, redaction tools enhancements

With the above tools there is an optimization with the active selection. If there is an active selection of multiple elements, then the tools "Stroke Color", "Fill Color", "Stroke Width" and "Opacity" are disabled, because they do not work with a group selection.

Furthermore, there was still a problem when copying and pasting elements via CTRL+C and then CTRL+V. The handles with which you can enlarge and reduce an object were not copied with it, but this is necessary, because some elements have a certain configuration and this must also be preserved when copying.

To make copying elements even easier, we have also added a clone icon to the toolbar. If an element is selected and you click on this icon, the element will be copied and the copy will be pasted into the document next to the selected element.

Toolbox: New shape in PDF edit and annotate tool

These two tools have received a diagonal cross, which can be used well to mark or fill in control boxes. Before, you could also add a text box and then put an X in it, but with the new form it is a bit faster.

Output Profiles: Fixed a problem with color selection for watermarks and page numbers

In the last version a new problem with the color selection for the watermark and page numbers appeared. Not all color values could be used. The RBG color components had to have values greater than 15 for the color set in the UI to appear in the document. The conversion of the color from the UI format to the internal format is now correct and all colors can be used again.

Output Profiles: New checkbox in the security settings

A new checkbox has been added in the security settings to control the use of AES when encrypting. RC4 or AES can be used for 128-bit encryption, and only AES can be used for 256-bit encryption. If the check box is not selected, RC4 is used for 128-bit encryption. For 256-bit encryption, on the other hand, AES is always used. In general, AES should always be used because it is more secure.

DocTool: "Use AES" checkbox also added to encryption dialog

We have also added the "Use AES" checkbox to the DocTool encryption dialog that opens when you click on the "Encrypt PDF" tile in the Shell File Tools user interface. Here you can now also specify whether AES should be used for 128-bit mode or not. In general you should always use AES because the older RC4 mode is insecure.

DocTool: The "sendAsMail" handler had problems with the application of profiles

If you use the DocTool via command line and execute the `sendAsMail` handler, then you can also specify a profile which is applied before the file is passed to the mail system. But here there was a problem. The mail program did not open when a certain profile should be applied. There was an error when collecting the created files and transferring them to the mail app.

DocTool: Improvements in converting Office documents to PDF format

We have changed the way the Doctool converts Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents to PDF files. The new version uses the export method of Word, Excel and PowerPoint to export a PDF directly instead of printing the file to the PDF printer. This gives better results because not all information can be sent through the printer interface. The fallback method is the way via the PDF printer. The fallback method can also be forced via the Windows registry if necessary. In addition, the fallback print method no longer temporarily changes the default printer. The active printer is set via COM and then the print method is called. This also reduces the risk of changing the default printer in Windows.

DocTool: New flags at the command line

The `-includeFileExtensions` and `-excludeFileExtensions` command line options have been added. This can be used to filter input files by extensions, which is extremely useful in combination with the `-expandDirs` and `-expandDirsRecursive` command line options when only certain files are to be processed.

Creator: Adjustable resolution for preview images

You can now use the `creator.thumbResolution` (DWORD) value in the registry to control the resolution of the thumbnail images of a page. The default value is 72 and the value is scaled depending on the DPI scaling factor. If the resolution of the thumbnails is not sufficient, then you now have the possibility to set a better resolution here.

Also there is another new configuration value `creator.thumbRenderScaleFactor` (DWORD) to render internally with a higher resolution and then to output the resulting image with the resolution `creator.thumbResolution` (DWORD). Default value is 1 to not render with higher resolution. This often improves the preview images, but also takes a little more time to create.

Creator: Size problem with preview images fixed

In the view with the largest preview images, the page area was no longer completely filled as before. We have improved this and the thumbnails in the large view also fill the entire available area again.

Creator: Memory leak detected and fixed

Preview image memory was not being fully freed when a document was removed from view. In fixing the issue, we also made changes to the internal data structures so that less data needs to be held in RAM.

Common: Resolution of the images in the PDF preview adjustable

The new configuration value `pdfPreview.resolution` (DWORD) can be used to control the resolution of the generated images. The default value here is 150. The value is scaled depending on the DPI scaling factor. If the previews do not have sufficient resolution, then you can use this option to improve the preview.

Also here you have the possibility to render internally with higher resolution using the new option `pdfPreview.renderScaleFactor` (DWORD) and to output the result images then with the resolution `pdfPreview.resolution` (DWORD). Default value is 1 to not render with higher resolution.

Common: Webview2 updated to version 107.0.1418.56 and WebView2Loader updated to version 1.0.1418.22

Whenever there are new versions of Webview2, we switch to them in order to be up-to-date here. Microsoft is constantly releasing new improvements that we would like to have on PDF24 for various reasons.

Common: Email functions have been improved

There have been some enhancements to the email functions to make them more flexible. The MAPI and Outlook OLE handlers can now handle the Subject, Text, From, To, CC and BCC properties of an email. The trigger for these enhancements are the new implementations in PDF24 Reader, described below.

Common: Some core elements improved

PDF24 is written in C++. By using current compilers we can now also use some things to improve our core elements. Two core elements got an improvement which bring more speed and need less RAM.

Reader: Behavior in the zoom option "Fit Window" optimized

In zoom mode "Fit Window", you can now use the mouse wheel to jump to the next or previous page. Mouse wheel events in this mode now navigate between pages. This behavior is built into many PDF readers and some users have requested such an option.

Reader: Support of the forward-backward mouse buttons

You can now also use the additional mouse buttons, which are usually used for navigating forward and backward, to navigate between pages. This way you can quickly move to the next or previous page.

Reader: PDFium component update

PDFium has been updated to the latest version, which gives us new possibilities for improvements. Many of the new features are already used by PDF24 Reader in this version. The new features in PDF24 Reader are described below.

Reader: JavaScript support now available

We now compile PDFium with JavaScript support. So we could enable and extend JavaScript support in PDF24 Reader. JavaScript is needed for various forms and PDF24 Reader should also be able to display these forms. But there is also a new option in the Windows registry to disable JavaScript support if needed.

Reader: Support for XFA forms

We now also compile PDFium with XFA support. This allowed us to enable and extend XFA support in PDF24 Reader. We had to make many enhancements to PDF24 Reader to make XFA forms usable. PDF files containing XFA forms can now be opened with PDF24 Reader. But there is also a new option in the Windows registry to disable XFA support if needed.

Reader: Keyboard input for forms improved

This version fixes problems with form fields and key events. Some keys such as Enter were not processed correctly. This was a problem for some forms. We have analyzed the problems and incorporated improvements.

Reader: Snapshots with better quality

Snapshots are no longer scaled down by the DPI scaling values, as this is unexpected for the user. The Snapshot tool now copies what the user sees on the screen without scaling down. The images produced are now better as a result of this change.

Reader: Using a text cursor with text input fields

When hovering the mouse over a text input field, a text cursor is now displayed, as the user would expect. So the user also sees that he can set the cursor in the text field when he clicks into a text field.

Reader: CTRL+F behavior optimized

If you highlight a word in the document and then press CTRL+F, the highlighted word is copied to the search field and the search field is focused. If no word is highlighted, then only the focus is set.

Reader: Form fields with drop-downs work now

Form fields that contain a drop-down menu can now be displayed by PDF24 Reader and the user can use these drop-downs. In previous versions, the drop-down menu was not displayed when the drop-down button was clicked.

Reader: "/printFlags XXX" command line option added

The value of the `/printFlags` option is a comma-separated list of flags that control the printing process. Currently the following flags are supported: `forceImagePrint`, `forceEmfPrint`, `grayscalePrint`.

Reader: Initialization of the printing process changed

The way printing is initialized has been changed to fix a problem when printing to network printers. Some users have reported that printing to network printers causes problems when the print function is started via command line. We have investigated the problem, recreated it, and were able to make changes so that printing to a network printer was now possible in our test environment.

Reader: wxWidgets component updated

We have updated the wxWidgets component to the latest version. wxWidgets is used as GUI framework for PDF24 Reader. We had to change some things to support the high DPI changes in wxWidgets. At the same time we added some small improvements in providing icons in the app.

Reader: Save icon in the toolbar extended

The save button in the toolbar now has a drop-down menu where you can find the new save flattened function. This new function removes form fields and writes the values of fields to the page's data stream. This makes it much harder to change the form field data afterwards. When you fill out a form and submit it, you should always send a flattened version of the PDF so that you can't easily change the data of the fields afterwards. So far, this function only works for standard forms in PDFs. For XFA forms this function cannot be used so far. Therefore the function is disabled in the menu if the PDF document uses an XFA form. As soon as PDFium can also flatten XFA forms, we will improve this and make the function available for XFA forms as well.

Reader: Icons with thinner lines are now slightly darker

The display mode icons are now slightly darker because they use thinner lines. The darker color now makes these icons fit better with the other icons.

Reader: Removed flickering of the cursor when moving over some form fields

Certain form fields can use a different cursor. With some fields, however, a temporary resetting to a different cursor could be observed. This effect was annoying and here we have improved.

Reader: Added right-click menu to text fields

If you right-click on a text field in a form, a context menu opens. This menu can be used to copy the selected text or to paste text from the clipboard into the text field. CTRL+C and CTRL+V as well as CTRL+A can still be used.

Reader: Context menu for selected text opens only when right-clicking on this text

The "Copy selected text" menu now only opens when the selected text is right-clicked. This is the behavior that is usually implemented. Previously, it was possible to open the menu even if the right-click was not on the selected text, but this is unusual.

Reader: Fixed problems with filling form fields in "Two pages side by side" display mode.

Fixed the problem with filling form fields on the second page in the "Two pages side by side" display mode. Keystrokes were going to the first page and not to the page that has the focus. Internally, we improved the control so that input always goes to the page that has focus.

Reader: Using the pointer cursor for buttons in forms

Previously, the arrow cursor was used, but now the pointer cursor is used to make it easier for the user to see that the button can be clicked.

Reader: Submit function for forms supports "mailto" URLs

If an `mailto` URL is used with a form, then an email dialog opens so that the user can send the email with the form data.

Reader: Significant performance improvements when rendering PDFs

Noticeable performance improvements have been incorporated when rendering pages of a PDF. The result of these improvements is that pages can be displayed much faster in Reader. The new implementation is often twice as fast, and it's noticeable. Reader is now much more responsive to user input, as the time it takes Reader to display pages has been significantly reduced. This is especially noticeable when zooming pages with CTRL+mouse wheel. This also reduces power consumption, which is good for a notebook battery.

Reader: PDF preview handler for 32-bit applications

PDF preview handler from PDF24 Reader should now work in 32-bit applications installed on 64-bit Windows. Users have reported that this was not possible. We have analyzed the problem and made enhancements to the preview handler registry that 32-bit applications should now be able to use the PDF24 Reader preview handler.

Reader: Improvements in starting the reader

There were three UI elements that caused the toolbar to recreate itself when the Reader was launched. We have improved this point so that the start of the Reader is not unnecessarily delayed.

Version 11.7.0

31.10.2022

Creator: Fixed problem with drag and drop from Creator to other apps

Fixed an issue with dragging and dropping multiple files from Creator to another app. The error was that not all files were transferred. We have analyzed this issue and fixed it. You can now drag and drop files to another app again without any problems and save the files that way.

Creator: Preview images now use PNG format

Previously JPG was used to display the preview images, but this is disadvantageous especially for documents with text. We have switched to PNG here so that documents with text are also previewed a bit better.

Creator: Preview images was not fully visible in landscape mode

A preview image was not fully visible when the image was in landscape format. Due to a bug, the centering algorithm was applied to images in portrait orientation instead of landscape orientation. This is now fixed.

Creator: Wait cursor when loading PDF files

When loading a PDF file, a wait cursor is now displayed to give the user feedback that a file is loading. For larger files, it may take a few seconds for the file to load.

OCR: Unwanted console no longer opens

An unwanted console was opened when the OCR tool was started from the command line to process files. This is not correct, because the Console is not necessary here. Here we have optimized and the Console is no longer opened.

PDF Printer: Limitation of jobs running in parallel

The number of parallel running jobs via the PDF printer is now limited. This can be controlled via the registry option `PrinterServiceHandlerLimit (DWORD)`. The default value is `1`. Previously we had no limit and this could cause resource problems, especially if a printer is configured to save automatically and if the printer has to process many print jobs in a short time. With the default value of 1, the jobs are processed one by one.

Toolbox: Image extraction improved

Image extraction has been improved. Some PDFs have cyclic references and this is now detected. Previously, these PDFs could not be processed and no result was generated. Also, more images can be exported and a status is displayed during export.

Toolbox: Better support for TIFF in the Images to PDF tool

Images to PDF Tool now supports TIFF files better. Bitonal TIFF images are handled in a special way so that the resulting PDF file remains small. Multi-page TIFF files are now supported as well.

Toolbox: Unwanted focus frame removed

The focus frame from the page container in the "edit pdf", "annotate pdf", "sign pdf" and "blacken pdf" tools has been removed because this is not wanted.

Toolbox: Added more keyboard shortcuts

The tools "edit pdf", "annotate pdf", "sign pdf" and "blacken pdf" now support CTRL+Z to undo, CTRL+Y to redo and CTRL+A to select all objects. Also you can use LEFT and RIGHT key to navigate between pages.

Toolbox: Home icon added to some tools

The tools "edit pdf", "annotate pdf", "sign pdf" and "blacken pdf" now have a home icon in the toolbar, which can be used to return to the home page to perform further functions. This was not possible before. Before you had to close and reopen the toolbox to use another function. With the new home icon this is now easier.

Reader: Title of the print job changed

The title of the print job is now only the file name without the directory. This is handled by most programs and it is easier to keep track in the print queue.

Reader: Keyboard shortcuts improved

The key combination to move to the next/previous page is CTRL+LEFT or CTRL+RIGHT. If the horizontal scrollbar is not needed and therefore not visible, you can now also simply click LEFT or RIGHT to navigate to the previous/next page.

Assistant und FileTools: Number of files is displayed

The PDF Printer Assistant and shell file tools now show the number of files in the file list. This is often useful to make sure that all files have been loaded.

TWAIN: UI launching improved

A problem with calling the Twain driver has been fixed. The GUI of the Twain driver could hang on some actions. We use a new flag when calling the GUI process and this fixes the problem in our test environment.

TWAIN: DSM Manager updated to the latest version

General: Lower CPU load when reading data from another process

When PDF24 starts other processes and reads data from this process, the CPU is now less utilized. The buffers have been slightly increased and the reading process now goes into wait mode more often.

General: Language files updated and Arabic.lang added

General: Ghostscript updated to version 10.0.0

General: Webview2 updated to version 107.0.1418.24

General: QPDF updated to version 11.1.1

General: Launch Ghostscript optimized

We no longer set the Ghostscript environment variables GS_DLL and GS_LIB. We now only use command line arguments when running Ghostscript. We also now use `-sFONTPATH=%windir%/fonts` to allow Ghostscript to find the installed fonts in the Windows fonts folder. We have removed the fontmap file that the PDF24 installer created in the previous version, since it is no longer needed. Also, `-dNEWPDF=true` is now set by default, which can be controlled via the registry setting `gs.useNewPdf`. The old Postscript-based PDF reader is deprecated and will be removed in the next version of Ghostscript.

DocTool: Overwrite profile values via command line

When starting the DocTool with the `-applyProfile` statement, the profile values can now be overwritten with the command line argument `-profileParam key value`. This is very useful for some actions, e.g. to set a specific watermark text or password.

Output Profile Manager: Added UI to select a font

Added a font selection button next to the watermark and page number font fields. When the user clicks the button, a popup window opens where the user can select an available font. This makes the font selection more convenient.

Output Profile Manager: ARGB fields labeled

ARGB fields in the watermark and page number area have been prefixed with a letter to make it easier for the user to see what a field is for.

Output Profile: Watermark and page number function changed

When saving a file with an output profile, we have changed the way how page numbers and watermarks are added to the PDF. The new way uses the same functions as the tools in the Toolbox. These are better and support Unicode characters if the font used can display them. Also, we now have a single code base that is easier to maintain. On the TODO list are more watermark related features which we can implement better with the new method.

Version 11.6.0

12.10.2022

PDFLib: More improvements implemented

Some PDF files could not be opened. We have investigated this and made improvements to support those as well.

Common: WebView2 aktualisiert auf Version 106.0.1370.42

Common: Compiled again with /CETCOMPAT=false

/CETCOMPAT seems to cause problems on some computers. Some users have reported problems. We have decided to build with CETCOMPATO=false in this version.

DocTool: Crop via command line

The version brings support for defining a crop box via the CLI of pdf24-doctool.exe. More about this can be found in the manual.

Output profiles: Support for placeholder %USERNAME% for author field in info area

This version brings support for the %USERNAME% environment variable in the author field of an output profile. This allows to generalize the output profiles and helps to distribute the profiles. Also, some profiles can now be moved to the HKLM section of the registry.

Output profiles: Support for unencrypted passwords in output profiles

User passwords for output profiles can now be stored unencrypted. This can be controlled by the profile keys `pdf-passwordEncryptionMode` and `pdf-encryptPasswords`. If `pdf-encryptPasswords=false` or `pdf-passwordEncryptionMode=none` is set, no encryption is used.

Toolbox: Convert PDF to secure PDF built-in

Added a converter that turns PDFs into secure PDFs. A truly secure PDF in many ways is one in which all pages of the PDF are replaced with a rendered version of the page. The new pages contain only images. The quality can be controlled.

Toolbox: Fixed problem with the UI of the overlay tool

Fixed a problem with the UI of the overlay tool. If you added files, then removed one, and then added the missing file again, the form was not reactivated. This problem is fixed.

Toolbox: PDF Viewer component of some tools extended

The PDF Viewer component used in the Edit, Annotate and Sign tools has been improved. CTRL + MouseWheel is now supported to zoom a page. Furthermore, a render task is aborted when a new task replaces the old one to make the viewer more responsive.

Reader: Text selection accelerated

Selecting text and drawing the selection areas is now much faster. For many sub-ranges, the text selection was often not as responsive as desired. This has been improved.

Version 11.5.0

04.10.2022

General: All translation files updated

With version 11.5.0 all available language files are updated. There were again many elements to translate, which were added with the last versions. Now it was time again to translate all texts.

General: WebView2 updated to version 106.0.1370.34

PDF24 Creator 11.5.0 now again brings the current WebView2, which is used internally by the toolbox. How to use the Evergreen version from Windows can be read in the manual.

General: JRE updated to version 19

General: PDF Lib improved

We've also improved our PDF Lib because we have seen some potential problems with some PDF files not generated by PDF24.

Toolbox: Images in PDF tool improved

There are now more options that allow you to control the conversion process. You can specify the page size and orientation and also a DPI value so that PDF24 can calculate the page size based on the image size.

Toolbox: Optimization of tools to edit, annotate, sign PDFs

A big new feature in this version is the support of installed system fonts. There is a new font selector where you can choose one of the installed system fonts. This allows you to customize the text. This improvement also fixes the problem that certain texts cannot be mapped with every font. For example, when entering Chinese text, you now have the option to use a font that supports these Chinese characters.

Furthermore, there are improvements in the state retention. The text size input field now keeps the last set value. If you now add a new text, the font size of the saved value is set. The same applies to the font selection.

Texts can not only be filled, but the characters can also be outlined. For this purpose there is the input field for the stroke width. This input field now supports fraction numbers, so that you can fine-tune the stroke width.

Toolbox: Added missing text translation on the toolbox home page

There were still two texts on the home page of the toolbox that could not be translated yet. These texts now also use the language files.

Toolbox: Fixed text problems with some language files

When using certain translations, there were problems with some texts in the toolbox. There were internal errors and some texts were not visible. We have improved this and all translations can now be used and displayed correctly again.

Toolbox: Color selection tool of some tools improved

The color selection tool in various PDF tools, such as Edit PDF, now has an input field that displays the current color code. You can also change this code directly so that experienced users don't always have to go through the color picker.

Toolbox: Improvement of tools Add watermark and page numbers

The page numbers and watermarks tools have been improved. This version now uses a new and better method for inserting page numbers and watermarks into a PDF. Furthermore, there is improved font support for these tools as well. We changed the user interface a bit, so that you can now select all installed system fonts via a font selector, which is used for the watermark and the page number text. This also fixes the problem with text that can't be encoded with one of the default fonts, since you can now select a font that supports the text.

Toolbox: Fixed issue with transparent PNGs in Edit PDF tool

Transparent PNGs could be added to the PDF, but the result or the generated PDF was incorrect. The image in the PDF was partially distorted. Here we have improved and fixed the problem.

Reader: Display of the reader improved when it is minimized

When PDF24 Reader is minimized and you double-click on a PDF file to open it in PDF24 Reader, PDF24 Reader now exits the minimized state and displays the newly opened file on the screen. In previous versions, only the taskbar icon of the PDF24 Reader flickered and you then had to click this icon to display the Reader on the screen.

OCR: Update of tesseract to version 5.2.0

Version 11.4.0

26.08.2022

JRE updated to version 18.0.2

JRE outputs are displayed in the Debug Console

For certain JRE program calls, the outputs were not displayed in the debug Console. The missing outputs are now visible.

New Ghostscript version

New Ghostscript 9.56.1 build is used. Removed Tesseract/Leptonica support as it is not needed here. This saves some space. We have also removed the code that adds %%Invocation: comments to PDF files for security reasons, as this could hide information you don't want in a PDF.

Check if the PDF24 folder for temporary files is writable

In rare cases the PDF24 folder for temporary files is not writable. If this is the case, a message will now appear with instructions on how to solve the problem.

Manual extended and many new details added

Special handling for JRE command line arguments

It will now re-encode the JRE command line arguments in the apps if `GetACP()` returns the value `CP_UTF8` and if this does not match the system property `sun.jnu.encoding`. If the two encodings do not match, then the JRE passes command line arguments with incorrect encoding and the app may then fail to find files. There seems to be a bug in this JRE version (https://bugs.openjdk.org/browse/JDK-8272352), which is now marked as fixed and will be fixed with the JRE 19 version.

Updater: More parameters added

The update request now also includes the Windows version, the installer used and the OS architecture, so that updates can be delivered based on this data. The updater itself can also evaluate this data in the update lists and make decisions.

Toolbox: Old IE version removed

The old IE version is no longer used and has now been removed. The new Webview2 version continues to be developed and is now also much more comprehensive than the old IE version.

Toolbox: Page enlargement was defective

The page magnification icon of the rendered page of a PDF in some tools stopped working. Clicking on the icon resulted in an error and the preview did not open. The problem is fixed now.

Toolbox: Fixed scroll problem with page magnification icon

With the page magnification icon on some tools opening a page preview scrolled the whole page up, which was annoying because you then had to scroll back down. This has been improved.

Toolbox: Tool for editing PDF metadata added

With this new tool you can control the metadata of a PDF and then also edit it. This is often very useful, for example to correct data before publishing a PDF file.

Toolbox: Redaction tool now also removes annotations

The redaction tool now removes page annotations from redacted pages because the annotations may contain information you want to hide.

Toolbox: Flickering at startup eliminated

The Toolbox window class now uses a white background color to avoid flickering at startup.

Toolbox: Error handling at startup further improved

For some users there are problems with starting the Toolbox and no error message. Here we have further improved and found more program parts that have not yet reported errors.

Toolbox: Full mode at PDF to HTML Converter

Added the full mode for converting PDF to HTML. Previously only text mode was available.

Toolbox: PDF to SVG Converter added

The SVG option is now available in the "Convert PDF to ..." tool.

Toolbox: PDF to Epub and Epub to PDF Converter added

Epub option is now available in "Convert PDF to..." tool and "Convert to PDF" tool now also supports Epub.

Toolbox: Added startup animation to show Webview2 loading

The animation is helpful so that the user can see that something is being loaded here. Especially when you start the toolbox for the first time, it can take a few seconds for Webview2 to load completely.

Toolbox: Minimum window size limit

The window size of the toolbox has been limited to the minimum window size so that the toolbox can no longer be reduced so much that the window content is no longer visible. This limitation is also common in web browsers.

Toolbox: Improvement of the tool display for input files

The invoice creation tool is no longer visible when the toolbox is started with input files that should be processed with the toolbox, because the invoice tool cannot process these files. Also, tools that can process only one file are hidden when there are multiple input files.

Toolbox: Additional task executor to limit resource use

Now also a Task Executor is used for internal automatic conversion to PDF and for unlocking PDFs to limit the number of tasks and prevent excessive resource usage. This prevents crashes when many files are loaded.

Toolbox: Avoidance of double processing

Added some checks to prevent some tasks from being performed twice, which can happen in some situations.

Toolbox: Improvements in support for password protected PDFs

Some more tools can now handle password-protected PDF files. These include the tools to rotate, extract, and remove PDF pages.

Toolbox: Added block for favorites

The home page for selecting tools has been extended and a block with favorites functions has been added at the top of the page. The favorites are now better displayed and the user can use the tools that he uses frequently more quickly. Individual functions appear in the favorites block when the little star is clicked.

Toolbox: Range selection function of pages

The Remove PDF Pages and Extract PDF Pages tools now have a range selection feature. You can now use the SHIFT key to select a range of pages. First click on a page, then press and hold the SHIFT key, and then click on a second page. The effect is that all pages in that range are selected/deselected for removal or extraction.

Toolbox: A problem with umlauts path name was fixed

Some tools in the Toolbox could not process some files if the pathname contained an umlaut. This problem is fixed.

Creator: Assembling of files optimized

The Creator now recognizes whether a simple joining of files or a more complex merge must be performed when saving a PDF. The joining is easier to do and here we also have the additional option of merging the page directory.

Creator: Fit tool improved during preview

The tool that adjusts the scaling in the preview so that a page fits horizontally and vertically in the window sometimes did not work correctly. Improvements have been made here.

Creator: Flickering further optimized

Selecting/deselecting pages with the preview no longer flickers. Now only the selection frame is redrawn and not the entire page element.

Creator: Overlay preview page orientation optimized

The overlay preview could display incorrect page orientation for a short time if the user clicked the navigation buttons quickly. This has been fixed.

Creator: Toolbar of a file optimized

The buttons of the toolbar of a file are now slightly wider and can be clicked on better. The menu icon in the toolbar is now also no longer set off.

Creator: Width of the title element of a file reduced

The width of the title element of a file is now slightly smaller, so that the title is no longer above or below the toolbar.

Creator: Page rotation synchronized

The rotation of a page in the file preview and in the larger overlay preview is now synchronized. When you rotate a page in the larger overlay preview, the corresponding page also rotates in the file preview. The other way around works as well.

Creator: Saving a file via the overlay preview

Clicking the save icon in the toolbar of the overlay preview now uses the save function of the file and no longer the save function of the overlay preview, because this can only ever save the current page as an image. This has always been a bit user unfriendly and this version improves that.

DocTool: Output folder for multiple files

Some sink handlers now ask for an output folder only once when processing multiple input files. All processed files are then stored in this output folder. This behavior existed in previous versions, but was no longer used due to an extension of the program and it then asked for a file name for the output file for each input file.

DocTool: Forwarding files to the toolbox via the file tool UI

The file tool UI has received a new tile, which forwards the selected files to the toolbox to process them there.

DocTool: Added optimizations for the page extraction dialog.

There were also some improvements in the page extraction dialog of the file tools. The File Tools can be opened by selecting files in Windows Explorer and then right-clicking to select PDF24.

  • Fixed a crash in a special case.
  • Making a page visible in the view has been improved when using the Previous/Next Page tools.
  • Range selection function added. You can now use SHIFT to select or deselect a range of pages. Click on a page or checkbox, then press and hold the SHIFT key and click a second page or checkbox. This will then select or deselect all pages in the range.
  • Cancel button removed. Dialog can be closed with the window's close icon.
  • The Save button no longer automatically closes the page extraction dialog. The user can close the dialog using the window's close icon. You can then extract and save multiple areas one after the other.
  • The UI elements have been restructured a bit and a new element has been added to show the current page ranges that would be extracted if you would save the current selection.

Twain: Scanner functions improved

Some improvements have been made to the functions for using scanners.

  • Inter-process communication has been improved.
  • Other console editions are available.
  • The parent Twain window does not need to be displayed when listing sources. This prevents the Windows taskbar from flickering during the source collection process.
  • Added the "Collect Files" option to the source selection dialog to control whether scanned data should be collected and transferred as one file with pages, or whether each scanned page should be transferred immediately.

Reader: Display of PDF/A and PDF/X version

The PDF/A and PDF/X version is now displayed in the document info area if the PDF file contains this information. This then allows you to see if the PDF uses these standards.

Reader: CTRL+W shortcut is supported

CTRL+W closes the current active tab/PDF or closes the entire window if only one PDF is open.

Version 11.3.0

14.07.2022

pdf24.exe backend system starts when together with the toolbox if the backend process is not already started

If the pdf24.exe backend system is not running, it is started by other PDF24 apps. The PDF24 Toolbox did not do this. This has now been changed so that the Toolbox also starts the pdf24.exe backend system.

Webview2 updated

The current version 103.0.1264.49 of Webview2 is now used. How to use the Evergreen version of Windows is described in the manual in the registry settings section.

Installer: More translations added

Installer: Checkboxes for creating the Toolbox/Launcher icons

The new checkboxes allow you to control which desktop icons should be created. Usually this is an icon for the toolbox. But now the user has the possibility to decide which icons should be created.

Installer: MSI Installer detection integrated

If another PDF24 installation via MSI already exists, this will now be detected by the EXE installer.

Toolbox: Fixed problem when closing the app

Closing the application window right after it appeared could result in a process still running in the background. This problem is fixed.

Toolbox: Create bookmarks based on file names

The Merge PDF and the Images to PDF tool have now received an option to create bookmarks based on file names. Some users have requested such a feature.

If the bookmark function is used with the Merge PDF Tool, then the Java-based implementation is always used when executing the function, since this feature is only available here.

Toolbox: Problems with merging many PDFs fixed

The Java-based PDF implementation had a problem merging hundreds of files due to command line length limitations. This problem has now been fixed. We have implemented a new command execution mechanism to overcome this limitation and to generally increase flexibility for features we will add in the near future.

Toolbox: Javascript workers are now destroyed

The previewer now destroys the pdfjs webworker when the previewer is closed to release resources.

The PDF page renderer, which renders all pages of the PDF, now also destroys the pdfjs webworker when all pages have been processed.

Toolbox: Potential toolbox crash fixed

The PDF thumbnail generator now uses an executor to limit the number of thumbnail generators running in parallel. The toolbox could crash because too many resources were used by massively parallel running thumbnail generators.

Version 11.2.0

29.06.2022

Using /CETCOMPAT when compiling

When compiling EXE and DLL files we now use the compiler option `/CETCOMPAT`.

Reader: Closing problem fixed

With certain PDF files, a problem could occur when closing the Reader and opening the page view, so that the Reader then crashed. This problem has been fixed.

Fixed problem when calling Ghostscript

When calling Ghostscript with long command line there was a problem with an argument so that the call did not return the desired result. This problem has been fixed.

Assistent: Fixed problem when processing small files

If the assistant is started with a small file, then there was a problem here when starting the GUI, which is now fixed.

Toolbox: Joining PDF files extended

When joining PDF files, the function of PDFBox is now used by default, because here the page tree is also included in the new PDF. This change affects the joining of entire PDF files. QPDF is still used for the page-by-page function. Which provider is used for joining can be set via the setting variable 'joinPdfsProvider'. See the manual for more details on this setting.

Toolbox: Footer bar in the status window extended

There is now a footer bar in the job processing status window. This bar can be hidden using the `feature.toolbox.jobMonitorFooter` option. More about this in the manual.

Webview2 update to version 102.0.1245.41

With this version of Webview2, there are new features that we can use, which are used, among other things, in the new Invoice module in the Toolbox.

Toolbox: When starting Webview2 the correct language is now also set

When starting the user interface, the language is now also set in Webview2, so context menus etc. are now displayed in the correct language.

Toolbox: Convert PDF to images tool improved

When converting a PDF to images, PDFBox is now used, which produces the same good results as the corresponding online tool from PDF24. Furthermore, the status of the conversion is now also displayed in the status window.

Toolbox: PDF to Text convert tool improved

When converting a PDF to text, PDFBox is now also used, which produces the same good results as the corresponding online tool from PDF24. Furthermore, the status of the conversion is now also displayed in the status window. This tool also affects the compare PDF tool which gives a better result now.

Toolbox: PDF metadata removal tool added

With the new PDF metadata removal tool you can remove all metadata from the PDF so that the new PDF will not contain any hidden information.

Toolbox: Invoice generator tool added

With the new invoice generator tool you can visually create an invoice and then save or print it as a PDF. Ideal for occasionally creating an invoice.

Version 11.1.0

04.05.2022

Many components updated

  • Update JRE to verison 18.0.1
  • Update Webview2 to version 100.0.1185.50
  • Update to current version of WebView2Loader and WindowsImplementationLibrary
  • Pdfium update to version chromium/5030
  • Ghostscript update to version 9.56.1

Toolbox: Extract images from PDFs

The current implementation now produces the same results as the corresponding online tool from PDF24. With this state, images that could not be exported before are now exported as well.

Toolbox: Some UIs improved

Some tools now also use the Sticky Toolbar, which we also use for the Online Tools. This makes the UI a bit better. This concerns the tools Split PDF, Merge PDF, Extract Pages, Remove Pages, Rotate Pages, Sort Pages.

Version 11.0.1

25.03.2022

Shell File Tools Bug fixed

The PDF24 file tools can be called from the context menu of files. This is possible for both PDFs and other files. The file tools then offer functions that you can execute on the selected files. Merging files is one function here, for example. In one of the previous versions, a bug crept in that prevented some functions from being applied to files that are not PDFs. The file tools usually convert files that are not PDFs to PDF format, and then process the PDF further. Here there was a problem. The conversion did not happen and the subsequent processes could not be executed correctly. We have fixed this problem. You can now e.g. select two or more Word files again, open PDF24 via the context menu and merge the selected Word files.

Version 11.0.0

22.03.2022

Toolbox: Webview2 is now used instead of IE for the UI

IE as rendering engine has been replaced by Webview2. Webview2 is Chrome based, more modern and brings many advantages. With this change, we now have many new opportunities in improving the UI and can use current standards. With the introduction of Webview2 the installer of PDF24 Creator became a bit bigger, but it is worth it.

Toolbox: Import signature via camera

The PDF signing tool now also offers the possibility to import a signature via camera. This option has been available in the PDF24 Online Tools for a long time, but could not be implemented in the PDF24 Creator because the old IE based UI did not support it. With the new Webview2 based UI this is now possible.

Toolbox: A dark theme is now available

The online tools already had the dark theme in the UI, but the PDF24 Creator did not yet. With the introduction of Webview2 we could now enable and improve the dark theme. The theme can be toggled by the palette icon in the UI.

Toolbox: Several small improvements in the UI

As part of the transition to Webview2, we have incorporated some improvements in the UI that enhance the experience of working with the program. More improvements will follow in subsequent versions.

Toolbox: Using a newer PDFJS version

PDFJS is used in many places in the Toolbox UI to render and display PDF pages. With the older version, some PDFs could not be rendered correctly. With the introduction of Webview2 we could now use a current version of PDFJS.

Toolbox: Limitation on file size increased for the file drop box

The file drop boxes component in the UI had a default file size limit of 256 MB. This is too little for some files and a larger file could not be loaded into the file box. We have now increased this limit to 1000 MB.

PDFLib: Improvement in loading of certain PDFs implemented

We were sent a test file that could not be read by PDF24 Creator because it is not correctly structured. However, such a file comes from a scanner program, which is widely used. For such a PDF file we have now made an extension, so that the PDF24 Creator can still read such a PDF.

Components updated

  • QPDF has been updated to version 10.6.3
  • JRE has been updated to version 17.0.2

Version 10.8.0

15.02.2022

FileTools: Improvements in the processing of files

In FileTools, we now no longer pre-process PDF files before passing the PDFs to the actual handler. This often results in better PDF files, especially when merging.

Creator: Improved placement of the preview window

One user request was that the preview window should reappear where it was closed the next time a file or page is opened. We have implemented this point. The position of the preview window is saved in the Windows registry when it is closed. At the next opening this data will be read out again and the display of the window will be restored.

Compress + OCR: Bold font in file list header

The bold font makes it easier to see that this is the header of the file list.

At one point a temporary file is deleted too early

By deleting the temporary file too early, it is not available to the actual function, which then runs into the void.

Assistent: Page number in the file list

In the PDF Printer Assistant the print jobs arrive after printing on the PDF printer. For these files we now show the number of pages. We have added a new column to the file list for this purpose, in which the number of pages is displayed.

PDFLib: Blank names are now allowed

We have examined a PDF that contains empty names, which we have not seen before. We have not been able to process such a PDF so far. Here we have improved so that we can also use such PDFs in PDF24.

DocTool: Improved sink handlers

In DocTool there were still inconsistencies with certain commands when processing files. We have taken a closer look at the points and implemented improvements.

Version 10.7.2

08.02.2022

Reader: Overwriting opened files

In this version of PDF24 Reader, a problem with overwriting files that are already open in Reader has been fixed. Since overwriting open files leads to undefined state, overwriting of open files has been prevented so that the user has to save under a different file name.

QPDF: Update to version 10.5.0

QPDF is now used by default for merging PDFs.

With this change, merging PDFs in Creator is now a bit faster and certain issues are fixed. Furthermore, the merging code has been optimized so that a large number of files can now be merged.

DocTool: Automatically rotate pages integrated as shell command

How to use the new `-autoRotatePages` instruction is described in the PDF24 Creator manual.

Version 10.7.1

05.01.2022

Toolbox: More Modern Save As Dialog

The PDF24 Toolbox now uses a more modern Save As dialog which simplifies saving files. Finding a destination folder is much easier with this dialog.

Reader: Registry option OpenInExistingInstance integrated

The registry option `OpenInExistingInstance` `(DWORD [0|1])` can be used to control whether PDF24 Reader opens files in an already open PDF24 Reader instance as a tab or whether the file should be opened in its own instance. This option can be used in the registry section `HKCU\SOFTWARE\PDF24\PDF24 Reader`.

OCR: Deskew pages option causes problems with certain PDFs

The deskew pages option in the OCR tool causes problems with certain PDFs. We have seen a scanned PDF that has more than one image in the page. Usually there is exactly one image that is incorporated into the page of a PDF after scanning. But there can be more than one, as we have seen. However, the deskew pages function can currently only be used if there is exactly one image in the page. Therefore, we have implemented a detection here so that pages are only deskewed if, among some other conditions, the condition with this one image in the page is now also met.

Fixed issues with custom ICC problem when creating PDF/A and PDF/X files

Due to a bug, custom ICC profiles cannot be used in the older PDF24 Creator version. An empty PDF is created. PDF24 Creator 10.7.1 fixes this problem so that custom ICC profiles can be used again.

Version 10.7.0

15.11.2021

OCR: Problem with tesseract.exe fixed

The tesseract.exe we used did not work correctly on some systems. Tesseract is responsible for recognizing the text in an image. We have now rebuilt tesseract.exe and used a new build flag which solves the problem. The new version should now run on the systems where it did not run before.

Image2Pdf: All EXIF orientations are supported

EXIF can be used to control the orientation of an image file. In one of the last versions we added support for some of these options. We have now extended this further and all EXIF orientations are now supported. This means that images will be embedded in a PDF in correct orientation.

Toolbox: Some overlay icons were not displayed

The tools "Extract Pages", "Remove Pages", "Rotate Pages", "Merge PDF" have icons over the page to make it clear to the user that he can interact with the page. These icons were not visible because the styles used were incorrect. The problem is solved.

Toolbox: Changed the layout of the file preview

The layout of the file preview in the file selection box has been changed. In the new version, the file tools, the preview image, the file name and the metadata such as file size and number of pages are displayed better.

Toolbox: Preview images for PDFs are now generated

In the toolbox, there is a file selection for most tools. In this file selection, the selected files are displayed. In this representation there is a preview image. Until now, preview images were only displayed for image files such as JPGs or PNGs. We have extended this and now a preview image is also generated for PDF files.

Toolbox: Enlarged overlay file preview added

The thumbnails in the file selection box are quite small and not always easy to see. The user did not always have an easy time seeing if he had selected the right file and if it was aligned correctly. This is now better with the help of the new enlarged file preview. The enlarged file preview can be opened via the magnifying glass icon.

Toolbox: Do not convert files twice

The toolbox automatically converts files to PDF format when the PDF format is needed for viewing. If the user subsequently creates the final PDF, then conversion is also required. Here we have improved so that now the previous conversion result is used. This way there is no need to convert twice.

Toolbox: New page mode icons in PDF Merge Tool

The old PNG icons have been replaced and the icon font is used here so that the icons are displayed equally well on different screens.

Toolbox: Images in the "Images in PDF" tool can be rotated

The "Images to PDF" tool now offers the possibility to rotate images. For this purpose, there are two icons above the preview with which the alignment can be set. In the created PDF, the alignment is then set correctly.

Toolbox: EXIF orientation support built into the UI

The user interface of the toolbox is HTML-based. For the display, the IE11 of Windows is currently still used. IE11 does not support EXIF by default. We have improved this and added EXIF support. This is especially important for the "Images in PDF" tool, so that the user can also see the correct orientation of the image and so that the user can rotate the image if the orientation is not correct.

Language files updated

Version 10.6.3

27.10.2021

PDF24 Creator 10.6.3 is another security update which closes the last known vulnerability in the PDF printer interface.

Vulnerability in PDF printer interface closed

The vulnerability could be exploited by a user to run a program on a machine with his user privileges where he was not logged in.

Language files updated

Version 10.6.2

22.10.2021

PDF24 Creator 10.6.2 is another security update. A vulnerability was fixed in Ghostscript 9.55, which made it possible for an attacker to execute programs with elevated privileges. It is recommended to upgrade to the new version.

Using Ghostscript 9.55

Ghostscript 9.55 fixes a security issue, making it possible for an attacker to execute programs with elevated privileges. This is not desirable, especially in a corporate context. Therefore, we now use this version so that this problem is eliminated.

Version 10.6.1

21.10.2021

PDF24 Creator 10.6.1 brings a security update that fixes a vulnerability, making it possible for an attacker to execute programs with elevated privileges. The problem was recently reported to us. We have investigated this issue and made changes to the program as a result, making the software more secure. It is recommended to upgrade to the new version.

Using Ghostscript 9.55

Ghostscript 9.55 fixes a security issue, making it possible for an attacker to execute programs with elevated privileges. This is not desirable, especially in a corporate context. Therefore, we now use this version so that this problem is eliminated.

Use of a better security descriptor for the user-printer-pipes

We now use a better security descriptor for the user printer pipes, so that only LocalSystem, administrators and the user itself have write access to them. The user printer pipes are responsible for accepting and forwarding print jobs from the PDF printer. This restriction also helps to increase security.

Start User-Printer-Pipe Server for LocalSystem User only if necessary

The corresponding server for the user printer pipes is no longer started for the Local System account if this is not absolutely necessary. This is only necessary if the `AutoSaveAsService` configuration option is used. This is rarely the case and therefore this server does not need to be started, which also helps to increase security.

More language files updated

Version 10.6.0

11.10.2021

Toolbox: Favorites in tool selection

In the tool overview in the toolbox, it is now possible to mark a tool as a favorite. This has the advantage that you can find individual tools more quickly, because sometimes you can't see the forest for the trees. A filter for the favorites is also available.

Problem with language selection fixed

A problem has crept in with the language selection. Some languages were no longer displayed when selecting the language. Language variants such as Portuguese (Brazil) were affected. The cause of this problem has now been resolved.

More language files updated

Version 10.5.0

07.10.2021

Toolbox: Page mode integrated in PDF split tool

In the online tools, the page mode has been around for a while now and is often used. This mode is now also integrated in the Split PDF tool in the toolbox. With this mode, the user can split a PDF at certain points by simply clicking on the corresponding scissors in the UI. This makes it quite easy and convenient to split a PDF.

Reader: Transfer the currently opened PDF to the Toolbox and process it further there

In PDF24 Reader there is an entry at the top of the toolbar to transfer the currently opened file to another program to further process the PDF there. Another element has been added here. It is now possible to open the current PDF in the toolbox to process it further there. This is quite interesting and leads to a better productivity, because you can e.g. open the PDF in the Toolbox for signing, editing, compressing and so forth.

Toolbox: Open Toolbox with files

The toolbox can now also be opened with a file, which is then displayed in the UI for further processing. The file is displayed in the UI and all the tools that are relevant for further processing of the file are displayed in the toolbox. All other elements and tools are hidden. This mode is used by PDF24 Reader to open a PDF in the toolbox for further processing.

Settings: Images in PDF menu entry not translated

The Images in PDF menu entry in the settings has not yet used the translations. This entry is now also translated.

Many language files updated

More than 10 language files have been updated and are up to date again.

Toolbox: Check for updates link in footer has used a wrong flag

When calling the updater via the link in the footer, a certain flag was not used, so the latest updates were not found. This problem has been fixed.

Version 10.4.0

01.10.2021

Reader: PDF attachments can be managed

In the sidebar of PDF24 Reader there is now a panel where PDF attachments can be managed. Attachments can be added, removed, opened and saved. Attachments can also be added via drag & drop.

Reader: Copy and save page as image

By right-clicking in the page of a PDF, you can open a context menu that allows you to copy and save the page as an image. This function is sometimes very useful. It is copied in the current quality or zoom level.

Reader: Many other minor improvements

We have made some improvements in the source code, adjusted colors, improved icons, colored input fields in the info panel and updated texts. These changes make the reader even more beautiful and better.

Reader: Window position was no longer saved correctly

The window position from PDF24 Reader is saved so that this position can be restored when reopening. This no longer worked so reliably and this problem has been fixed.

Version 10.3.0

27.09.2021

Problem with password input fields in Windows preview fixed

In the PDF preview in Windows Explorer, password input fields were opened behind the Explorer window, so you didn't see this input field. We have improved this and the problem should be solved.

Focus problem in PDF24 Reader fixed

When opening a PDF file normally in PDF24 Reader, the focus was no longer set to the newly opened PDF file, so you had to click in the viewport to make hotkeys work. This problem has been fixed.

Improved console mode of pdf24-Ocr.exe and pdf24-DocTool.exe

When using pdf24-Ocr.exe and pdf24-DocTool.exe on the console, there were still problems with the prompt not being displayed correctly in the console after the execution was finished. Here we have also improved. We now send a VK_RETURN to the parent console to display the prompt after the process has ended.

Placeholder $fileDir available on auto-save

The function for automatic saving at the PDF printer has now received the placeholder $fileDir. This placeholder stores the directory of the printed file. The name was already present before, but the directory was not. The directory stored in $fileDir is only present or not empty if this directory is also present in the print job name. If the print job name is the full path to a file, then the directory is available and stored in $fileDir.

Open PDF files in the same Reader instance

In this version, PDF24 Reader has been extended and the function that multiple PDF files can be opened in the same instance has been added. This function has been requested by some users. Whenever multiple files are open in a reader, a tab bar is displayed, which can be used to switch between the files. Using the context menu of a tab, you can then open this file again in another instance if you want.

Version 10.2.0

15.09.2021

Windows file preview for PDF files

This version brings a new component for Windows that provides a file preview for PDF files. Many users have requested this feature because they do not want to install additional software for it. We have implemented the file preview based on PDF24 Reader, which we already like very much in the current first version. The preview is fast and requires relatively few resources. It works in Windows Explorer and also in Outlook.

Reader: Optimized UI startup

We have also optimized PDF24 Reader to load only the UI elements that are visible and needed in the current view. This saves resources and leads to a faster start of the UI.

Reader: Bookmarks area improved

The bookmark tree is now loaded on demand and also only the elements that are needed, which speeds up loading PDFs with large bookmark trees and reduces memory consumption. We have quite a large test file which now loads much faster with the new PDF24 Reader than before and it uses much less memory.

Also a slightly larger indentation is used for child elements in the page tree, so that the structure is better visible.

The root element or the first entry in the root element is now also only opened if there is only one child element. If the root element has multiple children, then they remain closed. In the end, this has to do with how the page tree was created.

Reader: Fixed a bug with double-click word selection

By double-clicking on a word in the page, it can be selected. In a certain constellation there was a problem in the old Reader, which has now been fixed.

Updated some language files

Version 10.1.1

20.08.2021

OCR App Code Improved

There were two more code improvements in the OCR app, but they don't affect the function or user interface, but log issues.

Script debug option added to the tolbox

In the toolbox, we have added an option to display script errors when they occur. We can use this option when we need to analyze problems with users.

Maximum script execution time adjusted

Adjusting this option prevents the Toolbox from displaying a message that a script slows down the UI in certain situations, which is usually not a problem because synchronous statements are usually used here and the message is unnecessary.

Dependent components updated

QPDF has been updated to version 10.3.2. Ghostscript to version 9.54. The JRE to version 16.0.2.

Version 10.1.0

16.08.2021
General

Cloud print function removed

This service has been discontinued by Google and can no longer be used. Therefore this function has been removed from PDF24 Creator.

Update buttons can be removed

Update buttons can be removed in the user interface. This can be done via the configuration. The new option `NoUpdateCheckBtns (DWORD32=[0,1])` is available for this purpose. Some companies have requested this feature.

Tray icon open tool can be set

A new option has been added in the configuration to set the tray icon open tool. This is the option `trayIcon.openTool [REG_SZ]`. Values can currently be `[toolbox, launcher, creator]`. If you double click on the icon or select the open option from the context menu, the corresponding program will be opened.

NoKeepDocInfo option introduced

The `NoKeepDocInfo (DWORD=[0,1])` option can be used to set whether the metadata of a PDF should be kept from the source document or not. The default value is 0, so the data will be preserved. Note about custom output profiles: With the save profiles you can store your own metadata which should be used when a PDF is saved.

pdf24.exe

Dependency on spooler removed

This dependency is not strictly necessary and has been removed.

Code improvements

The pdf24.exe has received extensive code changes, improvements and new options, which will hopefully help to better find potential further problems. Among other things, many more lines of code have also been added, which means that more information is written to the log files, which can be used to track the actions.

Automatic log files in temp folder

The pdf24.exe now automatically creates log files in the TEMP folder. The output of pdf24.exe is redirected to these log files. These log files help us, for example, if there are problems. This can be turned off using the `DWORD` option `backend.autoLog=0`.

$owner variable when saving automatically

The auto-save function now offers the placeholder variable `$owner` at the file name, folder and command, which stores the user name of the owner of the printed file or job.

Memory consumption at startup reduced

Delayed loading of the language file can save 1 MB RAM per pdf24.exe process. The language file is only required when an interaction is made with the tray icon. This makes pdf24.exe start a little faster and saves RAM especially if there are many processes on a CITRIX farm.

Images to PDF

Support for 8-bit Gray JPEGs

When converting or embedding JPEG images in a PDF, 8-bit gray JPEG images are now also supported in PassThrough mode.

Support for CMYK JPEGs

CMYK JPEG images can now also be embedded or converted, but these images are currently converted internally to RBG images beforehand.

Support for more image formats

Some other image formats are now also supported, but they are converted to RGB JPGs before embedding them into the PDF.

GUI Framework

Optimizations for faster GUI's

Several other improvements to the GUI substructure have been incorporated, resulting in faster user interfaces.

New component for multiple selection option

The multiple selection option is based on a list view with checkboxes. This new component is used in the OCR user interface.

Reader

Zoom Type Button Click Fix

Zoom type button click effect is sometimes not applied. The problem is fixed now.

Optimization when clicking on Next/Previous page

Clicking on Next/Previous page sometimes moved the page up or down one pixel, which was a bit unattractive. This is now fixed.

Grayscale printing available

Grayscale printing can be activated in the printer options. If this option is active, then the reader sends data to the printer in grayscale mode.

Automatically rotate PDF pages when printing

PDF pages are now automatically rotated to match the orientation of the printed page.

Automatic scaling and positioning of pages during printing

When printing, pages are now automatically scaled and centered better.

Fullscreen mode implemented

The Reader now also has a fullscreen mode. This can be activated and deactivated via F11. Deactivation is also possible via the Escape key.

Launch features disabled

Due to security considerations, some launch features in Reader that may be included in a PDF have been disabled.

Default printer options are now taken into account

Users and admins can preset printer options. PDF24 Reader now uses these options as default settings when printing. This means that various settings do not have to be made again and again.

OCR

User interface improved

The OCR Tool user interface has been greatly improved. The layout is different, the font is better, there are new options and the window can be resized as well.

Option to rotate skewed pages (Deskew)

Scanned pages are often slightly skewed. PDF24 can now get this just right, which significantly improves OCR performance.

Automatically rotate pages implemented

There is now an option to automatically rotate pages in the PDF based on the recognized text.

Option to remove the page background

An option has also been added to remove the background of a page that is present, for example, due to the scanning process.

Supports files with rotated pages

Rotated pages in PDF are now also better supported.

Supports multiple languages simultaneously

In the GUI, the user can now mark multiple languages to be used for the OCR process. Due to the extension of the GUI lib, this feature has now become possible.

Displaying overlay errors

Errors/exceptions when overlaying source page and recognized text are now displayed in the user interface. Problematic files can be sent to PDF24 so that we can analyze them.

Creator

Improved behavior regarding the scrollbar of a file

Improved the behavior of the horizontal scrollbar of a file. Clicking in the scroll track area sometimes did not behave correctly.

Toolbox

Internet access could not be prevented

Internet access in the toolbox could not be disabled. Some companies rely on this and so we have fixed this. The configuration value `NoEmbeddedBrowser` can be used to disable access.

PDF-LIB

Support for empty streams during decoding

Added support for empty streams during decoding. Some PDFs have such a case and PDF24 could not process them. This has now been improved.

File preview from Creator and Assistant

Deadlock fixed

In a certain constellation of instructions (zoom, rotate) a deadlock could occur and the GUI stopped responding. The problem is fixed.

Bug fixed when scrolling

Fixed an error when scrolling the page preview. A page could be scrolled horizontally even though there was no scroll area at all.

Preview size optimized

The default preview size has been optimized a bit. The size now depends on the screen size and hopefully this will lead to less manual resizing. Previously the size was fixed after opening the preview.

Scroll functions and behavior improved

The scroll functions and the resulting behavior have been revised. This now works much better and is also more precise.

Dependent components

Dependent components updated

QPDF has been updated to version 10.3.2. Ghostscript to version 9.54. The JRE to version 16.0.2. Also a custom WxWidgets version is currently used, which can use default values of a printer. The code was provided to the WxWidgets project.

Version 10.0.12

(25.03.2021)

Option trayIcon.openLauncher added

With the DWORD option trayIcon.openLauncher = [0|1] you can force to open the launcher instead of the toolbox via the tray icon.

Option toolbox.showScriptErrors added

With the DWORD option toolbox.showScriptErrors = [0|1] you can force to hide script errors. Script errors are usually displayed, but sometimes they will not malfunction when they occur. This then gives you an option not to display them when they occur.

Start service note + server per user option

If the server per user option is activated, then it makes no sense to display the start service message. That has now been corrected.

Security issue fixed

Version 10.0.11

(19.02.2021)

Fixed problems with UTF8 character encoding on some systems

Some systems had problems with the UTF8 character encoding. In the toolbox for instance some umlauts were not displayed correctly. This did not affect all systems. We investigated and fixed the problem.

Fixed problem converting images to PDF

A problem with the "Images to PDF" function and the newly introduced embedding of JPG files without recoding has been fixed. If an image file has a .jpg extension and the image is not actually a JPG image, then direct embedding failed with a blank page. We are now using a different technique to identify JPG images so that images with incorrect file extensions will work correctly again.

In the settings area you can now configure the "Images to PDF" function

The "Images to PDF" block has been added to the settings area, where you can make some settings that the "Image to PDF" function uses. Before you could only do this directly via the Windows registry. It's more comfortable that way.

JRE updated to version 15.0.2

The new version is not a direct benefit, but it is important for some companies to have an up-to-date version.

Version 10.0.10

(17.02.2021)

Mediabox rotation improved

The Mediabox rotation is used for overlaying content. Improvements had to be made here because problems occurred with certain PDF files. The function now also supports Mediabox definitions where the lower left coordinate is not in the origin. This is quite rare, but some PDFs use this possibility.

Use of metadata when converting images to PDF

Metadata is now also evaluated when converting images to PDF. The orientation that can be stored in the metadata is used here. Based on the determined orientation, the rotation of the page in the PDF is adjusted accordingly. In this way, the user no longer has to correct the orientation afterwards. Especially with photos that come from smartphones, the orientation is often incorrect. This improvement now simplifies the conversion of images into PDF files.

Direct embedding of JPG images in a PDF

JPEG images are now embedded in the PDF without re-encoding. This often makes the PDF file size much smaller and the quality remains the same. This behavior can be controlled via the registry setting `Img2PDFPassThroughJPEGImages (DWORD [0|1])`.

Online converter block removed from the settings area

The online converter block has been removed from the Settings UI, as this option is also available from the features area in the settings. The duplication is not necessary here.

Problem with transformation matrices fixed

When calculating transformation matrices used in PDF files, two errors have been fixed which caused problems with certain PDF files. The new calculations are now correct.

Fixed script error in the toolbox

We fixed some script errors in the toolbox that occurred when using certain languages such as Dutch. We had to make some changes and add extensions so that the translated text does not cause problems with the scripts.

Fixed a script error when displaying grouped results in the toolbox

The toolbox shows the results of an operation grouped if this is necessary. When viewing these groups, a script error occurred with certain input files. The reason for the problem was the file name. Filenames with certain characters caused this problem. We have investigated and fixed this issue.

Three untranslated text translated in the toolbox

In the toolbox there were still 3 untranslated texts. The texts were displayed in German. Here we have improved so that these texts now also use the translated version.

Version 10.0.9

(08.02.2021)

Toolbox: Sign PDF tool now has separate options for stroke and fill color

The Sign PDF tool now has a line and fill color option in the toolbar. This is sometimes required for some signatures to completely change the color of the signature, as the automatic detection of the combined color tool sometimes does not work as expected.

Toolbox: Sign PDF tool scales large signatures better when inserting them

Inserting large signatures was ugly from the user's point of view, as it was tedious to scale them down to the desired size. It's better now. The signature is inserted a little smaller if it is very large, so that it is easier to move it to the right place and to change the size.

Toolbox: Blacken PDF tool renders edited pages for security

Previously, the information from the blackening was placed on the page as a layer. With PDF editing tools it was too easy to get rid of this layer. In order to increase security, edited pages are now also rendered to an image and the actual content of the page is replaced with the image. In this way, you can no longer remove layers to make the content below visible. This makes the PDF a bit larger, but this is the only way to guarantee security.

Toolbox: Backspace button navigation disabled

Users have reported that the backspace key can be used to go back to the overview page. If you now e.g. edited a PDF and used the backspace key, then you leave the edit page, which is really ugly. This issue has now also been improved.

Version 10.0.8

(22.01.2021)

Toolbox saves last window placement

The toolbox now saves the last used window size and position on the screen. This way, the user can better adapt the application to the hardware he is using. Especially with large screens, some users do not want a maximized display.

Tray icon Open action improved

The tray icon can be used to open the PDF24 via the icon context menu or via a double-click. This behavior has been improved. If the toolbox is activated, then the toolbox is opened. If the Toolbox is not activated, then the older launcher is opened instead.

Some brush types disabled for tools in the toolbox

For the Edit, Blacken and Annotate tools in the Toolbox, we have disabled some brush types because they do not run correctly in the offline version. Here we need to see how to switch these brush types so that they also work in the offline version.

Importing signatures into the signing tool improved

Signatures that are available as images can be imported into the tool. With large images there were problems with the display, so it was difficult to import them. Here we have improved so that this is now easier.

More functions can be deactivated in the toolbox

More instructions have been added in the Toolbox to disable some tools there. This can be done via the Windows Registry. The registry entries have the following form: feature.toolbox.[blacken | ...] = [0 | 1] (DWORD). For example, if you want to disable the blacken tool, then set feature.toolbox.blacken = 0.

Language files updated

Problem with updater fixed

The updater did not evaluate an instruction correctly, which caused problems with the detection of updates. This problem has been fixed in this version.

Reader cannot overwrite currently opened file

In Reader we have built in a protection so that the currently opened file cannot be overwritten. If you wanted to do this in older versions, then there were problems with saving and the newly saved file was empty.

Filter options in the toolbox have made disabled tools visible

In the toolbox, there are several filters that the user can use to display tools. One of the filters is the one for recently used tools. Furthermore, there is the possibility to deactivate certain functions throughout the program, e.g. if they should not be available in a company. However, the use of the filters caused that these deactivated functions were made visible. This problem is now fixed.

Version 10.0.7

(15.12.2020)

Fixed page mode from the merge tool in the toolbox

The page mode of the merge tool in the Toolbox was defective. The Toolbox crashed when you used the page mode. This version fixes this problem.

Problems with editing, blackening, signing, annotating PDF files in landscape mode solved

Editing, blackening, signing and annotating PDF files that are in landscape format could not be performed correctly. After saving the PDF file, the changes were not correctly combined with the actual document. This problem has been fixed.

Problems with installing additional PDF printers fixed

A problem with installing additional PDF printers via the settings dialog was fixed. The settings interface showed the same name for installed PDF printers.

Removed use of the setpdfwrite operator

The setpdfwrite operator of Ghostscript is no longer used, because this operator is deprecated.

Language files updated

Version 10.0.6

(10.12.2020)

PDF24 Toolbox shows hint page for an incompatible system

The PDF24 Toolbox requires Windows 10 to run without problems. With older systems, you may need to make some changes to make the UI display properly. If an environment is detected which is not sufficient for the PDF24 Toolbox, a hint page is displayed and some options are shown. This is a better way of picking up those users who are currently experiencing errors because they are using a too old system.

Version 10.0.5

(09.12.2020)

Automatic DPI reduction in the OCR tool

We have further improved the OCR engine in the OCR tool. Some users have reported that sometimes no text is recognized. We have investigated this and found a problem with the DPI value. The DPI value is now automatically lowered to ensure that text can be recognized. Since, depending on the way the PDF is created, there may be a problem with the size and memory limit, and Tesseract will fail if the underlying image file becomes too large, this was a necessary step. The automatic DPI adjustment prevents this, because if the PDF file has an abnormal page size, the DPI value is automatically reduced so that internal processing does not fail.

Included Java VM updated to version 15

Version 10.0.4

(03.12.2020)

Option to leave the Scanner App open

In the selection window to choose a scanner source, there is now also a checkbox to leave the scanner app open after the scan process. This way, you can scan several pages in a row more quickly.

Option to use scanner data sources via twain_32.dll

The twain_32.dll is part of Windows and sometimes displays other data sources that are not currently displayed. Therefore we have now made these data sources selectable via the selection window.

Scanner selection window shows sources grouped

The scanner selection window now shows the data sources grouped. Data sources are determined in different ways and assigned to a group. The UI displays these groups and the corresponding data sources.

Language files updated

Fixes a problem where the PDF printer does not work

After installation or after an update, it could happen that the PDF printer did not work anymore. The reason was that the PDF printer was set to a wrong port. Normally the PDF printer named "PDF24" always has the port "\\.\pipe\PDFPrint". However, some users have reported that the port had a number, which is usually used for additional PDF printers. We have made an improvement in the printer installation that prevents this problem. This way, no wrong port should be set after installation.

Version 10.0.3

(24.11.2020)

Fixed problems importing from scanners

Version 10 had problems talking to a scanner. Access to the TWAIN interface was no longer possible. The reason is the update to the x64 architecture in version 10. We have analyzed this issue in more detail and developed a workaround for this problem. Through an indirection, the PDF24 Creator can now load x86 and x64 Twain drivers and import data from these sources. The user can select the appropriate source beforehand. If there are any further problems in this area, please let us know.

Added scanner import tile to the toolbox

There is now a new tile on the PDF24 Toolbox home screen which opens the scanner import UI. The older PDF24 Launcher also has this tile. This makes it now a bit easier for users to find this function.

PDF24 toolbox tile added to the PDF24 Launcher

The PDF24 Launcher can now also open the new PDF24 Toolbox. There is now a new tile in the launcher for this. Users who prefer to use the PDF24 Launcher can now open the toolbox more easily.

Version 10.0.2

(18.11.2020)

Fixed problems saving files with certain tools from the toolbox

The tools for editing, annotating, signing and redacting were not able to save certain PDF files. The save function resulted in an error and the visualization for saving files was never stopped. Users have made us aware of this problem and have sent us test files that we have analyzed. The underlying problem has been fixed and the tools now also work with the PDFs sent to us.

More language files updated

Problems with driving scanners are still there and we are working on them

Those who cannot import from your scanner should still use version 9.2.2, which you can also download from the PDF24 download section. Problems caused by the switch to x64 are known and we are working on a workaround to solve this problem.

Version 10.0.1

(16.11.2020)

Problems with loading password protected PDF files into the toolbox fixed

We have fixed an error when loading password protected pdf files into the toolbox. Some tools did not behave correctly with this kind of files and loading failed. This problem is fixed with version 10.0.1.

Fixed problems when loading PDF files into a toolbox that contain special characters

An error when loading files into the Toolbox that have some special characters in the path name was fixed. The Toolbox was not able to handle this kind of files. The encoding was not implemented correctly. This has been corrected and the problem is fixed.

A bug in the overlay tool introduced in version 10.0.0 was fixed.

We have also fixed a bug introduced in version 10.0.0 regarding the overlay PDF tool. An error message appeared with an error during file conversion. This problem is now also fixed.

Fixed an error when unlocking PDFs with the unlock tool in the toolbox

A bug with the PDF unlock tool was fixed. The unlocked file could not be saved by the user. Instead, the locked version was saved incorrectly. Now the correct version is used when saving.

An error with the used toolbox url encoding scheme was fixed.

A bug with the URL encoding scheme used in the toolbox was also fixed. Some users could not work properly with the new Toolbox due to special characters in user names or special characters in file names.

More language files updated

Most of the language files are now up to date.

Version 10.0.0

(12.11.2020)

PDF24 Toolbox added

The biggest new feature in PDF24 Creator 10 is the toolbox. The new toolbox contains many PDF tools and which makes them as easily accessible as possible. With the online PDF Tools from PDF24 we have seen that users find very simple PDF Tools great. As a result, we have constantly expanded and improved the online tools. Our goal is to offer all PDF Tools as online and offline versions in the PDF24 Creator. Since the development of the online tools is a bit faster than the development of the offline tools, there were many tools online, but they were not yet available offline. This discrepancy will now be eliminated with the PDF24 Creator 10. The new PDF24 Creator 10 gets with the toolbox all the tools that are also available online and we are proud of that. Users who cannot or do not want to use online tools for data protection reasons can now find all tools as offline version in PDF24 Creator 10.

The following tools are included in the new PDF Toolbox of PDF24 Creator 10:

  • Merge PDF
  • Compress PDF
  • Edit PDF
  • Convert files to pdf
  • Convert PDF files to other formats
    • PDF to Text
    • PDF to HTML
    • PDF to JPG
    • PDF to PNG
    • PDF to PDF, PDF/A-1, PDF/A-2, PDF/A-3
    • PDF to Word
    • PDF to PowerPoint
    • PDF to Excel
  • Protect PDF
  • Unlock PDF
  • Split PDF
  • Rotate PDF pages
  • Delete PDF pages
  • Extract PDF pages
  • Sort PDF pages
  • Create a PDF from images
  • Convert a PDF to images
  • Extract images from PDFs
  • Create online application as PDF
  • Optimize PDF for the Web
  • Insert watermark into a PDF
  • Insert page numbers into a PDF
  • Overlay PDF files
  • Compare PDF files
  • Sign PDF files
  • Annotate PDF files
  • Blacken PDF files
  • Crop PDF
  • Flatten PDF

Paths in the registry changed

The PDF24 Creator settings are located in the Windows Registry. With version 10 we have adapted the paths where the PDF24 Creator stores the settings. The old paths were historical, but did not contain the term PDF24, which has always been a bit unsightly. Previously the settings were saved under "SOFTWARE/PDFPrint". In Version 10, "SOFTWARE/PDF24" is now used instead. Attempts have been made in the past to change this, but so far it has never worked. The PDF24 Creator 10 is a major update, so this point is now included here.

Update to Ghostscript 9.53

The PDF24 Creator 10 now includes the latest version of Ghostscript. In Ghostscript itself there have been many changes in the last revisions and we were advised to update to the current version. We have done this and we have adapted the PDF24 Creator to the new Ghostscript version.

PDF24 Creator 10 is now built for 64-bit systems

On the one hand, we have been asked about it several times, but on the other hand it is necessary for some new components to work properly with the PDF24 Creator. All parts of the PDF24 Creator are now x64-compatible. Dependent components and programs like Ghostscript are also delivered in the 64-bit version. This means that all parts of the PDF24 Creator are designed for x64 systems.

Screen Capture Tool improved

The Screen Capture Tool can now also save to a file. This new mode is now available in the user interface. The tool also saves recently used settings so that you can take a screenshot more quickly next time.

OCR tool usable via command line

Using the command line you can now also detect text in files. The command line interface for the OCR tool is described in the new PDF24 Creator Manual. Some users have asked for such a solution and we have included this feature in version 10.

PDF24 Creator Manual is now available

With the PDF24 Creator 10 there is now also a manual for the first time, which contains a lot of information about the PDF24 Creator. This information is especially interesting for administrators. The manual will be further improved and maintained.

Fixed a problem with the generation of PDF/A-2b files

We have fixes a problem with the generation of PDF/A-2b files. Validation of generated files did not pass tests. This problem is fixed now.

Version 9.7.0

06.03.2024
Version 9.7.0 is practically identical to version 11.17.0, but does not contain a toolbox. As the toolbox is not included, the Webview2 and JRE components are not required. As a result, the installation program and the application are significantly smaller than version 11.16.0. Version 9.6.0 can also be used under Windows 7, while version 11.16.0 requires at least Windows 10.

Version 9.6.0

(01.02.2024)
Version 9.6.0 is practically identical to version 11.16.0, but does not contain the toolbox. As the toolbox is not included, the Webview2 and JRE components are not required. As a result, the installation program and the application are significantly smaller than version 11.16.0. Version 9.6.0 can also be used under Windows 7, while version 11.16.0 requires at least Windows 10.

Version 9.5.0

(21.11.2023)
Version 9.5.0 is practically identical to version 11.15.0, but does not contain the toolbox. As the toolbox is not included, the Webview2 and JRE components are not required. As a result, the installation program and the application are significantly smaller than version 11.15.0. Version 9.5.0 can also be used under Windows 7, while version 11.15.0 requires at least Windows 10.

Version 9.4.0

(05.10.2023)
Version 9.4.0 is virtually identical to version 11.14.0 without the Toolbox. Since the Toolbox is not included, the Webview2 and JRE components are not required. As a result, the installer and the application are significantly smaller than version 11.14.0. Version 9.4.0 can still be used under Windows 7, while version 11.14.0 requires at least Windows 10. Problems in version 9.3.0 with the watermark and page number functions in the output profiles have been fixed.

Version 9.3.0

(22.08.2023)
Version 9.3.0 is virtually identical to version 11.13.2 without the Toolbox. Since the Toolbox is not included, the Webview2 and JRE components are not required. As a result, the installer and the application are significantly smaller than version 11.13.2. Version 9.3.0 can still be used under Windows 7, while version 11.3.2 requires at least Windows 10.

Version 9.2.2

(30.09.2020)

Start offset for page numbering improved

The pagination options have been changed so that the start offset marks only the first page on which to start pagination. The page numbers themselves are no longer influenced. In this way, the correct page number now appears on the correct page in the document. This change is useful when documents have been merged and when you need to add page numbers to the new pages.

Language files updated

The Portuguese and Portuguese-Brazilian language files were incorrectly interchanged. This has been corrected. Some other language files have also been improved.

Fixed a problem with the updater

A problem with the updater has been fixed. The updater could not find some updates. Some users have made us aware of this.

Version 9.2.1

(07.09.2020)

Problem with 256 Bit encryption fixed

Some users have reported that there are problems with 256 bit encryption. We have investigated this. The problem does not seem to affect all users, because on our test systems we could not reproduce the problem. Version 9.2.1 provides a workaround for this problem, so that the 256 encryption is running again on the computers that reported problems.

Version 9.2.0

(13.08.2020)

Problem with PDF printer fixed

A recent Windows update has caused the PDF printer to stop working correctly. Print jobs were stuck in the queue. We have analyzed and fixed the problem. All users who have problems with the PDF printer should upgrade to the current version 9.2.0.

Problem with metadata and PDF/A fixed

Problems occurred when changing the metadata of PDF/A files. This version fixes a problem in this area.

PDF printer driver description improved

In the PPD file that describes the PDF printer, there were some minor problems. These have been fixed. Furthermore some minor improvements were made. For example, the minimum page size has been further reduced, which is sometimes useful for label production.

Improvements when loading many files in the Creator

In the Creator there were improvements when loading many files. Sometimes the display was not correct and the UI became slow when several hundred files were loaded.

Downloads folder in the Creator page tree

The downloads folder is now listed in the page tree of the Creator. This makes it easier to find this folder, because many files come from the Internet and end up in the downloads folder.

Updater improved

Many improvements have been made to the Updater, which will be necessary in the future. The Updater is now much more flexible, which will be necessary when choosing the right update. In the future there will be e.g. x64 versions and the updater has to choose the right architecture.

Password request when saving a PDF

The output profiles have been given a new option. You can now set that passwords are queried when a PDF is created. This way you can set the passwords again and again and thus give each PDF a different password.

Version 9.1.1

(15.05.2020)

Send as fax not working when fax printer was not installed

If the fax printer was not installed, the functions for sending as a fax did not work due to a missing configuration parameter. This is now fixed and you can send faxes even if the fax printer is not installed.

Fixed a bug exchanging files with the PDF24 services

Due to an error within a certain function, the file name was not exchanged correctly with the online services PDF24 Mail, PDF24 CloudPrint, PDF24 Fax. This led to some problems there, e.g. a missing file name in the folder for sent faxes. This problem is now fixed.

Larger timeout for QPDF unlock operation

Sometimes it takes a little longer than expected for QPDF to unlock PDF files. The time limit now depends on the file size, so large PDF files get a little more time to unlock.

QPDF update to version 10.0.1

This release brings some optimisations regarding speed.

Version 9.1.0

(24.04.2020)

OCR: Option for automatic saving in the same directory

With this new option, the OCR tool is able to automatically save processed files in the directory where the file is located. This option can be very useful when processing many files.

OCR: Option for automatic saving in an output directory

With this new option, the OCR tool is able to automatically save processed files in a directory. This option can be very useful when processing many files.

OCR: Skip documents and pages with text

With this new option, the OCR tool is able to skip files or pages that already contain text. In this way, files are not saved with duplicate text.

OCR: Number, how many files are processed in parallel, is adjustable

This new option allows the user to set how many files should be processed in parallel. In this way, the user can decide how heavily his computer may be used.

OCR: Security prompts for unsaved files

When files are removed or when the application is closed and if there are unsaved files, a confirmation prompt is displayed.

OCR: Menu icon for each file

At the end of each line of a file entry there is a menu icon with further options for the file.

OCR: Show recognized text via the menu icon

The menu icon now contains an option to display the recognized text. This makes it easier to see which text has been recognized.

OCR: Error message if language information cannot be loaded

Language files and language information are downloaded from the Internet due to their size. If this fails, an appropriate message is displayed. Buttons for retrying or canceling are available.

OCR: Integration of a cache, for faster reprocessing

The cache makes a subsequent OCR process for the same file complete faster. This is especially useful if the options are changed later and the OCR process is restarted.

OCR: Faster processing

File processing is much faster with this new version than before. Sometimes files are processed almost twice as fast.

OCR: Tesseract Update to version 4.1.1

The new version of Tesseract fixes problems and brings improvements so that these new features also benefit the user.

OCR: GUI revised

  • The GUI is now slightly larger so that all new elements can be displayed.
  • The options area uses a flow layout to allow more options to be used in this area without wasting too much space.
  • There is a menu icon for each file with additional functions.
  • Icons in the toolbar were revised.

General: PDF Lib improvements

Further improvements have also been made to the PDF Lib, which is used internally in PDF24 for many tasks.

General: Password Cache to improve decryption of many files

Entered passwords are stored internally in the open program and will be used automatically when further documents are loaded. If several documents have the same password, then the password does not have to be entered again for these files.

Settings: Problem with duplicate entries solved

There is a Reload button in the settings area PDF Printer, Automatic Save, Profiles. Using this button has resulted in duplicate entries in the selection box. This problem is solved.

Creator: Automatic folder display when loading a file via command line

If a file is loaded in the Creator via command line, the folder where the file is located is displayed in the file explorer.

Reader: Fixed problem with date display in file information area

The minute in the date was not correct due to an incorrect formatting specification. This issue has been fixed.

Reader: Fixed problems when loading files with special characters in the name

PDF files with special characters in the name could not be loaded on some systems. There was a problem with the character encoding which caused these files not to be found. This problem has been fixed.

Version 9.0.6

(07.04.2020)

Creator: Fixed problems loading non-PDF files

The creator could only load PDF files, but no longer displayed other files after the conversion. This problem was hidden in the previous version. Version 9.0.6 fixes this problem.

Version 9.0.5

(06.04.2020)

Creator: Flickering removed

The Creator has been further optimized and annoying flickering has been eliminated in many places. This particularly affects flickering when scrolling and when selecting / deselecting / rotating pages.

Creator: Automatic hiding of the drag & drop info

The drag & drop info in the right window area is now hidden if loaded documents cover this info. This optimizes the display somewhat.

Creator: Asynchronous file loading activated

In the Creator, files are now loaded asynchronously to the user interface. This means that the GUI is less blocked when files are loaded. Especially when inserting many PDFs there were annoying blocks.

Creator: Fixed problems with sorting the file list

In a few cases, the function for comparing and sorting the file list has led to inaccurate results. This little problem is now also off the table.

Notifications: display problem fixed

There was a problem displaying content when displaying notifications. This has been resolved.

Overlay + OCR: Improvement in combining documents

Further improvements were made when combining PDFs using the overlay method. In older versions, the content of some documents was not combined correctly, so that the desired result was not generated. Thanks to the optimizations, we can now combine many more documents better. This change affects the overlay function and therefore also the OCR feature, which is also uses the overlay method.

Fixed an issue with displaying some banners in customized versions

Users can customize the PDF24 Creator with a banner. With some banners there was a problem with the display (briefly visible and then gone). This problem should now be solved.

Version 9.0.4

(23.01.2020)

Issues with the digital paper feature fixed

Users have reported problems with the digital paper function. We analyzed this and optimized the code that combines the digital paper file with the actual document. The optimized code now supports more digital paper files. If you are experiencing problems with this feature, or if you have digital paper files that do not work, you should upgrade to this release, as this release will likely fix your issues.

Version 9.0.3

(15.01.2020)

Reset to Ghostscript 9.27

With the current Ghostscript version 9.50 there are problems with the transparency of the watermark and the page number feature. Therefore Ghostscript 9.27 is used again. The problems with Ghostscript 9.50 have to be solved together with the Ghostscript team.

Version 9.0.2

(13.01.2020)

Document0 issue fixed

The creator partially no longer received the file name and instead displayed Document0, Document1, ... This problem has been solved.

PDF24 Windows Service start problem fixed

The PDF24 Windows Service could not start properly on certain PCs and crashed during startup. This occurred in the case examined under Citrix. This problem has been solved.

Fixed problem with extract text tool in the Creator context menu

This tool was buggy. Problems have been fixed here and the tool now does what it should.

Improvements in standard printer handling

Now uses the Winspool methods GetDefaultPrinter and SetDefaultPrinter as the standard for managing the standard printer. A timeout when printing on the standard printer was also reduced from 10 seconds to 5 in order to convert files faster in the Creator.

Update of third party components

  • Ghostscript has been updated to version 9.5.0
  • QPDF has been updated to version 9.1.0
  • wxwidgets has been updated to version 3.1.0
  • pdfium has been updated to the latest version

PDF Reader Zoom levels optimized for mouse wheel zoom

The zoom levels when zooming with CTRL + mouse wheel have been optimized. The zoom levels can mow be divided by at least a multiple 5.

PDF Reader toolbar optically improved

The toolbar in the PDF reader is now a bit larger and clearer, which makes it easier to use the tools. Further improvements regarding the view with different window sizes will follow.

Version 9.0.1

(18.10.2019)

Big update of language files

We updated every language file of the PDF24 Creator, which took some time because we had to do all the translation tasks of the freelancers. Now we are happy, that this task is done.

Fixed an error when displaying the file list in the Creator

In Creator, restrictions on the number of files in the list on the right side of the app have been fixed. We have seen that more than about 150 files caused problems with the container's scroll area and incorrectly placed file elements. We solved these problems, so now many more files can be added and processed.

Fixed wrong menu names in Creator

There was a wrong menu associated with the save file icon of the creator and this was a bit confusing. The function was correct, but not the name. This is fixed now.

Fixed incorrect file name when adding images to the Creator

The name of the image was lost during the conversion process and this was a bug. We have fixed this and now the Creator receives the file name again and displays the file correctly.

File list sorting method fix in the Creator

There was a minor bug with the sorting algorithm of files in the list of the file explorer in the Creator. This is also fixed now.

Version 9.0.0

(07.08.2019)

Rotation option for paper and overlay available

We've added a rotation option to the Paper and Overlays option block that lets you customize the paper or overlay page orientation according to the actual document.

Option to use the save file name chooser dialog in auto save mode

This option can be used to let the user decide where to place the current file in automatic save mode. If this option is enabled and the PDF printer is configured in automatic save mode, a dialog box appears for selecting the file name in which the user must select the save path.

Merge with zipper method available in the Creator

There is now also the new merge with zipper method available. This new merge mode merges page after page (page one from first file, then page one from second file, ...). This tool is added to the toolbar of the app.

Function to reverse the page order now available

The Creator has a new function to reverse the page order of a document. The function is available in the context menu of a file that was opened there. Right-click an open file or click the new menu icon, and then click the appropriate menu item. This tool is very useful for scanned documents to reverse the page order and get the backs in the correct order. This is necessary for the new zipper merge, for example.

Document toolbar of the Creator now has a burger menu item

This burger menu item can be used to show the context menu of a file.

Re-enabled the internal file explorer of the Creator

We have reactivated the creator's internal explorer and added some optimizations. The file explorer can be activated or deactivated from the main menu of the program.

Copy/Paste improvements in the PDF reader for form fields

Copy/Paste could not be used in older versions of the Reader for form fields. This is now possible and you can use Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V in form fields.

PDF printer file name detection improved

We have improved the code that is responsible for recognizing the filename and path of the printed files. The new algorithm is slightly better.

Replacement of special characters in file names

We found some more places where special characters in the filename were not replaced. This could lead to unsaved files or unwanted behavior. Invalid file name characters are now also replaced for files attached to a mail to avoid problems here.

Overlay and paper method improved

We are now using a new algorithm to combine the contents of the files (digital paper and actual document), which gives better results under different conditions. The old method can be used by setting overlay.mode = "old" in the Windows registry settings.

Translaton file updates

Fix for a special PDF auto rotate pages bug

We found this special case that could lead to incorrectly rotated pages in PDF files and we fixed it.

Version 8.9.1

(10.07.2019)

Fixed a bug when sorting pages within a PDF

Changing the page order within a PDF and then saving did not bring the desired effect. The order was not saved correctly. The problem is solved.

Updating of some language files

New config option "ignorePdfUnlockFailed"

The Boolean option "ignorePdfUnlockFailed" can be used to prevent the message "unlock PDF failed". Some users see this message because in rare cases the unlocker may not be able to load certain PDF files with minor errors. When users receive this message, they can use this flag to ignore it. This works if the PDF is not password protected at all. But if a PDF is locked, then the next process cannot handle the file correctly.

Version 8.9.0

(11.06.2019)

Common: Format options dialog visually improved

The format options dialog is a larger component with dozens of options. Here we have room for improvement. We have optically improved the page tree on the left side and optimized some paddings and margins to make working with this component easier.

Common: User settings key name changes of the assistant and creator

There are some options in the settings related to the PDF printer assistant and the creator. We have changed the names of these settings to the new format we introduced in other components, so that they now use the new format with a prefix followed by a period.

Common: Single instance lock of the PDF24 Updater

We have implemented a single instance lock for the PDF24 Updater to prevent the Updater from opening twice. It does not make sense to have multiple instances of this application open.

Common: More options available in the settings UI

We have added some more options to the preferences interface. You can now also configure a fixed save directory used by the PDF printer assistant (assistant.fixedSaveDir) and you can tell the PDF printer assistant to use the name of the first file in the list when merging to a single PDF (assistant.joinFilesUseFirstName).

Common: Auto rotate pages are now enabled by default when converting PS files to PDF

PS files normally comes from the PDF printer, which we convert internally into the PDF format. Printing applications often adapt the orientation of pages to the standard paper formats, resulting in incorrectly rotated pages. For this reason, we have by default turned on the option to automatically rotate pages during conversion.

Common: MAPI mail interface now creates modeless dialogs

The MAPI mail interface now creates modeless dialogs so that the user is able to work with other windows. The outlook mail interface has already used this mode.

Common: Mail interface selection bug fixed

There was a bug in the mail interface selection code that wrongly switched back to the MAPI interface if the PDF24 mail interface was disabled through the settings.

Common: Reduced wait times of command processor

We could reduce waiting times of the shell command processor, which is responsible for calling other applications like Ghostscript. This should in some cases lead to slightly faster results.

Common: PDF printer auto save command templates

We have extended the PDF printer settings user interface page. We have added a selection box to select PDF printer auto save command templates to make it easier to set up a PDF printer configured in auto save mode.

Common: Option NoReader=1 did not work correctly

With the NoReader registry setting you can control whether the PDF24 Reader is visible in the PDF24 Creator or not. This option did not work correctly in previous versions. This has been fixed.

Common: Fix for a PDF security settings issue in case of an empty owner password

We have found a bug in the code that is responsible for applying the PDF security settings. An empty owner password leads to a small problem.

Common: Update to QPDF 8.4.1

We had opened a ticket at the QPDF project because QPDF did not handle umlauts correctly in file names. This has been improved in QPDF 8.4.1. Internally we now use this version.

Common: Update to Ghostscript 9.27

We had written a bug report to the Ghostscript team because older versions of Ghostscript had problems with some PDF files. The issue was font and color changes during PDF file reprocessing. The new version fixes this.

Common: Optimized PDF password encoding

We have optimized the PDF password encoding when locking or unlocking pdf files to fix potential encoding issues with some readers.


Assistant: Option for fixed save directory

The assistant now understands an option to use a fixed save directory when saving files to disk. This is the "assistant.fixedSaveDir" option that you can also configure via the settings interface.

Assistant: Remembers last save directory

The assistant now remembers the last save directory, but only if the "assistant.fixedSaveDir" option is not used and if no directory is associated with the current file.

Assistant: Special case for files stored in the temporary files directory

If the directory of a file is TEMP, then we do not set this directory as initial folder in the file selection dialog.


Creator: File explorer removed

We do not want to implement such a component anymore because the Windows file explorer is much better. This change is usually not a problem, as there are many good options for adding files to the creator now. Another advantage is the space, which is now available for the actually important part of the app.

Creator: New icons

There are many new icons in the interface and in the menus that beautify the creator and help you to work with the tool.

Creator: Less flickering, faster UI and optimized behavior

We also spent some time tweaking the creator UI. There is now fewer flickering, more responsive elements and a better focus behavior.

Creator: New shortcuts

  • CTRL+V to add files or images from clipboard.
  • CTRL+O to open files from file system.
  • Left button double click into the dark area also opens a file selection dialog to add files.

Creator: New drag & drop beahvior of selected pages

Selected pages can now be dragged and dropped into the Windows Explorer or other applications that accept files. Dragging and dropping pages uses the profile selection dialog with custom option to save the selected pages. This way, it's often faster than going through the full profile options dialog. The profile options dialog can be opened by clicking on the custom profile entry in the profile selection window. There, as before, all options and output formats are available.

Creator: Save icons also uses the profile select dialog now

The save file icons in the creator now also use the profile selection view, making saving files easier and faster now.

Creator: Import from clipboard option in "Add Files" menu

Import from clipboard is now available as option in the "Add Files" menu. THis option is enabled if the clipboard contains supported data.

Creator: File pages dialog container uses context menu from file dialog

You can now also right-click into the pages container of a file to open the context menü of the file.

Creator: Inserting blank pages before/after working again

You can use the context menu of a page element to insert an empty page before or after the page. It was broken, but it's working again.

Creator: Faster merging in certain cases

We have implemented special handling for special cases when merging files, resulting in faster results. Time is money, we know that.

Creator: Better readable font for file names

Normal font for filenames in file elements, making the filename easier to read. Previously, we used a bold font.

Creator: Fix for an artefact at the drag/drop here background image

There was a darker line under the picture, which was a bit confusing. The reason was a bug in the image loader. This is fixed.


Compress: File name suffix option

An option for a file name suffix is now available on the user interface of the PDF Compressor tool. This makes it easier to find compressed PDF files after you save them to disk.

Compress: Remembers settings

The PDF compression tool now saves the settings for the next startup. Now you do not have to change these settings again and again.

Compress: Frame title shows state

The frame title of the user interface now shows the number of items in the list and the number of already processed items. This makes it easier to work with dozens of files.

Compress: Improved processing of hundreds of files

We have improved adding lots of files to the list and we are now better to process all of them. The GUI behaves correctly now, stays responsive, shows the state and processes files asynchronously.

Compress: Fix for wrong Ghostscript command line argument

The Ghostscript command line argument for the AutoRotatePages options was wrong. The new Ghostscript version we use in this version of the PDF24 Creator gave us an error in tests. We have fixed this.


OCR: File name suffix option

An option for a file name suffix is now available on the user interface of the OCR tool. This makes it easier to find processed PDF files after you save them to disk.

OCR: Reset link in the footer

The UI footer now has a reset link that can be used to reset the status of the local OCR engine. This deletes downloaded files and the status in the user's APP data folder. The next OCR process restarts the status and reloads the files. This link can be used by the user if the OCR process reports errors or no longer recognizes text.

OCR: Error parser implemented

We've implemented an error parser into the OCR engine that checks for OCR tool output errors. If an error occurs, the OCR is stopped and errors in the user interface are displayed as a tooltip and via the context menu.


Reader: Productivity tools added

We've added some productivity tools to the Reader's toolbar to improve some workflows. There is now a new drop-down icon that shows all new options. Now you can forward the PDF from the Reader to other applications and systems. The following tools are currently available if enabled:

  • Send by E-Mail
  • Send by Fax
  • Load in Compress
  • Load in OCR
  • Load in Creator
  • Load in Cloud Print

Reader: New shortcuts added

  • CTRL+A marks the entire text of the most visible page. Then you can copy with CTRL+C and paste with CTRL+V elsewhere.
  • CTRL-S saves a copy of the PDF file

Reader: Copy text respects security settings of the PDF

The context menu for copying text is not available if the security settings prevent the copying of text. CTRL+C can not be used in this case either.

Reader: Fix for space key not working in form fields

This release includes a fix for non-working spaces in form fields. Spaces can now be used.

Reader: Form field highlight color

This release also initializes the highlight color for form fields, which is responsible for highlighting form fields. Now you can better see all form fields.

Reader: Update to current PDFIUM version

We were a few releases behind the latest PDFIUM version. We have updated this library to be up to date.

Reader: Save file tool initializes file chooser dialog

Save file copy tool now initializes file chooser dialog with the file's directory and name.

Reader: Fix for filled form fields not available when printing

This version also prints filled form fields, which was not the case in earlier versions.

Reader: Option to print as image now available

If you print a PDF and the print result is incorrect, or if you have problems with text or fonts, you can fall back to print as an image. This renders the pages to an image and sends the images to the printer.


DocTool: File sink improvements

We have improved the DocTool's file sink so that the default PDF printer can put files there more easily. This makes it easier for other applications to use this feature for automation.

DocTool: sendByMail handler now supports profile

We've extended DocTool's sendByMail handler so that profiles can now be applied before files are attached to an email. The profile application can be skipped by the special None profile. Now you can also convert files and attach converted files to the mail.

DocTool: Custom profile now available in the apply profile and join files handlers

The apply profile and join files handlers of the DocTool can now handle custom profiles. In this mode, the profile options dialog pops up where you can change settings before applying them to the files.

DocTool: Descending sort mode available

The DocTool now understands the command-line flags "-sort", "-sortAscending" and "-sortDescending". The "-sort" and "-sortAscending" switches instruct the DocTool to sort all files in ascending order by name, and the "-sortDescending" flag results in a descending sort.

DocTool: Lock/password protect PDF files tool added

The DocTool provides the interface to the file tools and there we have added a new tool that you can use to password protect PDF files easily.

Version 8.8.2

(04.03.2019)

Faster language selection field in the OCR tool

We have over 100 languages available for selection in the OCR tool, which can be selected via the selection box. The list is now long and the loading time of the list was slightly higher than it should be, which was not so easy to use when working fast. We have optimized here. The language selection box is now fast again.

Correction for an un-inserted OCR text layer in previously compressed PDF files

In previously compressed PDF files, we were unable to merge the OCR text layer with the actual PDF. Here we have also optimized to eliminate this problem. OCR is now also possible with PDF files that were previously compressed.

Correction for overlay / underlay for PDF files with compressed PDF objects

Merging a PDF with compressed objects was problematic and we had problems with it. This problem has been solved and we are now able to merge PDF files here as well. This feature is the basis for the paper and overlay feature in the software.

Correction for Overlay / Underlay using the "Repeat Last Page" feature

The problem has crept in one of the last versions. If the option "Repeat last page" was used, the two PDFs were not merged correctly. This problem is now also out of the world.

Correction when sending files to PDF24 cloud services

Sending faxes to the PDF24 fax service and sending files to the PDF24 online converter resulted in an error. We investigated and fixed the problem. Users using these features should upgrade to PDF24 Creator 8.8.2.

Version 8.8.1

(28.02.2019)

PDF24 PDF printer Windows service optimized

We have optimized the PDF24 PDF printer Windows service. The aim was to make it more robust, as some users have reported problems. Some optimizations have been implemented and we hope that this service will now run even more reliably than before.

OCR: Configuration implemented to use only installed language files

In version 8.8.1 the OCR tool was extended by an option, so that only locally installed language files may be used. This prevents the reloading of language files from the internet. This option is advantageous for companies, because in this way the individual users do not load the same language files into their user profile, but there is a central place with these files. This option has not yet been documented and if you are interested, please submit a request in the PDF24 help area.

OCR: Using the single file save dialog when there is only one file in the list

If only one file was processed in the OCR tool and the result is then saved, then the single file save dialog is used here. This behavior is more user-friendly.

Compress: Using the single file save dialog when there is only one file in the list

If only one file was processed in the PDF compress tool and the result is then saved, then the single file save dialog is also used here. This increases user-friendliness.

OCR: Suffix for file names when saving

When saving files in the OCR tool, a file name suffix can now be added automatically. The suffix can be stored in the settings under the name "ocr.saveFileSuffix". So far there is no option in the settings area, so that you have to insert this value manually in the Windows registry.

OCR: DPI option now available as parameter

On the OCR tool, the DPI option is now visible and can be used to better tune the OCR process. By default, the recommended 300 DPI value is set.

OCR: DPI and profile options are remembered

DPI and profile values of the OCR tool are now saved in the user settings and restored the next time the OCR tool is started.

Compress: Suffix for file names when saving

When saving files in the PDF shrink tool, a file name suffix can now also be added automatically. The suffix can be stored in the settings under the name "compress.saveFileSuffix". So far there is no option in the settings area, so that you have to insert this value manually in the Windows registry.

PDF Merge: Optimized profile selection dialog in file tools

The recently added Skip button in the profile selection dialog has been removed. Instead, a new profile was inserted, which implements the "Merge only" function.

QPDF: Upgrade to version 8.4.0

Improvements of the QPDF version 8.4.0 are partly included in the PDF24 Creator. Necessary adjustments in PDF24 Creator due to changes in QPDF have been implemented.

Security settings are now supported more finely by QPDF. With this we can now also use these with finer granularity.

QPDF: Status output is now visible in the debug console

With these changes the output of QPDF can now be viewed in the debug console. This will help you to find possible problems.

Unlock Tool: Password no longer contained in the command line

Removing passwords uses QPDF. QPDF is started and the password is transferred. This password is no longer passed on the command line, but via a different way, so that the password can no longer be viewed from the command line.

PDF24 Reader: Fixed issues opening protected PDFs

An attempt is now made to use passwords with different encodings to load a password-protected PDF file. This helps when loading PDF files with incorrect password encoding.

Option to keep annotations enabled by default

To ensure that links and other annotations contained in PDF files are not lost during merging, annotations must be retained. This option is now enabled by default.

PDF reduction tool structurally revised

The user interface of the compression tool is now better separated from the actual shrinking process. In this way, some functions behave better.

OCR Tool structurally reworked

The user interface of the OCR tool is now also better separated from the actual processing process. Here, too, some functions behave better in this way.

OCR and compression tool set initial storage folder to input file folder

When saving individual files, the initial folder in the file selection dialog is set to the folder of the input file. This behavior is somewhat more user friendly.

PDF Merge: Solved problem with rotated pages

A problem has been discovered and fixed that occurred when merging PDF files with rotated pages. Here it came partly to a wrong orientation of pages.

Creator: Solved problems loading locked PDFs

A correction for loading certain PDF files that did not pass the unlock step correctly has been added to the Creator.

Improved deletion of temporary files in the creator

Deleting temporary files in Creator sometimes failed. If, for example, a file is still being processed, it cannot be deleted. We have optimized here and adapted processes so that the temporary files are also deleted in these situations.

Solved problems closing the PDF compression tool

Closing the PDF Compression Tool has been improved because some temporary files were not deleted in rare cases and could crash on very rare occasions.

Problems with closing the OCR tool fixed

Fixes a problem with not removing temporary files in the OCR tool when the tool is closed before all files have been processed.

Umlauts in the file name were problematic

QPDF is used to remove passwords from PDF files. The support of umlauts in file names is not yet well supported by QPDF under Windows. In the PDF24 Creator we have made changes to avoid problems in this context.

Fixes a problem when printing large files on the PDF printer

If large files are printed on the PDF printer and the print job is larger than 2 gigabytes, then the assistant was not opened and the large temporary file of the print job remained in the file system and was not deleted. This problem has now been fixed and the print job can now be larger than 2 GB.

OCR: Text layer was not oriented correctly with some PDF files

This version brings a correction for rotated text layers for pages that are already rotated in input files. Here we did not adjust the text layer correctly to the rotation of the source page. This problem has been fixed.

Version 8.8.0

(13.02.2019)

OCR component added

An OCR component has been finalized and integrated into the PDF24 Creator. This component lets you recognize text in scanned files and images and save the text information in the PDF so that the PDF is searchable and text can be copied. This feature greatly extends the possibilities offered by the PDF24 Creator.

  • Supports multiple languages that can be loaded on demand to avoid inflating the installer unnecessarily.
  • Supports the use of profiles to apply further processing after text recognition, e.g. to save as PDF/A.
  • Multiple files can be processed in parallel.
  • The status and remaining processing time is displayed.

PDF Reader: Go to page area feature optimized

The X-axis is now also set correctly, so that the jumped area in the window is now always visible.

PDF password removal with timeout

If a password cannot be removed or if the component that removes the passwords no longer responds, the function will abort after a certain time and return an error.

Save profile for the quality level HIGH added

The quality level HIGH lies between GOOD and BEST quality. Now there are 5 standard quality levels.

Better colors when choosing a memory profile

In the GUI component, where you can choose a save profile, the colors of the links have been optimized to make them better readable.

Right click in the header area of the file list of the PDF compress tool has opened an invalid context menu

The context menu applies to file entries in the file list, but is invalid for the header area. This has been improved.

Profile application can be disabled when merging files into a PDF using the file tools

If you only want to merge PDF files without reprocessing, you can now skip the profile application. A corresponding button is now available in the user interface. The file tools can be accessed e.g. via the PDF24 file context menu in Windows Explorer.

Improvements in the PDF Printer assistant

The communication with the PDF compression tool has been improved. If the tool is already open, the new file is processed there and not in a new instance.

A certain status window now displays a correct file name instead of a temporary one.

A memory leak has been fixed, but this was hardly noticed because the application is usually closed after saving a file.

Many minor improvements under the hood

In this version, many minor improvements have been incorporated into components that are not visible from the outside.

Temporary file was not deleted in PDF compression tool in a certain state

There was a case with the PDF compression tool where a temporary file was not deleted. This problem is fixed.

Sporadic crash of the compression tool

Closing the PDF compression tool could crash in certain situations. This was repaired and the problems were solved.

Version 8.7.2

(18.12.2018)

PDF Reader: Drop support to open PDFs

PDF files can now be dragged into the PDF Reader to open them. This simplifies opening PDFs in certain situations.

PDF Reader: Word selection by double click

You already know this from other PDF readers: Select a word by double-clicking it. This feature is now also available in PDF24 Reader.

PDF Reader: Language selection improved

In the last versions the language selection in the PDF24 Reader was not as we would like it to be and there were occasional problems with the choice of the correct language file. Here we optimized and solved problems.

PDF Reader: Annotations are now visible

Previous versions did not display annotations in PDF. In this version, the annotations are now displayed.

PDF Reader: Improved image scaling for icons

The image scaling mode for toolbar icons and mouse pointers is now BICUBIC. This results in better image quality on different screens.

PDF Reader: Smaller Info-Bar Close Icon

On some screens the close icon of the info bar was a bit too big, which was due to problems with scaling with different DPI levels. This has been improved. The icon is now the same size on all screens.

PDF Reader: Text selection improved

The text selection algorithm has been improved for a better user experience. More and better heuristics are used to improve the text selection compared to before.

PDF Reader: Nicer cursor images

We did not like some cursor pictures yet and now we have more beautiful pictures in use.

PDF Reader: Zoom scroll behavior improved

The zoom scroll behavior has also been improved. For better usability, the X-axis is now scrolled automatically when zooming. This means that manual readjustment is now less necessary.

Updater: Minor enhancements

We have made minor improvements to the Updater to be more selective in the delivery and selection of updates. This gives us more leeway with the update distribution.

Version 8.7.1

(04.12.2018)

Info window added to sidebar in PDF Reader

The sidebar in PDF24 Reader has been given an info window that displays general information, security information, document info information, metadata information and fonts for the opened PDF. With it we deliver a feature which is gladly seen and which we also gladly use.

Sidebar in PDF Reader now uses icons instead of tabs

The sidebar in PDF24 Reader no longer uses tabs, but icons, similar to Adobe Reader. These are more flexible and we can use much more elements in the sidebar than before. A new element has already been mentioned above and more elements will follow here to make the PDF24 Reader even better.

The openwithprogids registry entry can be disabled by flag

Since version 8.7.0 the PDF24 Creator contains a slim PDF Reader. The installer registers this reader in Windows. For this an openwithprogids entry is added to the file type PDF. This entry can now be suppressed by a flag on the command line. With the EXE installation program this is achieved by the argument /NoAddOpenWithProgIds. For the MSI package you have to use the statement ADDOPENWITHPROGIDS=NO.

Adobe Reader no longer displays PDF24 signature

Adobe Reader no longer displayed the signature created with PDF24, although it was correct. This version fixes the problem and the signature is visible again.

Length of font map names reduced

The length of fontmap names must not exceed 100 characters in Ghostscript, otherwise errors will occur. The fontmap generator has been adapted accordingly so that only fonts with a shorter name are included.

PDF Printer Assistant was not always started in the foreground

The PDF printer assistant was partially not started in the foreground in the last version. We have added another statement to bring the wizard to the foreground.

Delivery of Ghostscript 9.26

Ghostscript 9.26 is recommended by the Ghostscript creators, because there are security problems in the previous versions, which will be fixed with version 9.26. Since we always pay attention to security, we now deliver this version.

Version 8.7.0

(14.11.2018)

PDF24 Reader completed and integrated

We have completed our PDF24 Reader and created a first version. The PDF24 Reader is a component for displaying PDF files. It is a slim and resource-saving PDF reader that can quickly display PDF files. This PDF Reader can be used as a replacement for other software. A PDF Reader was still missing. Now it's here and it is no longer necessary to install additional software to view PDF files. The PDF24 Reader fits seamlessly into PDF24. The PDF24 Reader currently offers the following features:

  • Open, view, save and print PDF files
  • Different display modes such as one page, two pages, two pages and cover page
  • Page preview and page tree
  • Navigational elements
  • Zoom in, zoom out and rotate pages
  • Search in document
  • Selecting and copying text
  • Creation of snapshots
  • Resource-saving and without unnecessary ballast

Remove PDF password tool added to file tools

The file tools have got a new tool to remove password protection from PDF files. The prerequisite is, of course, that the password is known. So this tool is not there to crack passwords. You can open the file tools via the PDF24 Launcher or via the Windows Explorer file context menu.

Loading password-protected PDF files

This feature was requested by some users and here it is now. Loading and using password-protected PDF files is supported in various areas with this version. This includes the Creator, the Assistant and the Compression tool. Whenever a password-protected PDF is used, a password entry field appears to remove the PDF protection and to process the PDF further.

Many new icons

Many components of the software have received new and uniform icons that look better and more modern. The sub-components include the Launcher, the PDF printer assistant and the file tools.

Improved GUI rendering and bug fixes

The component rendering the UI has also been improved. The new component is now faster and behaves better and faster when displaying elements. The difference is noticeable, especially with larger elements such as the Save As profile area.

New toolchain in use

Internally we have updated our toolchain and now compile with current compilers. This makes some components faster and the software more fluid in some areas. With the decision to no longer support XP, we were able to take this step.

Installer extended

There was also some work on the installer. The PDF24 Reader, which is also registered in Windows, has been integrated to create a link to the PDF file type. The two Print and PrintTo Shell commands for the PDF24 Reader are also created. The registration can be disabled by using /NOREADERREG on the command line of the EXE Installer and REGISTERREADER=No on the MSI Setup.

There is also a nice and modern PDF icon which is used for the PDF file type if the PDF24 Reader is the standard software for PDF.

QPDF component updated to version 8.2.1

The new version of QPDF contains some updates, which are indirectly included in the PDF24 Creator.

Compression tool now shrinks PDFs even better

The PDF compression tool is now even better at shrinking PDF files. This makes PDF files even smaller than before. We have also adjusted the compression parameters to get even better and more expectable results. In the UI of the tool we removed the info icons and connected the tooltips directly to the form elements.

Many more smaller optimizations

There are a number of other smaller optimizations, which don't all have to be mentioned here. That would make the list very long. Version 8.7.0 is a major update with many minor improvements.

Windows XP support is no longer guaranteed

Many software vendors have already done so, and so have we. Windows XP is no longer supported from version 8.7.0. Users of Windows XP should therefore use a version smaller than 8.7.0. With this change, we are now able to run a bit faster because we no longer have to worry about whether certain elements are present in XP or not.

Version 8.6.1

(17.09.2018)

Ghostscript updated to version 9.25

Some bugs have been fixed in the current Ghostscript version and it is recommended to use the latest Ghostscript version. The PDF24 Creator now uses the current Ghostscript version and delivers it with the installers.

Version 8.6.0

(16.08.2018)

Feature: Option to disable certificate creation

The software offers the possibility to create a self-signed certificate to sign a PDF. This option can be deactivated. For this you have to set the DWORD value NoSelfSignedCertCreation=1 in the settings in the registry.

You can also set the DWORD value NoCertManagerAccess=1 to hide the links to open the certificate manager.

Feature: Merge function in assistant can use name of first file

The DWORD value AssistantJoinFilesUseFirstName (DWORD [1|0]) can be used to control whether the wizard should use the name of the first file for the merged file when merging files.

Optimization: More options can be configured in the HKLM area for all users

For further options, the HKLM area can now be used to store configurations centrally for all users. This means that almost all relevant options in the HKLM area are now possible.

Optimization: Some error messages are now more meaningful

Some error messages are now more meaningful and partly contain recommendations to solve the problem.

BugFix: Code page in the debug console fixed

Special characters and umlauts were not displayed correctly. The code page was incorrect. This is now fixed.

BugFix: Fixed scrolling problem in the page extraction interface

Some documents could not be scrolled down far enough so that some pages were not visible. This problem has been solved.

Version 8.5.0

(09.08.2018)

Feature: PDF/A-3 format added

The PDF/A-3 format can now be used in the Save As dialog.

Feature: 256 Bit AES security integrated

This version brings the 256 bit AES security. You can now encrypt your PDF with 256 bit AES and protect it with a password. This makes PDF files even more secure. The 256 bit AES mode can be selected in the PDF Security section.

Feature: File name query in the mail function

A query of the file name for the mail function in the wizard is available again. This makes emailing a file a little easier. There is also an option to disable this function in case someone does not want the new query.

Optimization: Better hint dialog when a file cannot be converted

During the automatic conversion to PDF it can happen that a file cannot be converted. In this case, there is a hint dialog. This is now a little more detailed and contains tips on how you can still convert a file.

Version 8.4.2

(28.06.2018)

BugFix: Fixed problem with page number position in settings

There was a problem in the page number position display. The position was not displayed correctly. The problem is solved in this version.

BugFix: Solved problem with the option to open PDFs in Creator

Print jobs were always opened in the Creator if the app was open, even if the corresponding option was not activated. This problem is now fixed and the option in the settings is now implemented correctly.

BugFix: Update mode setting was written to the HKCU area

The update mode setting is written correctly into the HKLM area of the registry again. An error in the logic had led to it, then this got into the HKCU path. You can only change the update mode if you are running the settings as admin.

Improvement: Usage of Ghostscript 9.2.3

This version includes the current Ghostscript 9.2.3. Improvements in this version also benefit the user.

Improvement: Tray Icon behavior optimized

Double click on the PDF24 tray icon opens the PDF24 Launcher. Right click on the icon opens the context menu.

Version 8.4.1

(27.02.2018)

BugFix: Fixed an error when determining file names via the printer interface

File names could occasionally not be determined if the PDF printer had to cope with hundreds of print jobs in a short time. We have analyzed and fixed a problem here, so that the file name should now also be correctly determined in such an application case.

Optimization: File size limitation for the Online PDF Converter interface

So that very large files are not accidentally transferred to the Online PDF Converter, we have implemented a limitation of the size here. The limit is usually not noticeable, but serves as a protection to give very large files.

BugFix: Some other minor fixes

Fixed an issue with user overriding PDF printer parameters. There was a fix in the context menu in the Creator. PDF24 Windows Service has been corrected to improve startup behavior.

Version 8.4.0

(18.12.2017)

Optimization: Messages in PDF printer Windows Service improved

The PDF24 PDF printer Windows Service has been improved. In the event of an error, this should help to find errors better. The messages are now better displayed in the Windows Event Viewer.

BugFix: Wizard is not started when the mail feature is disabled

If the mail feature was disabled in the settings, the wizard could not start anymore. This problem is fixed.

Optimization: Under Windows XP, the option 'Current user' is selected by default in the settings

Under Windows XP, there is still the older permission management and there, an admin always has the elevated rights in an application. In newer Windows versions you have to start explicitly with elevated privileges. We use this distinction to make a default selection between 'All Users' and 'Current User'. Since this is not possible under Windows XP, 'Current user' is always selected here by default.

Feature: Configurable memory profiles for all users

Save As profiles can now be stored for all users in the HKLM area of the registry. These profiles are then available to all users. A user cannot change such a profile. The cross-user profile location is located under the HKLM\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\PDFPrint\Profiles\fo registry path.

Be careful when copying user profiles. The 'pdf-ownerPass' and 'pdf-userPass' properties are encrypted in the user profile, so that only the user can see the passwords. With profiles in the HKLM area we cannot reverse this encryption and therefore the passwords must be stored unencrypted there.

Feature: CropBox/TrimBox can be used

Version 8.4.0 comes with a Crop function. This allows you to set the CropBox and/or TrimBox in the PDF document. In the Save As dialog you can define the corresponding parameters in the crop section independent of the paper format. It is now possible to add crop for the print shop with this new feature. The distances to the paper format edges are configured. X mm are removed from the edges of the current paper format and stored as CropBox/TrimBox in the PDF.

Version 8.3.0

(06.12.2017)

Optimization: PDF24 Windows Service error behavior configured

The PDF24 Windows Service is now better configured. The error behavior options are used to restart the service when problems occur. This migration is intended to fix problems experienced by some users who have reported problems with a broken PDF printer. The changeover is intended to ensure error-free operation.

Feature: Screen Capture function can be disabled

Some companies would like to disable the Screen Capture feature, but this has not been possible before. Now you can deactivate this function. To do this, the DWORD option NoScreenCapture=1 must be set in the registry or the corresponding option must be deactivated in the settings on the Features page.

Feature: Sort function in the assistant and file tools

In the icon bar above the file list in the assistant and file tools there is now also an icon for sorting the files in the list. This function is useful in certain cases.

Feature: Elements of the FileNameErasements can be separated by : and |

Normally, a line entry was used to enter the elements of the FileNameErasements. It was possible to enter a text per line, which is removed from the determined file name via the printer interface, in order to remove texts transmitted by the printing program as a prefix or suffix.

The settings are in the registry and the input of lines can lead to problems, because some configuration tools do not support this. In order to solve this problem, the input can now be done using the separator : and also |. These separators are now also supported in this version.

Optimization: UI Design Updates

In the UI design there were some optimizations in this version to adapt the buttons, check boxes and radio buttons to the Windows design. We think that users will find this better.

Optimization: Save button in profile dialog now shows successful saving

When saving profiles in the Save As dialog box, there was no feedback of a successful saving when using the Save button. Here we have optimized something. The button changes the color to green for a short moment. This then gives the user the feedback that the storage has taken place.

Feature: Default profiles can be selected in Save As dialog

Until now, it was not possible to select standard profiles in Save As dialog and load them. This version brings this feature and the default profiles can be selected next to the user profiles.

Feature: User profiles are now supported in server mode when saving automatically

If it is not possible to save in the user context during server operation, the user profile cannot be loaded from the registry of the user. We have made improvements here. User profiles are now possible if they are specified in the settings area of the software. The settings pane loads the user profile when it is saved and stores it in the printer configuration so that the profile can be used when it is automatically saved in server mode. If you change the user profile in the user, you have to reopen the settings as an admin and save the printer configuration so that the changes take effect.

Feature: Option to block overwriting of PDF printer settings

In the PDF printer options there is now a parameter to prevent the user from overwriting the PDF printer settings. This option is only visible if the settings pane has been opened as administrator. If this option is set, a user cannot overwrite the PDF printer settings. A corresponding message is displayed to the user.

Feature: Language can be stored centrally in the HKLM area

A language can now also be stored centrally in the program configuration in the HKLM area. This is possible with the new settings area. This language is then used as the default language. This avoids the determination of the user's language based on the user profile.

Feature: Auto Save option to save under a specific user

The configuration for automatic saving to a PDF printer now also allows you to specify a user for automatic saving. This is useful if only a special user has the necessary rights to save. If you use this option, the pdf24.exe has to run under this special user, so that the PDF24 printer service can forward print jobs to this user.

Optimization: UI design updates in the settings interface

There were some updates in the preferences interface to improve the design. The Apply button is now also visualized to show the user that the settings have been applied successfully.

BugFix: Layout Engine bug fixed

The Layout Engine had an error in a calculation, which led to distortion of the interface under certain circumstances, especially when modifying the windows in size. The problem is fixed. Some of the user interfaces are now even more fluid.

Feature: Add Profile and Reload Profile buttons in the settings on the Auto Save page

In addition to the profile selection box, there are now also new buttons with which you can create a new profile and reload the profiles in the selection list. In this way, you have quick access to the profiles and can create new ones and use a newly created profile.

Feature: Settings can now be made for all users or only for the current user

In the settings interface, there is a new selection box at the bottom of the page, which allows you to control who should use the settings. 'All users' and 'Current user' are available for selection. This way you can set settings for all users or only for the current user. The 'All Users' option is only available if the current user has opened the settings as administrator. In the title of the window you can see whether the settings are open as admin. The word ADMIN is added to the window title.

Feature: New features page in the settings area

In the settings area there is a new page where you can activate and deactivate features of the software. With this page you now have a central place to quickly and easily activate or deactivate certain features. Previously, this could only be done via various settings in the registry.

Feature: Mail function can be switched off via the settings

In the settings in the Features area you can now also switch off the mail function completely. For example, if a company does not want this option, then there is now an option.

Feature: Option to delete erroneous print jobs

In the Features pane, you can also enable an option to have faulty print jobs removed by the PDF24 Windows Printer Service to prevent them from blocking other print jobs. Sometimes it may occur that a print job is incorrect and blocks other print jobs. If you do not want to worry about faulty print jobs, you can use this option to remove them.

Feature: Delayed bring an application to the foreground as an option

Delayed bring an application to the foreground can be disabled in the Features section of the Preferences. The delay ensures that an application comes to the foreground after a certain time after new files arrive, so that the user recognizes the new files and knows which application has received the files. If you don't want this feature, you can now disable it.

Optimization: Updates in many language files

Version 8.2.4

(01.11.2017)

Improvement: Delievers Ghostscript now

The PDF24 Creator now ships Ghostscript 9.22 with the PDF24 Creator. The new version of Ghostscript fixes many bugs. Changes in Ghostscript often also affect the PDF24 Creator, because Ghostscript is used for many operations.

Improvement: Keep annotations Option is now disabled by default

This behavior corresponds to the behavior of older versions. Ghostscript 9.21, which was shipped with PDF24 Creator 8.2.3, has generated PDF files where the text could not be marked correctly. Disabling this option has fixed the problem, but with the current Ghostscript 9.22, correct PDF files are now generated when the option is enabled.

BugFix: Layout engine had problems with bottom margins in relation to DPI scaling

If the DPI scaling in Windows was set to > 100%, then in some interfaces the bottom borders of some elements were not calculated correctly. This problem is fixed.

Improvement: PDF24 Windows service no longer available after major Windows update

In case of major Windows updates, the PDF24 Windows service is apparently removed. Windows apparently deactivates some services and resets the setting of services when a major Windows update is installed.

In the case of PDF24, this caused the PDF printer to stop working and the service could not be started because it was no longer available. The message, that the service is not active, is now a bit smarter. If the service is no longer available, then an attempt will be made to reinstall the service instead of just restarting it.

Version 8.2.3

(14.09.2017)

BugFix: PDF/A2 documents could not be created

In the last version, PDF/A2 documents could not be created. There was a problem with an onfiguration here. This version fixes this issue.

Improvement: PDF24 Windows service message box now in foreground

If the PDF24 Windows service is required but is not started, a message pops up. Partially, this message has appeared in the background, so that it was not noticed. This should now be corrected.

Improvement: Language file updates

Version 8.2.2

(29.08.2017)

BugFix: Ghostscript TEMPDIR issue fixed

This version fixes an issue with the TEMPDIR environment variable, which is used in Ghostscript. Some applications set this variable during the installation and this can lead to problems in Ghostscript. We can deal with it now.

Improvement: Option to keep annotations

There is a new option in the save as dialog under the PDF output filter to keep annotations or to merge them with the content. You can now control whether to keep them or not. If this option is not checked, then the annotations will be merged down into the content. This flattens the PDF.

Improvement: DPI issue in rename job dialog fixed

The GUI interface to rename a job in the creator did not scale on high DPI screens. We have fixed this issue and the interface scales now correctly.

Improvement: Focus behavior in save as GUI interface improved

Some input fields have lost the focus in some specific circumstances if you have moved the mouse around. This was sometimes annoying. This version brings the improvement in the behavior.

Improvement: Windows file explorer context menu extension sorts files by default

Files could be unsorted in the GUI interface of the Windows explorer file context menu extension if you have opened it on multiple files. We have improved that and the interface now sorts the files automatically so that you e.g. can join the files in the right order directly without to change the file positions.

Improvement: Window placement improvement on Creator restarts

The creator now stores the current placement of the GUI interface in the users profile so that this placement can be restored during a restart of the app. If you work with multiple monitors and if you close the Creator on a specific screen and if you reopen the creator, then the GUI interface opens on the screen where you have closed it.

Improvement: Notification on stopped PDF24 Windows service and available print jobs

If the PDF24 Windows service is stopped and if you then print on the PDF printer, the print job will hang in the printer queue and can not be delivered. The PDF24 backend now checks that and gives you a notification that this required service is stopped. There is also a button in the message which you can use to restart the service. Some users disable this service and wonder why the PDF printer is no longer working.

Version 8.2.1

(05.07.2017)

Improvement: Print job name of print tool changed

The print tool in the assistant and the creator now uses the name of the printed file as print job name in Windows.

Improvement: Use the online converter if no PDF printer is installed

The DocTool now asks to use the online PDF converter in case that there is no PDF printer installed on your computer which can be used to convert to PDF.

Improvement: Scanner import tool can be disabled

The scanner import tool can now be disabled via the NoTwainImport (DWORD) option in the settings.

Improvement: Message if the PDF24 Windows service is not running

A message is now shown if the PDF24 Windows service is not started and if there is a pending print job in the printer queue of the PDF printer. The message says that this service is required and there is a button in the message to start the service.

BugFix: Cloud print error in assistant

The cloud print tool in the assistant resulted in an error and the tool could not be used. This is fixed.

BugFix: Rendering of buttons improved

Buttons were not rendered correctly if the Windows DPI scaling was used. We have fixed this issue and buttons looks good now on systems with standard 96 DPI and higher values.

Version 8.2.0

(08.06.2017)

Feature: Windows DPI scaling are now supported

The PDF24 Creator now supports the Windows DPI scaling. All users with high DPI screen, which also use the Windows DPI scaling, will recognize the new clear interface.

This modification was the largest change in this version. We have overworked every graphical user interface to make it DPI aware and to look good on normal as well as on high DPI displays. We have also made some additional improvements which we have seen while we have overworked the components.

Feature: Toggle button in the page extract dialog

The new toggle button is on the top right of the GUI. You can use the new button to toggle the current selection of the pages. This eases the work with this tool.

Feature: Not usable elements are better visualized

There are some elements in the assistant, the compression tool and in the file tool GUI that can't be used depending on the current state of the component. These elements could simply not be clicked in previous version, but they were not displayed differently. We have optimised here and we now work with an opacity to make them a bit transparent. You can now easily see which elements can be used and which not.

Feature: File tools can be invoked from the launcher

The launcher has a new button that you can use to open the file tools. A lot of users do not know these tools because these tools are hidden in the Windows explorer file context menu.

Feature: Automatic image compression option

The PDF output filter has a new option to automatically select the image compression. This new option produces sometimes better results and smaller PDF files.

Improvement: A lot of new icons

We use a lot of new icons in different components that can also be used on high DPI screens. You will find new icons in the creator, the PDF preview and in the launcher.

Improvement: Output filter dialog optimized

We have made some changes in the output filter dialog. The left menu e.g. highlights the current selection so that you can better see what you have selected.

Improvement: Larger buffer to select more files at once

We now use a larger buffer for the file selection dialog so that you can select more files at once. Some users reported that older versions where a bit to limited here.

Improvement: Page extract component produces smaller PDF files

The page extract utility now creates smaller PDF files, especially when the files contain images. We archived this due to an better image compression.

BugFix: File icons issue fixed

The file tools (Windows explorer context menu -> PDF24) shows icons for selected files. Sometimes these icons was not visible or a generic icon was used. We have fixed this issue.

BugFix: Simple page element view in the creator was broken

The simple page element view did not layout the page elements correctly, so that insert bars did not work correctly and that rotated page elements caused overlappings. We have fixed this.

BugFix: Interchanged labels at the watermark options

The mode labels (above or below the content) was interchanged in the German language file. This is fixed.

BugFix: Tooltip issue fixed when the window is in background

Older versions had a problem with tooltips when the application window was in background. Some tooltips were shown when the mouse was hovered above the elements even if the window was in background of another window.

Version 8.1.4

(19.04.2017)

BugFix: Bug fixed regarding the Windows Font support from version 8.1.3

The PDF24 Creator 8.1.3 supports Windows fonts better than older versions. We have analysed this new feature again because we got some bug reports from users and we have fixed these problems.

If you have problems with your PDF24 Creator 8.1.3 and if you can not create PDF files or if you see blank pages, then you should update to version 8.1.4. This version should fix these problems.

Version 8.1.3

(11.04.2017)

Improvement: Windows Font support improved

The PDF24 Creator 8.1.3 improves the support for installed Windows fonts. The installer scans available fonts and saves that information, so that these fonts can be found later.

If you have problems with Windows fonts or if some fonts get replaced with others, then you should try this version. The chance is high that this version fixes your font issues.

Version 8.1.2

(05.04.2017)

BugFix: Windows XP support was broken

A change in version 8.1.1 led to a broken windows support. A component could not be used on Windows XP so that some parts of the program could not be used. We have fixed that problem in version 8.1.2 and all users who have this problem should update to version 8.1.2.

BugFix: Profile selection layout in profile selection interface was wrong

Some shell tools (right-click on a file or folder -> PDF24) use a profile selection box to select an output profile. The layout of this box was wrong. User profiles were layouted vertically and wasted space. We have fixed the layout and user profiles can now fill the entire row before they break to the next line.

Version 8.1.1

(31.03.2017)

BugFix: Bugs regarding tooltips fixed

We have fixed some bugs regarding tooltips in the user interfaces. A window could loose the focus due to the tooltips handler which lead to unwanted flickering in the window. These problems are fixed.

BugFix: Usage of Ghostscript 9.21

This version installs and uses the current Ghostscript 9.21. That fixes some problems at loading and saving PDF files. Users reported that PDF files sometimes could not be created or that PDF files only contains one page with an error. These errors could occur when files pathes or Windows user profile names contain umlauts or other special characters.

If you have these kind of problems, then you should update to this version. We recommend an update because umlauts and other special characters are often existing and the error probability is not low.

BugFix: Issues with app calls on the command line fixed

We had some problems with white spaces in file pathes which could lead to problems on the command line and wrong application calls. We have fixed some places in the code where these problems could occur. Problems could be that some files could not be loaded or processed.

Version 8.1.0

(23.02.2017)

Feature: Page numbering feature added

Page numbers can now be added to PDF files automatically. We have continuously developed this feature in the past and now it is ready for use. The Save-As dialog contains a new sections where you can configure the page numbering options. These settings can also be stored into an output filter profile. The page numbering feature is extremely helpful, when you merge or join multiple files and if the final file shall have page numbers.

Feature: Watermark/Stamp texts with placeholders

Watermark and stamp texts can now have some placeholder. The PDF24 Creator replaces these placeholders before the file gets saved. Currently, placeholders for time and date are available. You can use this new feature to realize e.g. a date or receipt stamp.

We have also improved the watermark function to the effect, that it can also be used together with the new page numbering feature of this version.

Improvement: Language files and core functions

Under the hood, we have optimized and improved some core parts to make them better and more secure. We have also updated the language files and we have done some foundation works for future versions.

Version 8.0.4

(20.12.2016)

BugFix: PDF printer was not always usable under Windows XP

The PDF printer was not always usable under Windows XP. Some users have reported problems with Windows XP. We did not notice this kind of problem at first. We have used a fresh system to analyze this issue. The bug is now fixed and the PDF printer from version 8.0.4 can now be used under Windows XP again.

Improvement: Info text "Not started as Admin" on the PDF printer settings page

In the PDF printer settings section, it is relevant whether or not the settings have been started as a user with extended admin rights. If you start the settings without admin rights and if you change the settings on the PDF printer page, then the changes apply only to the current user. If, on the other hand, the settings are started as admin, the changes in this area apply to all users. This distinction must be taken into account when configuring a PDF printer.

Some users have reported that auto save mode did not work with shared PDF printers. Since version 8, a Windows service is used for the PDF printer handler. This service usually runs under the special user LocalSystem. If a print job arrives via a shared PDF printer, then there is no user context in this case. If the PDF printer is configured for a specific user only, then these settings can not be used because the reference to this user is not available. The PDF24 Windows Service can therefore only use the settings created for all users.

It is strictly necessary to configure a PDF printer as admin if you share that printer. In the settings area, there is now an information text, so that this distinction is pointed out. You can also directly start the settings as admin via a link in the information text.

Version 8.0.3

(15.12.2016)

BugFix: Loading of PDF files with small errors

The loading of PDF files with small errors was broken in version 8.x. We have investigated this issue and we have found the bug. This version fixes this, so that version 8.0.3 can load PDF files with small recoverable errors again.

Improvement: A lot of language files updated

About half of the over 30 language files are now up to date and all texts of these files are translated. The other half contains some untranslated texts. If the application finds an untranslated text, then the corresponding English text will be used instead. We update language files on a rolling basis and we bring new language files with new versions.

Improvement: Issue with file extensions fixed

We have overworked some code parts where it comes to replacing file name extensions. The problem is to find out whether the file name has an extension or not. This version looks for registered extensions in the system and if an extension is registered then the application replaces the old extension with the new one. If the extension is not registred, then the new extension is simply appended.

BugFix: File Explorer Drag & Drop Bug of folders fixed

If you wanted to move a folder by dragging and dropping them to the new place, then it could happen that the application moved the wrong folder, the folder below or above, depending on the move direction and where the name was clicked. We have fixed this bug.

Version 8.0.2

(15.11.2016)

Improvement: Optimizes terminal server features

The PDF24 Creator 8.0.2 mainly optimizes features, which are relevant for the usage on terminal servers and multi-user environments. The optimizations also fixes some potential bugs in these features.

Version 8.0.1

(08.11.2016)

BugFix: PDF printer could not be used with Word

The PDF printer could not be used together with Word, but with other software. The PDF printer was available in the list and could be selected, but after selection, the list view was curiously empty. I think other Microsoft products have the same behavior. We have fixed this issue. If you use the PDF24 Creator 8.0.0 then you should update to the new version 8.0.1.

Version 8.0.0

(07.11.2016)

Feature: Option to overwrite existing files added to the auto save feature

The auto save feature could not overwrite existing files. If a file with the same name was already available, then a new unique name was generated under which the file was saved. Sometimes, overwriting existing files is desired and therefore we have added an option by which you can control that behavior. The option can be changed in the settings pages of a PDF printer.

Feature: New function in the PDF24 tray icon

Version 8 brings back some functions of the tray icon which were present in some older versions of the software. You can right-click the tray icon to open the context menu and then you can see all the functions of that icon.

Feature: Uses Ghostscript 9.19

The new PDF24 Creator installs and uses the latest Ghostscript 9.19 and the changes of this Ghostscript version are automatically part of this PDF24 Creator version.

Feature: Information shown when an image is copied to the windows clipboard

The screen capture function can copy captured screen images to the windows clipboard. When you use this feature you will now get an information box after the image is available in the clipboard.

Feature: Online PDF tools accessible from the launcher

The PDF24 Online PDF Tools (https://tools.pdf24.org) are now accessible from the PDF24 launcher. We have added a new tile in the app. The user can now get faster to the tools. You can disable this new tile via the DWORD value NoOnlinePdfTools=1 in the config.

Feature: Tooltip of a page element in the Creator shows the source file of the page

When you assemble a new document, which means when you drag images from one file to an other one, then you could not see from what file a specific page comes. The new PDF24 Creator shows that information in the tooltip of the page element.

Feature: Progress bar improved

The new progress bar has the ability to visualize a new state which is used if an operation takes longer than expected. The new mode is used after a specific time limit exceeds. The user then can see, that the operation takes longer than expected.

Feature: File icons added to the file tool

The file list of the file tool (file context menu -> PDF24) now shows file icons. This makes the tool friendlier and users can better distinguish between the files.

Feature: File operations of the file tool can be canceled

File operations of the file tool (file context menu -> PDF24) can be canceled by hitting the cancel button. The cancel button stops the whole operation and not only the current action. If an operation is consisted of a lot of actions, then you could click a lot of times until you would get the whole process terminated. The new behavior is better and easier to understand which makes the tool more attractive.

Feature: Batch processing of the file tool optimized

The batch processing mode of the file tool has been optimized so that it is now easier to use this tool. The operation window is now shared between the particular actions. Opening and closing new operation windows is no longer necessary. The benefit is a smoother process without the annoying opening and closing of windows. This makes it possible that the process can run in the background and you could do other tasks in the meantime. All the changes makes the tool ready for batch processing of multiple files.

Feature: Fax profile can be selected

There is now a fax profile which you can use if you want to save a PDF file with the quality of faxes. If you need a PDF files for faxing then you can use the fax profile which generates a PDF with a quality level of faxes. The new fax profile can be enabled/disabled by the config key NoFaxProfile (DWORD) [0, 1].

Feature: Delete print jobs with errors

Under a Windows system with multiple users it can be possible that a print job of one user can block print jobs of other users. If that happens, only an admin can unblock the printer by deleting the blocking job. This new PDF24 Creator can do this automatically. The config key DeleteJobsWithError (DWORD) [0, 1] can be used to enable and disable this feature. The feature is currently disabled by default. If you need that feature you can set DeleteJobsWithError=1 and then print jobs with errors will be deleted so that no print job can block others.

Feature: Save automatically under a specific user

You can now configure a PDF printer to automatically save files using a specific user. This can be done via the key AutoSaveUser (REG_SZ) of a PDF printer configuration. If you need to use this feature (e.g. because only this specific user has the necessary access rights) then you have to do the following:
  • Add a printer or use the default PDF printer and enable the auto save feature
  • Add the key AutoSaveUser to the config of the PDF printer in the windows registry and set the user name under which to save the printed files
  • Start a session under this user
  • Start the pdf24.exe in this user session
Print jobs of this PDF printer will then be send to this specific user where the PDF files gets saved.

Feature: pdf24.exe as a Windows service

The pdf24.exe can now run as a Windows service which has some nice advantages. Running as a Windows services fixes some multi-user issues from older versions. This Windows service is then the server for all PDF printers. All print jobs are handled by this service and gets redirected to the user where the GUI application opens. This fixes several issues. If e.g. a user has stopped his pdf24.exe process then the service can restart the pdf24.exe for the user so that the user can get his print job. This was not possible in older versions and if a user had stopped his pdf24.exe then the print job could not be redirected to the user which resulted in a print job stalling in the printer queue.
If you still need the old behavior, then you can switch back by setting ServerPerUser (DWORD) [0, 1] in the application config. The PDF24 service can then be stopped.

Feature: Cloud Print feature added

The assistant contains a new tile to print a document in the cloud. When you click on this tile, then the document will be transmitted to the PDF24 cloud print service app where you can print the file using a cloud print provider. This function can be disabled by the config key NoCloudPrint (DWORD) [0, 1]. Simply set NoCloudPrint=1 and the new tile is no longer available.

Improvement: A lot of core PDF functions optimized

Version 8.0 optimizes a lot of core PDF functions and fixes some potential bugs and deadlocks. Merging, splitting and assembling of PDF files should now run a lot faster.

Improvement: Creator loads files faster

The new Creator loads files a lot faster than older versions. We could eliminate the pre-loading step which gives the main performance boost. When you switch to version 8 you will notice that files now loads really quick and you will see the preview a lot faster. This helps you to work a bit faster with the Creator.

Improvement: File preview in the file explorer of the creator accelerated

The preview mode of the file explorer in the creator now loads preview images faster. Older versions could also have some special issues with the generation of the images and this version fixes that.

Improvement: PDF/A and PDF security can't be used together

The PDF/A standard can't have security enabled. The PDF24 Creator handles that and does not apply security settings when PDF/A is selected as the PDF version.

Improvement: Installer shows better status texts

We have added some more status texts to the installer so that you can now ollow the installation better.

Improvement: Time estimation of some operations optimized

We have optimized the time estimation of some operations in the application. The progress bar of these operations should now be more realistic. If an operation takes longer than expected, then the progress bar switches over to the new special mode to visualize an unknown end time.

Improvement: Faster print function

We could also accelerate the print function due to parallel processing of tasks. The print function is now often twice as fast.

Improvement: Faster merging of files

We have optimized the merge function and we could accelerate the process a bit. Merging of files should now be a bit faster.

Improvement: Improved calling Ghostscript and the Doctool process

The operating system limits the command line to a number of characters. When you process a lot of files, then this limitation could cause an unexpected result. We have optimized that and now you can process as many files as you like. You can now e.g. use the file tool (file context menu -> PDF24) with hundreds of files to batch process them. Windows explorer limits the number of selectable files to 100. If you would like to process more files with the file tool, simply copy all files into a folder and open the file tool on that folder. All files in that folder will then be used in the file tool.

Improvement: Optimized printer job file name determination

There where some issues with the file name determination under multi user environments. Sometimes a file name of a print job could not be determined if more than one user was logged in to the system. We have investigated the reason and we found the problem. The bug is now fixed and version 8 should provide the right name of the print job.

Improvement: Flickering in the file tool removed

The file list of the file tool could flicker a bit when the GUI was used. We could find the reason and we have fixed that.

Improvement: Language files updated

Language files are now up to date, but there are still some language keys which are not translated. We will update the language files with newer versions after we have finished our translation tasks.

Improvement: Operation window optimized

The operation window could run into a deadlock under some special circumstances. This problem is fixed.

Improvement: DocTool command line is now case insensitive

Case insensitiveness eases the usage of the doctool and that's the reason for this change.

Improvement: Online converter requests are no longer limited to one file

Online converter requests can now contain more than one file. The latest version of the online converter can process multiple files per request and this version of the PDF24 Creator uses this feature to submit more than one file if required. You no longer need to submit every single file, in order to get your files converted to PDF online.

BugFix: Tool-tip issue of hidden tiles in the launcher fixed

Tooltips of hidden function in the launcher came up when the user moved the mouse in the window. If you had e.g. disabled the fax function (NoFax=1) then the tile of this function was no longer present in the window but the tool-tip was still be shown when you moved the mouse above the actual position of the tile. This was a bug in our layout engine and we have fixed that.

BugFix: Profile selection did not show anything if the last used profile was deleted

Normally, the last used output profile is selected in the profile selection list view on the next start of the application. If the last used profile is no longer available then no profile was selected. We have optimized that behavior and now we select an other profile instead.

BugFix: Output profile PSD 150 DPI was broken

The 150 DPI option of the PSD output filter was broken. The problem is fixed now.

BugFix: PDF passwords can now contain umlauts

PDF passwords with umlauts were not encoded correctly so that a secured PDF file could not be opened with the same password. This version fixes this bugs and you can now use umlauts in your passwords.

BugFix: Fixes an issue regarding file icons

We have fixed an issue regarding file icons. Sometimes file icons could not be shown in the GUI. We have overworked relevant code parts and we could fix that issue. If you have problems with invisible file icons, then update to version 8.

Version 7.9.0

(05.07.2016)

Feature: CTRL+V support within the Assistant and compression tool

The Assistant and the compression tool now supports CTRL+V to add files. Drag & drop support was already available in older version and CTRL+V is now a second option.

Feature: Compression tool now accepts all file types

The compression tool now accepts all file types and not only PDF. Everything what can be converted to a PDF file can be compressed with that tool. If a file is not a PDF file then the compression tool converts the file first and compresses afterwards. Users do no longer need to do that manually.

Feature: Compression tool added to the assistant

We have added the compression tool to the assistant so that you can send the printed PDF file directly the the compression tool to tune the size of the PDF file.

Feature: A file can be dropped to the PDF24 Launcher

A file can now be dropped to the PDF24 Launcher. The Launcher then sends the file to the Creator where you can do something with the file.

Feature: Config option EmailInterface can be used in the HKLM config section

The config key EmailInterface can now be globally set in the application config section under the registry path HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\PDFPrint and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\PDFPrint respectively. It's a bit easier for companies to set the option there instead of setting it for every user separately.

Feature: Extended the printer installer tool

We have extended the PDF printer installer application. We have added two new commands to install a driver only and to set a config of an existing PDF printer. We have also added a fax config profile which is now used for the fax printer which should improve fax results.

Improvement: New Windows Explorer context menu extension

We have implemented a new shell file context menu extension. We no longer use the cascading file context menu. When you open the context menu in your Windows Explorer you will see the PDF24 menu entry. When you hit that menu entry then a special PDF24 GUI opens where you can select a tool to run. This new mechanism is better for the PDF24 Creator. We are now a bit more flexible, we do not fall under the Windows limitations and extensions are easier to add.

Improvement: PDF printer description improved

We have improved the PDF printer description to fix custom paper size and orientation issues. We have also added new paper formats.

Improvement: Improved loading of multiple files within the creator

We have overworked the multiple file loading feature in the creator. The creator no longer pops up after each file loaded. Only the last loaded file brings the creator to the foreground so that you know when the last file is finished. The creator can now work in the background and you can do other things in the meantime.

Improvement: Author no longer automatically added to a PDF

When you save a file with the Save As dialog you can set document information like author, title and keywords. The document information section can be enabled and disabled. If this section was disabled, the created PDF file often contained an automatically generated author field based on the windows user name. We have modified that behavior and we no longer use that automatically generated author information.

Improvement: Auto rotate pages option are made more intelligent

The auto rotate pages option of the Save As dialog is no longer always enabled by default when you save a PDF file with the Creator. This option was enabled by default in earlier versions, but in some situations it's better to disable that. A lot of users forgot to disable that option after they have applied a custom rotation and so they got a final PDF file with an automatically applied rotation which could be wrong. We have optimized related parts and we now disable that option automatically when the user uses a custom rotation.

Improvement: The continue button of the Save As dialog now has the initial focus

The initial focus of the Save As dialog is now on the continue button so that you can hit the enter button to continue if you do not want to make changes in that dialog. A lot of users informed us that this would be a nice improvement for a future version for those who want to work a bit faster here.

BugFix: Files in the compression tool can no longer be added twice

A file already in the list of the compression tool can no longer be added again. You could do that in earlier versions but that was rather disadvantageous than beneficial.

BugFix: Fixed the debug console

Since our compiler changes the debug console could no longer handle line feeds correctly. The debug console could not be used with that bug. We have analysed related parts and we have fixed that issue and now the console prints out correctly.

BugFix: Fixed an app crash when printing a range of pages

Printing a range of pages could cause an app crash due to a logik bug in the page selection code. We have fixed that problem. Printing of the whole document and printing of selected pages worked as expected without errors.

Version 7.8.1

(23.05.2016)

BugFix: Fixed several issues regarding the screen capture feature

  • Fixed issues on systems with DPI scaled screens
  • Fixed cursor flickering when selecting an area on the screen
  • Fixed black screen issue
  • Fixed issues on systems with multiple monitors

BugFix: Fixed an auto save file name issue

There was a minor bug in the auto save feature when using an output profile for file types like PNG, JPEG or other image file types. The produced filename still contained a suffix.

Version 7.8.0

(28.04.2016)

Improvement: PDF Printer settings page improved

Settings of the PDF Printer page are now automatically applied when you change the current PDF printer or when you add a new one.

Feature: Variable $printerName added to the auto save feature

The new variable $printerName can be used in the auto save configuration. This variable will be replaced with the PDF printer name on which was printed.

Feature: PDF24 Mail Interface added

We have added the new PDF24 mail interface which you can use as alternative to the other ones. The other interfaces requires a locally installed mail application such as Outlook to send mails. A lot of users do not use such an email client. That's the reason why we have added the PDF24 Mail interface. This is a online service which can be used to send mails with PDF24.

Feature: Enable/Disable components via a HKLM

You can now enable/disable components via the registry settings under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\PDFPrint or HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\PDFPrint.

Feature: NoUserOverride Flag added

The flag NoUserOverride can optionally be used in the printer service settings to prevent users from overriding the configuration of a PDF printer.

BugFix: Fixed Load on Creator option

You can select the application which opens when you print on the PDF printer. There is an option for the Creator. Sometimes the assistant opened instead of the creator because of a bug in the tool selection function. We have fixed that issue.

Version 7.7.0

(05.04.2016)

Feature: Support for multiple PDF printers

We have added support for multiple PDF printers. The changes of the software were a bit larger but now the feature is available. The installer installs you one PDF printer. More PDF printers can be added via the PDF Printer settings page. There you can find a PDF printer manager where you can manage and configure your PDF printers.

Improvement: Several minor improvements and fixes

This version brings some minor improvements and fixes. The following have also been changed:

  • Drag & Drop into the bottom bar of the Creator could crash the application
  • Fixed windows size issues of two GUI dialogs
  • PDF Printer installer tool extended and improved
  • GUI rendering engine extended so that the new PDF printer manager could be implemented
  • Improvements and adjustments of the installer

Version 7.6.4

(19.02.2016)

BugFix: Subject was not set in the Outlook OLE email interface

The new Outlook OLE email interface did not set the subject of the new mail object. The older MAPI interface does that. We have changed that, so that the subject is now the same as in the MAPI interface.

BugFix: Fixed issues regarding showing/activating the GUI's

We have fixed some issues with the GUI's. The Creator e.g. lost the maximized state at startup or when a new document was available. Sometimes the GUI's did not get activated when a new PDF was printed on the PDF printer, especially when the application was minimized. We have fixed several issues here.

BugFix: Click on the tray icon always opened the Launcher

A right click on PDF24 tray icon opens the context menu of that icon. If you clicked elsewhere on the screen to close the context menu, the PDF24 Launcher always opened. That was a bug and we have fixed that behavior.

BugFix: Fixed issues of the print feature

We have optimized the print feature of the Assistant and the Creator. The new version is a bit faster (sometimes twice as fast), shows a better status and fixes an issue with the "Print multiple copies" options.

Version 7.6.3

(08.02.2016)

BugFix: Print action of the Assistant did not applied the selected profile

The print action of the assistant did not applied the selected profile, so that e.g. the digital paper has not been combined with the actual file. The problem is fixed.

BugFix: Click on the embedded image could crash the application

A click on the embedded image of the application windows could crash the application. We have fixed that so that a click on the image now behaves correctly.

Improvement: Language file updates

We got some new translated texts and we have update the corresponding language files. Five language files more are now up to date.

Version 7.6.2

(01.02.2016)

Improvement: Screen Capture (user defined area) optimized

We have optimized the user defined area mode of the screen capture feature again. We have seen some more places where the tool wasn't that robust.

BugFix: GUI engine issue fixed

There was another small bug in the GUI engine which we have fixed in this version. The TAB key can normally be used to move the focus between the input fields but the bug caused an application crash instead.

Version 7.6.1

(29.01.2016)

BugFix: GUI issue of the Creator fixed

The Creator has a small bar at the bottom of the application window which was sometimes not visible so that you got odd GUI effects. We have fixed that problem in version 7.6.1.

Version 7.6.0

(28.01.2016)

Feature: Outlook OLE Email Interface as an alternative added

This version brings the new email interface Outlook OLE as an alternative. The new interface requires an installed MS Outlook on your computer. Older versions can only use MAPI as interface but MAPI has some issues when Outlook is the mail software. New Outlook Emails created via MAPI does not add signatures automatically. That's bad for users because they have to do that manually. The new Outlook OLE interface fixes that problem. You can switch to the new interface by changing the corresponding option in the settings. The new interface does not work if Outlook is not installed.

Improvement: Screen Capture feature optimized

We have tuned the Screen Capture feature a bit because users reported some odd effects with the new GUI. Sometimes the GUI was visible after the Start button has been hit. This version fixes that. We have also slightly extended the GUI.

BugFix: Window size issue fixed

In some cased the GUI engine had a problem to calculate the correct windows size. The size was sometimes some pixes to high which resulted in odd rendering effects. We have fixed that problem.

BugFix: Fixes issues with PDF-A and PDF-X generation

We have overworked the generation of PDF-X and PDF-A files which was incorrect in the last versions. Files generated with last versions did not pass all validation checks. We have overworked the relevant parts so that this version generate better files. You have to pay some attention with respect to the color model. You can select the model when you save a PDF file. When you want to generate a PDF-A file then you have to choose an ICC profile. The intended color model of that profile must match the selected model in the Save As dialog. Example: If you select an ICC profile which requires CMYK then you also have to select the CMYK color model in the dialog in order to generated correct PDF-A files.

Version 7.5.0

(18.01.2016)

Feature: New Launcher added

The Launcher is now a central element in the PDF24 Creator. The launcher is a small tool where you can see all the available tool of the PDF24 Creator (Creator, Assistant, Compression Tool, ...) and where you can open it. The PDF24 Creator contains several tools and now you have a tool which list all them and where you can open these tools.

Older setups installed you some icons in your windows so that you could open the PDF24 tools. This new version does not install these old icon shortcuts because we now have the new launcher. Now, the installer only installs you one icon shortcut which opens the launcher where you can open a specific tool.

Extension: GUI engine extended and improved

We have extended and optimized the GUI engine so that we can now do some more things with that engine. We have improved speed, fixed some layout bugs and added new features. You can now also use the TAB key to move the focus between input text fields. The overall speed of the new GUI should be better.

Extension: Paper size ArchE1 added to the PDF printer

We have extended the PDF printer description so that you now can now also choose the paper format ArchE1.

Extension: Drag & Drop of files into the Assistant

You can now drag & drop files into the file list of the assistant. You can drag & drop every file which can be converted to PDF. The file will be converted to PDF if the file isn't already a PDF file and shown in the list so that you can perform actions on that file.

Extension: Added more languages to the installer

We have added Ukrainian, Slovenian and Norwegian to the installer.

Improvement: Screen Capture feature overworked and improved

We have improved and extended the screen capture feature which is build in. We have added a GUI for that feature which helps to take screen captures. The GUI opens when you click on the screen capture button within the new Launcher. There you can select a mode and a target and you can start taking a screen capture.

The user defined area mode now supports multiple screens. You can select an area on each available screen which is connected to your computer. You can now also cancel the user defined area mode by hitting the ESCAPE key. We have also optimized the visualization of that mode. When you enter, you will notice the new light white transparent overlay on your screen. When you select a rectangle with your mouse, then we redraw that selected area without that overlay so that you can easily see what you have selected.

Improvement: Tray icon improved

We have also overworked the tray icon because the new features of this version made some of the functions located in the tray icon redundant. When you right click on the tray icon you can open the context menu of that icon. You can no longer do that with a left click. We have stripped-down that menu and we have removed all elements except the open and close one. A double click on that icon now opens the new launcher mentioned above.

Improvement: Highlight color in the file list of the assistant changed

The color is no longer the odd blue one because that does not fit into the design. We have changed that to a light gray. This is now also consistent with the PDF compression tool.

Improvement: Image export improved

When you export a document as an image file format, then the exporter creates a new directory where the pages gets stored. Each file in that directory represents a single page of the exported document. When the document itself only contains a single page, then you will now get a slightly different behavior. In this single page case the application now uses a second step which removes that directory and which saves the single file under the name of that directory, directly as image file. That is what most users desired.

Improvement: Assistant or Creator PDF printer targets

We have improved the PDF printer behavior in case of selecting the right tool for the printed file. If the assistant or creator is the foreground window than the printed file will be opened there. If both tools are open and none of them is the foreground window than we choose the tool depending on your settings. If only one tool is open, then we load the file there.

Improvement: Language file updates and corrections

We have updated and extended all language files. Some parts of the language files are still untranslated. If you like the PDF24 Creator and if you have some spare time then you could support this project by translating some text elements. There are some easy to read language files in language folder of the software which you can open with a text editor. Send us your translations so that we can update our files.

Bugfix: Application goes into background

A user has reported a bug that his application goes into background when he prints on the PDF printer. We have analysed that and we have fixed the relevant part which causes that. Now that should no longer happen.

Bugfix: Fixed a bug in the dialog of the join files feature

You can join you files by the PDF24 context menu option. This join feature lets you select the output file. When the output directory contains the name PDF, then the dialog behaved wrongly. We have overworked this part so that the behavior should now be correct.

Bugfix: Compression tool could rotate pages

The PDF file compression tool sometimes rotated pages in a PDF file. That behavior is wrong because this tool should not affect page rotation. It should only compress PDF files. We have fixed that is this version. The orientation of pages should be kept as is.

Version 7.4.1

(18.11.2015)

BugFix: A document could be shown in a wrong user session in a multi-user environment

If an user had closed his pdf24.exe and printed on the PDF printer then the printout could be shown in an other user session. That was wrong. We have fixed that in version 7.4.1. Now, if a printout can not be shown in the right user context, the printout remains in the windows printer queue until the file can be printed or until the user removes that document there.

BugFix: Missing quotations marks at the autostart entry

There where no quotations marks at the pdf24.exe autostart entry. We where told that this is required. We have added these ones.

Version 7.4.0

(05.10.2015)

Feature: New tool to compress PDF files

The main change of this version is the new PDF compression tool. This tool can be used to compress existing PDF files by manipulating some parameters which reduces the size of PDF files. The tool is very easy to use. Just open it, add PDF files, modify the default settings if you like and have a look at the resulting size. If the new size is acceptable, save the compressed PDF files. You can also open the compressed file to ensure that the quality of the compressed file is good enough.

Improvement: Operating window optimized

We have optimized the operating window because we have seen some problems under certain conditions. The window could block an operation and could not be closed in that state. We have overworked the relevant parts so that the problem should be fixed.

Improvement: Optimized determination of printer job file names

If the name of a print job is very cryptic or if the name represents an URL it's a bad decision to choose that name as a file name because the name can also contain some bad characters. The file chooser dialogs warns the user in that case. We have optimized a bit here. We replace bad characters and use alternative names if the name is very long.

Improvement: Tooltips improved

The software uses tooltips to explain the tools. Tooltips in old versions where a bit limited. We have improved that parts so that tooltips can now also be multi-line and displays at better positions. Now we can show better and longer texts which helps to understand that tool better. The new compression tool uses the new tooltips.

Version 7.3.1

(14.09.2015)

Uses again the older Ghostscript 9.14

This version installs and uses the slightly older Ghostscript 9.14 instead of the latest version 9.16. We have seen some problems with Ghostscript 9.16 so that we decided to switch back. Problems with Ghostscript 9.16 are the following: Unable to load files with umlauts. Unable to process some PDF files with minor errors whereas Ghostscript 9.14 can process them.

Version 7.3.0

(09.09.2015)

Extension: F2 key to change the name of a document in the creator

You can now change the name of a document by pressing the F2 key when you have selected a document in the document list. You can select a document by clicking on it. The F2 key opens a form where you can enter a new name.

Extension: Auto generation of owner password

To apply PDF security settings an owner password is required which you had to enter in the form. You now can apply security settings without to enter this password. The PDF24 Creator generates a random one for you when you leave the password blank.

BugFix: Change of PDF printer tool

The PDF printer tool could sometimes not be changed via the preference pages of the application. This was a bug and we have fixed that. Users who had errors should now be able to change the tool.

BugFix: First try to fix the "Error writing to output file" error

Some users could not save PDF files. They got the error "Error writing to output file". We do not know the exact reason why that happens but we have an idea what could cause that error. This version tries to fix that bug.

BugFix: Not removed temporary files

Sometimes the creator where unable to delete some temporary files which where used by the application. We have found two new places where that could happen and we have implemented a fix for that.

Improvement: New logic to load files into the creator

This version brings a new logic to load files into the creator. Some users have reported that they had font and character issues when they merge files. We have found a solution for that with the new file loading mechanism. The new procedure is a little bit slower than the old one but not too slow and fixes the mentioned bugs.

If you feel bad with the new procedure you can reactivate the old behavior by pressing the CTRL key while loading a file or you can change the registry DWORD value CreatorDirectPDFLoad to 1 within the user settings of the app.

Improvement: PDF security now possible together with file enclosures

Automatically appending and/or prepending a file to the actual one could not be combined with PDF security options. The generated PDF file had no security settings applied. This is now possible.

Version 7.2.0

(01.09.2015)

Extension: Print function added to the Assistant

The Assistant has got a new function. You can now print a document directly from the Assistant on a printer available in your system. That is a cool thing, e.g. to use the PDF printer as print preview. Print on the PDF printer if you need a preview. The Assistant opens. There you can open a preview by clicking on the corresponding button. If all is fine then print on a physical printer directly from the Assistant.

Improvement: PDF print feature optimized

Version 7.2 brings an optimized PDF print function. The function has been revised and optimized.

Extension: Open output profiles from the Assistant

There is a new link in the footer of the Assistant. A click on that link opens the output profile view where you can manage your profiles.

BugFix: Fixed default page rotation settings

The setting value to rotate pages automatically based on the text of the document is normally activated by default. This was not the case in the last versions. We have fixed that so that pages will be rotated automatically if you do not choose an other option.

Extension: Output profiles extended and bugs fixed

RGB is the default color model if you do not choose another one.

The JPEG compression is now the default one for color and gray scale images. PDF files should now be a little bit smaller in size than PDF files produced with older versions. You can change the compression method and the JPEG compression quality when you save as PDF.

We have also added a new section to the PDF filter. You can now convert the colors of a file by choosing one of the color convert options of the corresponding select field. You can, for instance, convert colors to gray-scale.

We have also fixed a bug in version 7.1.0 regarding the color model and color conversion. Version 7.1.0 could produce PDF files which could not be opened.

The PDF filter areas has been reorganized to improve the usability.

Extension: GUI Layout Engine extended

We had some issues with keyboard events which where not passed correctly to parent components. That was the case why the console of the Assistant could not always be opened by the F12 key.

Extension: Overlay-Feature added

Version 7.2 brings the new overlay feature. In addition to the paper feature you can select an overlay PDF file. The content of that file is combined with the content of the actual file so that the content of the overlay file is on top of the content of the actual one. That is the opposite compared to the paper feature. You can use that feature to brand a file, to add a complex watermark or as alternative to the digital paper when the content of the actual file hides the content of the paper.

Extension: Updated the language files

Version 7.1.0

(26.08.2015)

Improvement: Better PDF printer configuration

The installer of version 7.1.0 uses a better PDF printer configuration. TrueType fonts are now downloaded as softfonts by default. This fixes a lot of bugs related to font problems such as font substitution or character issues. User who had problems with fonts should try this version.

Extension: New user configuration options

The user configuration now has the option keys NoOnlineConverter, NoShellContextMenuExtension, NoShellFileContextMenuExtension, NoShellDirectoryContextMenuExtension, NoShellBackgroundContextMenuExtension, NoEmbeddedBrowser. All of these options are of type DWORD. A value of 1 disables the corresponding feature whereas a value of 0 leaves that feature enabled. Al of these options can be manipulated via the settings of the software.

Extension: Some extension in the settings interface

There are two new sections in the interface. The first one is the Explorer context menu section. Here you can enable/disable all or some of the Explorer context menu extension features. The second section can be used to control the features of the application where you currently can enable/disable the PDF24 Online Converter as fall-back tool. The interface itself can now new resized, minimized and maximized. We have also optimized the left pane of the windows.

Extension: The setup now installs the latest Ghostscript 9.16

Extension: Updates of language files. Please send us translation of the new texts.

Version 7.0.7

(18.08.2015)

BugFix: Issue with pinned directories under Windows 10 solved

Opening a pinned folder under windows 10 mysteriously started the PDF24 DocTool application. Version 7.0.7 brings a workaround which fixes this behavior. We currently do not know why Windows 10 is doing that. We hope that we will get some more information about that new behavior in order to implement a better solution.

Extension: -profile flag for the join operation of the DocTool

We have added a profile flag (-profile PROFILE_ID) for the join operation of the DocTool to apply that profile after having joined the input files.

Version 7.0.6

(21.07.2015)

BugFix: Page-Extract-Dialog could not be opened via tools menu

The page extract dialog could not be opened via the tools menu of the creator. We have fixed that issue.

Extension: DocTool command line documentation

We have added a documentation of the command line of the DocTool. Calling the DocTool without command line arguments prints the documentation on the screen.

BugFix: Multi-Page-Tiff output broken

Multi-Page-Tiff files could not be generated with the corresponding output filter of the Save As dialog. We have fixed that too.

Version 7.0.5

(13.07.2015)

BugFix: Append a file via profile was broken

Version 7.0.0 introduced a new feature to append a file at the beginning and at the end to the actual one via a profile. There was a bug in appending a file at the end. Appending a file at the beginning worked, appending a file at the beginning and at the end worked to but appending a file at the end only was broken. Version 7.0.5 fixes this bug.

Version 7.0.4

(07.07.2015)

BugFix: Assistant opens in background

Users have reported that the windows of the assistant opens in background after you have printed on the PDF printer. That's a bit annoying. We have solved that problem in version 7.0.4.

Version 7.0.3

(06.07.2015)

BugFix: Preview of the assistant broken if a PDF password is inside a profile

When you select a profile which contains a PDF password and when you click on the preview button then the preview opens without showing anything. We have fixed that problem.

BugFix: Profile with PDF password without using the Save As dialog wrongly applied

When you use a profile which contains a PDF password to save the actual file without the Save As dialog then the password inside the profile was wrongly applied and you could not open the PDF file with the password you have entered. The PDF24 Creator encrypts the password and stores it inside the registry. Without the Save As dialog we forgot to decrypt the password before applying it to the PDF file so that you could not open the file with your password. That problem is fixed.

Version 7.0.2

(02.07.2015)

BugFix: Normal page view of the Creator broken

There are different views of a document inside the creator. There are different previews and there is the normal page number view. The normal page number view was broken because there were missing images in the bin file. We have fixed that.

Version 7.0.1

(01.07.2015)

BugFix: Assistant App Crash when PDF24 fax is not installed

If PDF24 fax is not installed then the assistant could not start but rather crashed at startup. That problem is fixed in version 7.0.1.

Version 7.0.0

(24.06.2015)

Extension: Extensions and improvements in the assistant

Version 7 brings a revised wizard that has been improved in many ways. On the left there is now a file list which contains the printed files. The center pane of the application contains the file action buttons which are now better than the old ones. The buttons are larger and have icons and text and better mouse effects. Above the list, there are some buttons to manage the list. Joining all documents in the list is also possible. You can select a document in the list and you can perform an action on that document by clicking on one of the action buttons.

We plan to make the action buttons customizable so that you can add or remove buttons. We will introduce that feature with a future versions. The benefit of that customization is that you as a user or as a company can add some more buttons to add functionality you need. Write us so that we can discuss that feature so that we can develop in the right direction.

Feature: Integration into Windows Explorer context menu

There is now an integration into the Windows Explorer context menu. By clicking the right mouse button on a file or in the background of the explorer, the normal context menu opens. This menu now contains the PDF24 sub-item.

The following functions are available for file via the PDF24 context menu:
  • Open selected files with the Creator for further processing
  • Print selected files on the PDF printer
  • Split selected documents page by page
  • Optimize selected documents for the web
  • Join all selected documents to one PDF
  • Send selected documents by e-mail
  • Send selected documents by fax
  • Apply an output profile to selected files
  • Extract page from the selected files
  • Convert selected files to ...
  • Convert selected files to PDF
  • Convert selected file to PDF online
The following functions are accessible via the PDF24 explorer background context menu:
  • Import From Scanner or Camera
  • Import from the clipboard
The background context menu is the context menu that opens when you click with the right mouse button into the blank area of ??the Explorer or your desktop.

Improvement: Improved command lines of some tools

When it comes to the command line of the PDF24 Creator tools, some improvements have been made. Some arguments have been revised, removed, added and unified in order to facilitate the work with the command line. The command line interface will be documented later.

BugFix: Prevent from opening twice

Under certain circumstances, some tools could open twice, which is not wanted for some tools. The Creator, for example, should be opened only one instance, because this instance can handle multiple files. Under certain conditions, it was still possible that the tool could open twice. The problems should be fixed.

BugFix: Fixed a bug in the PS and EPS output filter

The output filters for the file types PS and EPS was broken. We have fixed and optimized the relevant parts and now you should be able to save as PS and EPS.

BugFix: EPS filter creates one file per page

An EPS file contains one page per file. The output filter in the PDF24 Creator was not correct, so you could always only save the first page of a file. This problem is now fixed. The output filter for EPS now creates a folder containing the files of each page.

BugFix + Improvement: Drag and Drop fixes and improvements

The drag and drop implementation has been improved so that more things are possible here which can be used by the tools. Version 7 also fixes some other minor bugs within the implementation.

Improvement: Output filters for image files improved

When you save a document as an image, then one image file is created for each page of that document. The output filter has now been extended so that the filter always creates a folder with the page image files of the document. The user has to choose a destination file. The filter creates a folder under that name and saves the page image files into that folder.

Improvement: Moved the Page-Extract-Dialog from the Creator to the DocTool

The Page-Extract-Dialog is now part of the DocTool. The advantage of that change is that the DocTool can now be used to open this dialog for a file.

Improvement: Page-Extract-Dialog enlarged and improved

The Page-Extract-Dialog is now slightly larger and the usability is now better.

Improvement: Process-Status-Dialogs can now be reused

Some operations executes minor sub task which would normally open and then close the process dialog. This is annoying for some operations. One dialog instance can now be shared between some tasks and the tasks itself only change the status of the shared status window instance.

Improvement: Clipboard handler of the DocTool optimized

If there are files in the clipboard, then the DocTool can extract these files and now also communicates the names of these files correctly. Older versions did not used the document name so that the name could not be used in the tools.

Feature: Extended the DocTool

We have added a lot of new features to the DocTool. Almost all the functions that are present in the PDF24 Windows Explorer context menu extension uses the DocTool to execute the corresponding operation. The functions can be executed from the command line. We will document these functions later.

One example of what you can now do with the DocTool is to join multiple files to one.

Extension: Extended the GUI layout engine

The GUI engine has been extended and improved in some points and some components (e.g. the assistant) uses that new features.

Improvement: Improved the language file module and all language files

Language files can now have some properties in the file header and the language module can read these properties. The PDF24 Creator uses these properties to determine the language at first application start and to display better language names in the setting page.

We have added Norwegian as new language file. A lot of files are fully translated, but there are still some files with missing parts. The English language file is used for all missing elements. Translations are usually contributed by users. If you can translate and if you have some minutes, you are welcome to translate missing parts.

Improvement: File names when printing in a browser

When browsers print they often send file names which represents URLs or parts of URLs. We now take that into account and to our best to determine a file name of that submitted name.

Feature: Append and/or prepend a file to the actual one

The PDF output filter has a new feature to attach a file automatically to the actual one. You will recognize the new element of that filter when you open the Save As dialog. The files can be stored into a profile so that you can apply a predefined profile to printed files. This is a good feature e.g. if you want to append some terms or other information automatically.

Improvement: Save As dialog optimized

We have seen some effects in older version of the Save As dialog which could be optimized. Loading a profile is now faster. Older version have a bug and load profile twice because of some events. File select elements could sometimes not be stored/loaded into/from a profile.

Improvement: Prompt for "The document XXX is not yet saved ..." optimized

The prompt of "The document XXX has not been saved. Do you want to save it?" also appeared if you have only loaded a document. It would be better to show that message only if the document has been modified. We have implemented that in this way.

Improvement: Updater optimized

The GUI, update request, downloading and error handling have been improved. The behavior especially in cases of errors where not satisfying in older versions.

Improvement: Layout fix in the Creator at DPI levels not equal to 96

The Creator is optimized for DPI levels of 96 DPI but can also be used at other DPI values. Version 7.0 fixes the to large spacer bar between the toolbar and the file path element of the explorer inside the creator.

Improvement: Citrix Multi User session fix

If a user is logged in multiple times and if the user prints on the PDF printer then the assistant opened in one of the user sessions but not necessarily in the session from which was printed. That was bad. We have optimized some parts in order to fix that behavior. If you still have problems with that, please contact us.

Version 6.9.2

(28.11.2014)

BugFix: Fixes some issues regarding the auto conversion of documents

Sometimes the default printer was not changed back after having changed temporarily to convert a file to PDF. This version fixes that and resets the printer as default which where the default printer before. Another problem was the conversion of Excel files when the PDF24 PDF printer was not the default printer. In that case the conversion failed. That's also fixed.

Version 6.9.1

(12.11.2014)

BugFix: Fixes application crashes in version 6.9.0

Some users reported us application crashes in version 6.9.0. We investigated the problem and found a part which caused the crashes. Version 6.9.1 brings a fix for this issue.

Version 6.9.0

(11.11.2014)

Improvement: Optimized auto save feature

We have improved the file save method of the auto save feature. In previous versions a created file could be overwritten with the next auto saved file if the next file was produced to fast. We now have a better file locking mechanism so that we can make a file name unique if there is already a file with the same file name.

Improvement: Better support for converting MS Office files to PDF

We have optimized the auto conversion of MS Office files so that these files can now be better converted to PDF. These files are now handled in a special way.

Feature: Support for the backspace key within the file explorer list

We have added support for the backspace key within the file explorer list to change to the parent folder of the currently opened one.

Improvement: Improved label editing within the file list

We also improved label editing within the file list view of the file explorer when a link is to be edited.

Improvement: Improved the file explorer list in point of speed

The file list is now virtual and a lot of faster then the list of previous versions. If you open a folder with only a few elements than you will not notice the faster list but if you open a folder with some thousand elements then the speed difference is very large. In previous versions you could wait some seconds until the list was ready and now this will only took some milliseconds. Some companies have really large folders and waiting is really annoying.

Improvement: Improved the file explorer tree

The file explorer tree no longer shows the current folder of the file list view because this reduced the file explorer speed in some cases. You can still navigate by the directory tree to open folders and the list shows the currently opened folder of the tree but in the other way this is no longer the case. This greatly improves the speed and the behavior is now more like the Windows explorer. Furthermore we have optimized some other points to make the tree faster.

Improvement: Optimized the start condition of a Drag & Drop operation in the explorer tree

Sometimes the Drag & Drop operation was initiated to fast which was not necessary. We have optimized that part to get a better behavior.

Feature: Added an input field for the currently opened folder

We have added an input field which shows the currently opened folder. The path of that input field can be edited by the user to change the path by hitting the enter key.

Improvement: Updated some language file.

Version 6.8.0

(13.10.2014)

BugFix: Fixed an auto save issue

Added the auto save command quote fix. Some commands could bot be executed because of a quote character problem.

Improvement: Improved double clicks within the file explorer

Optimized the double click behavior in the explorer list. Older versions also started a drag & drop operation which was not necessary. We have optimized that a little bit to distinguish better between the beginning of a drag & drop operation and a double click.

Improvement: Optimized Drag & Drop

Drag & Drop optimized, especially when dragging files from the PDF24 Creator and dropping them into the Windows Explorer or other applications.

Improvement: Optimized Ghostscript calls

The app now uses absolute paths to call Ghostscript because an installed Ghostscript into the system32 folder would run this Ghostscript instead of the PDF24 delivered version.

BugFix: Fixed an unsynchronized access issue

Fixed a potential app crash issue caused by an unsynchronized access of the file icons and file thumbnails within the explorer list of the creator.

BugFix: Fixed a PDF lib issue

Fixed a bug in the PDF lib. Some special PDF files could not be opened in earlier versions.

Version 6.7.0

(04.07.2014)

Feature: PDF24 Creator can use the PDF24 Online PDF Converter

The DocTool can now use the PDF24 Online PDF Converter if necessary. If there is no local application which can print a file on the PDF printer in order to convert the file to PDF, then the user will be asked to convert the file online with the PDF24 Online PDF Converter. If he agrees, then the DocTool sends the file to the service to get it converted to PDF.

BugFix: UrlLib issue fixed

Fixed an issue with the UrlLib, which could create wrong URLs.

Improvement: Language file fixes and updates

Improvement: Optimized auto save feature

You can now use placeholders when specifying the folder, where to save to file. Available are date and time placeholders like %Y, %m, %d, %H, %M, %S as well as environment placeholders like %USERNAME%, %USERPROFILE%, ....

Version 6.6.0

(26.06.2014)

Improvement: Control of default printer optimized

The DocTool sometimes have to change the users default printer to the PDF24 PDF printer in order to convert a file to a PDF. This change is reverted after the conversion is finished. We have optimized this part of the code within the DocTool.

Improvement: Mutex Locks optimized

The DocTool uses mutex locks to synchronize DocTool executions. We have optimized here so that these locks will be used only when really necessary.

Feature: DocTool now has a shell print command

The DocTool can now be used to execute a shell print command on a file to print the file on a printer.

Feature: DocTool can create PDF files from clipboard content

This is a cool feature. You can use the DocTool to e.g. create a PDF file from an image which is in the clipboard. If the clipboard contains a file reference then this file will be converted to PDF.

Feature: DocTool can do file uploads

The DocTool can now be used to upload files to internet services.

Improvement: Converting files with the PDF printer optimized

We have optimized how we access the PDF printer to convert files to PDF. In previous version the message "Could maybe not be converted" where shown relatively often because we did not know whether the conversion is possible or not. Here comes the optimization. We have optimized that so that we now better know whether a conversion is possible or not.

Improvement: Special handling for Word, Excel and PowerPoint files no longer required

There was a special handling for Word, Excel and PowerPoint files to convert these files to PDF. This is as of now no longer required because of the optimization above. If a print command is available for a specific file type then this file can be converted to PDF.

Improvement: Drag and Drop file import order optimized

The file import order now exactly matches the order of the submitted files via the drag & drop action. Older versions could break that order which was bad in some cases where the order is crucial.

Version 6.5.0

(04.06.2014)

BugFix: Fixed a bug in the PDF lib

There was a bug in the PDF lib which caused an application crash when reading some special PDF files. We have fixed that one.

BugFix: Image of the progress window did not scale

The progress windows was optimized for 96 DPI. Higher DPI settings caused a gap at the right side of the window which was a little bit ugly. We have fixed that issue and now the progress windows is DPI aware.

Improvement: Moved a settings area

We have moved the block PDF Printer Tool from the general element to the PDF Printer element because this block is more related to this section.

Feature: Progress window can be disabled in auto save feature

The progress window could be annoying when saving a lot of documents automatically. The window can be disabled in the settings in the auto save section.

BugFix: Language files fixed

There was a wrong key element in all language files so that there was a not replaced placeholder in the save as dialog. We have corrected that.

Version 6.4.1

(14.05.2014)

BugFix: TWAIN Import Bug fixed

We have fixed a TWAIN import bug in version 6.4.1. Some users reported issues with that feature. Sometimes it worked with no problems and on other PC's or other drivers it was broken. We have investigated the issue and we have rewritten some code parts with the hope that this should solve the problem. If you have problems with the TWAIN import part please report your problem in our support forum.

BugFix: Files were not signed in version 6.4.0

The build process was broken so that the files and the setup itself were not signed with the Geek certificate. We have fixed that.

Improvement: TEMP directory detection improved

Some users reported that PDF files could not be created. One problem was die TEMP directory bug so that temp files could not be created. We have optimized the part which determines the TEMP directory and that should solve the problem of some users.

BugFix: Drag & Drop Bar fix added

When dragging and dropping pages of documents a vertical bar is drawn which indicates the insert position. Sometimes this bar were drawn with an invalid height so that some areas were overdrawn. This is now fixed.

BugFix: PDF color model fixes added

Users can select the color model when saving a PDF file. We have fixed some parts here so that the selected color model should now be correctly applied to the document. If you now save a PDF and if you select the gray color model than the final PDF file will be gray-scaled.

Version 6.4.0

(06.05.2014)

Improvement: Ghostscript 9.14 is now shipped with this release

Improvement: Language file updates

Affected language files: German, Italian, French, Lithuanian, Czech

Improvement: Setup translation updates of several languages

BugFix: Fixed a minor bug in the PDF24 PDF lib

The bug could cause an application crash when the user loads a special PDF file.

Version 6.3.2

(07.02.2014)

BugFix: Removed debug message from the DocTool

There was a debug message in the DocTool which was shown after using the DocTool. This version removes this debug message.

Version 6.3.1

(05.02.2014)

BugFix: Fixed issues with the save as dialog

Fixed a major bug introduced in version 6.3. Entered values in the text boxes of the save as dialog could not be correctly read by the app so that they were not used in saving process. Default values were used instead. Passwort protection for instance could not be used although correctly entered all fields.

Improvement: Optimized environment variables

Improved the environment variables of the apps so that the pdf24 apps itself can be used in auto save mode without to use the whole path of the app.

Improvement: Further optimized focus optimization from version 6.3.0

We improved the focus optimization from version 6.3.0. The problem was that if you have clicked into a form element and if you have moved the mouse out of the element then the form element lost its focus so that you could not enter text. The mouse had to be in the element to enter text. That was a little bit bad and we have optimized that so that you now can click into an element and you can move the mouse a little bit away and the element keeps its focus.

Version 6.3.0

(04.02.2014)

Improvement: Overwriting files in auto save mode

The PDF printer auto save feature now does not overwrite existing files any longer. Now, if a file exists, a suffix is appended to the file name under which the file will be saved.

Update: Update of language files

The following files has been updated: English, Polish, Finnish, Lithuanian, Czech, Spanish, Italian

Improvement: Moved file name erasement options

The file name erasement options are now part of the PDF printer page.

Improvement: Supported placeholders added to the form

Supported placeholders in the settings pages are now visible in the GUI.

Improvement: Scrollbar issues fixed

Sometimes scrollbars where shown where they wouldn't be necessary. We have optimized some GUI parts so that now scrollbars are only visible if they are really necessary.

Improvement: Focus change between areas optimized

Now, some windows gains the focus when the mouse moves into this windows. This improves usability in some dialogs where user can scroll so that no click is needed any longer to get the focus which activates scrolling for that window.

Improvement: ADMIN suffix in settings dialog title

The settings window now has the title suffix ADMIN when the settings dialog is opened with full administrator rights to change special settings.

Feature: Custom command in automatic save mode

We have added a custom command feature to the PDF printer auto save mode. The feature can be enabled and configured in the PDF Printer pages of the application settings.

Feature: ShellPrint command added to the pdf24-docTool.exe

Now there is a shell print feature in the pdf24-docTool.exe. The command pdf24-docTool.exe -shellPrint -printerName FILE can be used to print out a file on a printer using the shell print windows feature. The can be used together with the auto save feature of the PDF printer to print out a file on another printer.

Feature: ALT key to break auto save mode

Now you can use the ALT key to break the auto save mode of the PDF printer. If auto save is enabled and if you print on the PDF printer, the printed file is then normally saved to a file. You can temporarily break this by keeping pressed the ALT key when sending a file to the PDF printer. This opens the PDF24 assistant or the PDF24 Creator where you can handle the file as if you don't had activated the auto save mode.

BugFix: Custom profile in auto save settings page

We have also improved the custom profile selection in the auto save settings page. The custom profile was not shown as selected after having been selected.

Feature: Custom profile when saving automatically

When the custom profile option in the auto save setting page is selected then the format option dialog will be opened after printing a document on the PDF printer. There you can make custom settings which will be used when saving the file.

Version 6.2.0

(12.12.2013)

BugFix: Added a TWAIN fix

Added a Twain fix which could cause an application crash in some circumstances

BugFix: Preview generation could cause application crash

The PDF24 Creator could crash if the user drags & drop pages from one document to another while the preview generation of the documents is still in progress.

Improvement: Faster preview generation

The preview generation in the PDF24 creator is now more parallel. This is faster on CPU's with multiple cores.

Improvement: Custom page size section of the PDF printer driver optimized

Optimized the PDF printer driver in terms of custom page sizes. Sometimes the wrong page size was used.

Improvement: ParseDSCComments is now enabled

This parses the DSC comments and add that information to the target document.

Update: Updated all language files

We have updated all language files and added some new elements too, which are currently not fully translated. We update the files on a rolling basis as soon as we get translations from the translators.

Version 6.1.0

(04.12.2013)

Improvement: Default file name for the auto save feature

The default file name for the auto save feature is %Y-%m-%d %H-%M-%S ${fileName}. This is a time stamp and the name of the file, if the name is available.

Improvement: PDF24 Tray menu can be opened with left mouse button

You could only use the right mouse button to open the PDF24 tray menu, but the left mouse button is also good for opening the tray menu and so we added the additional handler for the left mouse button.

Improvement: Settings module optimized

Changes in settings now better takes effect in running modules so that no application restart is necessary for a lot of changes. For instance now you can change the auto save feature without to restart the pdf24.exe backend module.

Improvement: Layout orientation (horizontal/vertical) is now saved in profile

Now the setting is in profile so that a application restarts don't change the layout.

Improvement: File extension handling via printer interface is now more intelligent

Known file extension are removed from the name which was determined from the printer interface. This is mostly OK and now you don't have the original extension in the name.

Improvement: Updated translation files

The language files Czech, Finnish, Italian, Japanese, Lithuanian, PortugueseBrazilian, Swedish where updated. Here is thank you to the translators who sends us updates.

Feature: Send To entry for the PDF24 Creator

The setup adds a Send To entry for the PDF24 Creator. Now you can easily send files to the Creator which then will be converted to PDF.

Version 6.0.1

(28.10.2013)

BugFix: Fixes a bug when saving without GUI

Version 6.0.0

(28.10.2013)

BugFix: Reworking of digital paper feature

Integration of digital paper into the document was erroneous if the PDF files was of a newer standard (1.5 and above). We have solved that issue in this version.

BugFix: Extra page when adding watermarks

An extra page was added to the document when the watermark feature was used. This bug is solved.

Improvement: Renaming of PDF24 Editor to PDF24 Creator

The PDF24 Creator itself is consisted of the PDF printer and a tool called PDF24 Editor, which can be used to compose/edit files page-based. Users also expected that they can also use this tool to edit the content of PDF pages, but that is not possible. The tool can do something with whole pages but the content of pages can not be manipulated. That is the reason for the renaming and we think the name Creator better reflects the possibilities of that tool.

Improvement: Ghostscript 9.10 is now used

This version now uses the latest Ghostscript 9.10.

Feature: Screen Capture to clipboard

A lot of users desired the Screen Capture to clipboard functionality as option besides the Screen Capture to PDF feature. The new feature is now part of the software and is accessible through the PDF24 tray icon. A new menu group was added to the tray icon which contains the new tools.

Improvement: Changed a license part for the good of the user

There was a license part which stated that some parts of the software will be disabled after 6 month usage without update. This part is now no longer part of the license terms. Nothing is disabled after 6 month usage. Now, the user will only see an update information if an update is available and recommended for installation.

Feature: Default save folder = source folder of loaded file

This little change eases the usage of the PDF24 creator because the folder of the loaded file is often used to save the new file after doing some modifications.

Improvement: "Target could not be found" issue fixed

The warning was shown in the PDF24 Creator if a shortcut could not be resolved. Now this warning will not be shown if the PDF24 Creator opens.

BugFix: Fixed the page from .. to feature when saving files

The page from ... to fields where sometimes not recognized. This version contains fixes in the corresponding parts so that the problem should be solved.

Improvement: Fixed some GUI issues

Some GUI elements where not displayed correctly, especially when the default DPI settings was changed. Some GUI parts of the application scaled in a wrong manner so that it was not possible to work with that parts. We have optimized the parts so that the program can also be used on screens with higher DPI values.

Improvement: Save as Dialog cut on screens with resolution of 1280 x 1024

We have overworked the GUI of the Save As dialog so that a screen with 1280 x 1024 Pixel should no longer be a problem.

Feature: New output filter TEXT added

The new filter can save as text, currently in the encodings UTF8 and UCS2.

Improvement: Restructuring of the settings

We have added some new options to the settings pages which could not be integrated into the old structure. Therefore we have changed a little here.

Feature: Open PDF file after storing it

Now, there is also the feature to automatically open a saved PDF file. This eases the work flow PDF printer -> Assistent -> Save -> Open

Improvement: Extended language files

We have extended all language files and made them up to date so that all files have all keys. Some files are currently not fully translated. This will be done by translators and we will add the missing parts as soon as we get it.

BugFix: Resetting the default printer

Resetting the default printer was not executed in some parts so that the PDF24 printer was left the default one. We have fixed that for the known parts.

Feature: Auto-Save feature added

Files can now be saved automatically without GUI interaction. The feature can be controlled by the settings. You can define the folder where to save, a file name pattern and a profile which shall be applied when saving. If that feature is enabled and if you print on the PDF printer then the printed document will be saved automatically into the defined folder. You can also define whether the folder should be opened after the file was saved.

Improvement: Optimized the print feature

The PDF24 Creator has a print feature by which the current selection can be printed. Sometimes the print quality was bad especially when printing high resolution documents. We have improved that part so that the quality is better and can also be better controlled by the DPI setting in the printer property pages.

Improvement: Umlauts and other characters are now usable when saving to PDF

Older releases had some issues with umlauts and other characters outside the ASCII range. Issues where related to the following subsections of the PDF output filter: Watermark text, PDF meta data such as title, author and keywords, PDF/X and PDF/A settings and PDF passwords.

Version 5.7.0

(22.07.2013)

Feature: Faster loading of PDF files in PDF24 Editor

Loading PDF files with the PDF24 Editor is now faster then in older version. Try it out, the difference is really noticeable.

Improvement: Prints ENV information when the debug console opens

This information is often necessary when analysing user problems. That's the main reason why we have added this feature.

Feature: PDF printer driver overworked

Now there are a lot more predefined paper sizes the user can select.

BugFix: PDF-X color bug fixed.

Sometimes colors got converted when the file was saved as PDFX.

New language files Slovenian and Ukrainian

Version 5.6.0

(10.06.2013)

BugFix: Fixed an issue with the file name of the email as feature

After clicking on the send as email button an input form pops up where the user has to enter a file name for the file of the email attachment. There was a character encoding bug which caused unreadable names when attached to the email. We have fixed that.

Feature: Email subject line is filled with the file name

The email subject line is automatically filled with the documents file name so that the user does not need to enter the name into the subject line. This feature was often wanted to speed up the process.

BugFix: Fixed an issue with the PDF info meta information

The PDF info meta information could be set when the source document already had an information block. We have changed the code parts so that the information can also be overwritten when already available.

Improvement: Optimized language file parts for the assistant

We have optimized the assistant/* parts so that the key are more correct with the respect to the intention inside the assistants GUI. Furthermore we have optimized the order of the buttons.

Improvement: More room for button text

We have removed the icon of the button which was equal to all buttons. Now there is more place for the text which we already use for the languages German and English.

BugFix: PDFX issue fixed

The application could crash when the user has chosen the PDFX output format so that the save process failed. We have fixed that.

Updated language files

Version 5.5.1

(31.05.2013)

BugFix: DPI values in Save As dialog were not applied in save process

DPI value changes in Save As dialog were not applied in save process. This was a bug. Only the default quality profile values were used. Changes of the DPI values had no effect on PDF file size or image quality.

BugFix: Some fixes regarding periods in file names

Determination of file names from the printer interface had a little bug, because the method behind that feature has removed the file extension, which was the cause for a file name issue. If there where periods in filenames such as my.document.docx then the PDF creation process has used the name my.pdf as save file name. We have overworked related parts of the creator and hopefully we have found all places.

Language file Portuguese updated

Version 5.5.0

(30.05.2013)

Improvement: Optimized image quality in created PDF files

The image quality was sometimes poor in a created PDF files regardless which PDF quality was chosen. The user could sometimes also not influence the image quality with other options. We have improved some parts within the PDF creation process so that the image quality is significantly better and can be better controlled with the PDF quality options.

Improvement: Some minor improvements and fixes

We have improved and fixed some parts of the PDF creator which could cause problems in some cases.

Improvement: Fax option optimized

We have invested a lot of time to optimized the fax option and the fax service which is used to transmit the faxes. We try to make that part as easy as possible.

Some language files updated

Version 5.4.0

(20.03.2013)

Improvement: Added new languages to the installer

The PDF24 Creator itself has several language files which can be used. The installer, on the other hand, had only a few languages which could be used during the installation phase. The new available languages are: Portuguese, Danish, Finnish, Hungarian, Russian, Japanese, Polish, Czech, Dutch, Greek, Hebrew

Improvement: Language file Greek added

Improvement: Ghostscript 9.07 is now installed

All improvement of the new version of Ghostscript are therefore available. The new Ghostscript option -dFastWebView is used by the creator.

Improvement: Opening of folders in the integrated file explorer of the editor optimized

The file explorer of the pdf24 editor now automatically opens the containing folder when the first file is loaded. This is a very cool features because this folder is most of the time the folder to work with so that you can do something in that folder again and again without to open it manually. Especially useful when opening a file via the "Open with" dialog.

Improvement: Saving the last profile in assistant

The selected profile is saved as last used profile when the assistant closes and not only when the pdf save operation was executed. This behavior is the more expected one.

Improvement: Added fontmap creation to the setup

The installer now create the fontmap which Ghostscript uses. The map is created based on the fonts in the windows font folder.

Version 5.3.0

(19.02.2013)

BugFix: TWAIN (Scanner) bugs fixed

Importing from scanner or camera could be very hard because the used driver had some bugs. Some users reported GUI issues and other problems in this part. We have overworked the corresponding part of the PDF24 Creator to provide a more reliable component and we hope that all that issues are now a thing of the past.
Furthermore importing multiple pages at once should now also be possible.

Feature: Loading files by command line when the PDF24 Editor is opened

Only one instance of the PDF24 Editor can be opened at a time. If you tried to load some files by command line when the PDF24 Editor was already opened then nothing happened. This version provides that feature. If the Editor is open and if you want to load files by command line then the files are loaded in the already opened instance.

Improvement: Optimized the installer to fix an PDF creation issue

If you already had an old version installed and if you installed an update or a new version then it could occur that you couldn't create PDF files any longer. The problem was old files, virtualized by the Windows UAC. The installer now detects such a case and installs the PDF24 Creator so that PDF creation is possible.

Version 5.2.0

(12.12.2012)
We recommend to update to the new version because of the fixes described below.

BugFix: Font issue fixed when merging PDF files

Merging PDF files together could cause character problems in the final document. Some text have used the wrong font and therefore some letters could not be displayed correctly. This problem is fixed.

Change: Font settings in PDF output filter removed

The font settings are now controlled fully by the PDF24 Creator to ensure that the final PDF file does not contain font problems.

Improvement: Optimized some internal processing parameters

To optimize the PDF output we have optimized some internal processing parameters. Now the output of some PDF files are better.

BugFix: Not removed temporary files

The Drag & Drop feature of the PDF24 Editor has not removed some temporary files after the application was closed. This bug is fixed.

Language file update for Japanese

New language file Hebrew

Version 5.1.0

(29.11.2012)

Improvement: Optimized the internal preview concerning speed and usability

The internal preview has been accelerated dramatically. Zooming into documents could be very slow in the old version. That was annoying and so we decided to overwork this tool. The new preview is much better in zooming in and out and does not slow down. Furthermore we could improve the usability in zooming in and out using the CTRL key and the mouse wheel. We try to keep the current point of the document in the view so that the document does not jump when you scroll.

BugFix: Fixed another TWAIN issue

We found another weakness in the implementation of the TWAIN import module which sometimes causes problems in some device drivers.

Improvement: Improved PDF output quality again

We could improve the PDF output quality of high quality PDF files again by optimizing some internal parameters of the generator. The predefined PDF quality levels are now more precise so that you will get better graded results. The PDF file size is now directly dependent on the chosen quality level.

Improvement: New language file and updated existing ones

We have updated nearly all language of which we got updates since the last release. The new language file Turkish is now part of the setup. If you also a have new language then you can send us the file to forum@pdf24.org so that we can add the file to the setup.

Version 5.0.0

(16.11.2012)

BugFix: Fixed an Word 2010 related conversion issue

There could be a problem in automatic conversion of Word files with Word 2010. The problem could be solved with a delay in the conversion process.

Feature: Language file for Portugal added

We already had an Portuguese language file, but the old file was targetet for Brasilia. The new file is for the Portuguese. We have renamed the old file in PortugueseBrazilian.

Improvement: Language file updates

We have updated all language files and added some new parts which, partially, still needs to be translated. As soon as we get the missing parts we will add it to the PDF24 Creator.

BugFix: Fixed scanner (TWAIN) issues

There where some problems in some scanner GUI dialogs of the TWAIN interface. Sometimes some elements could not be selected and others closed automatically after it was opened. The new version fixes these issues.

Feature: Load last profile in Save As dialog automatically

Now you save some time when you save a lot files with the same profile. You now do not need to select this profile manually, because the last profile is loaded automatically. If the last loaded profile is the right profile for save then you can click on Continue to proceed.

Improvement: Overriding files improved

Overriding files can be erroneous if the files is opened or locked by the system. The problem was that PDF24 does not have noticed you if file writing fails. We have implemented a new behavior of this. If a file could not be written, then PDF24 tries with a different (very equal) name. If that fails to then you get an error message.

Improvement: Improved image quality in Image To PDF feature

Sometimes the image quality in the PDF file of converted images to PDF was very poor, especially for high quality images. This version brings significant improvements in image conversion process.

Improvement: Improved image quality in saving to PDF process

This process had weak spots in image quality too, even though if a high quality was selected. We have overworked some parts in this process and we could highly increase the quality of the result.

Improvement: Optimized quality of internal preview

So that the user gets a good idea of the result, we have improved the preview in terms of quality. The preview provides sharper and more accurate results.

Feature: Integrated new option when saving to PDF

The JPEG quality was added as an new option to the Save As dialog. You can fine tune the new option to get customized quality results and therefore customized compression rates.

Improvement: Buttons rearranged in PDF24 Assistant

Improvement: Optimized the background in the GUI of the PDF24 Assistant

Removed the default quality part from the settings. Is no longer necessary.

Improvement: Save As dialog optimized to ease the usage.

Improvement: Save as PDF process optimized to control the quality with the parameters a little better.

Improvement: Mail As PDF

Mail As PDF button send the mail with a PDF files by default. The Save As dialog isn't shown by default any longer.

Improvement: Element Customize... added to the profile selection in PDF24 Assistant

Choosing the new element modifies the behavior of some buttons in the GUI. The Save As dialog is used to customize some parameters and the output which is then used as input for the process of the particular button.

Improvement: Load multiple files with the PDF24 Editor on command line

Now you can specify more than one document on the command line of the PDF24 Editor. The PDF24 Editor loads all specified files one after another.

BugFix: PDF file filter issue fixed

Th PDF file filter in the explorer list of the PDF24 Editor now supports uppercase file extensions.

Improvement: Hidden and system files are never displayed in the file list of the PDF24 Editor.

BugFix: Missing file extension when saving a file in PDF24 Assistant

Entering some special file names caused the PDF24 Assistant to remove the file extension from the file name so that the saved file had no extension.

Update mode is not automatic by default

Improvement: Added new Ghostscript version to the setup

We now deliver a new Ghostscript version with the PDF24 setup. The new version brings a lot improvements under the hood of the PDF24 Creator.

Improvement: Optimized internal processing parameters

We could increase the PDF output quality by improving some internal processing parameters.

Improvement: Improved message boxes in PDF24 Assistant

Improvement: Image to PDF tool determines image DPI which is then used in the PDF file

Improvement: PDF/X and PDF/A settings pages in Save As dialog combined with the PDF page

This version combines the PDF/X, PDF/A and PDF pages to one page. Now you can use all options of the PDF page for creating PDF/X and PDF/A files. This could not be realized in an older version. The PDF standard selection element now contains new entries for the PDF/X and PDF/A standards. Selecting one of these activates related form elements.

Feature: PDF/A-1 and PDF/A-2 Standard added

Improvement: A lot of minor improvements in the Save As dialog formular

BugFix: Fixed an issue when using some special characters in PDF informations

BugFix: Fixed a potential time computation problem in update process

Version 4.9.0

(06.09.2012)

BugFix: The PDF24 Editor crashed in the following case

Deleting the last page of a document and dragging and dropping the new last one into a new document crashed the PDF24 Editor. This bug is fixed.

BugFix: Fixed problems in importing from scanner or camera

Importing from scanner, camera or other devices that supports the TWAIN interface was often error-prone. We have overworked some related components and fixed some bugs so that importing should now work better.

Version 4.8.0

(30.07.2012)

BugFix: Fixed a bug in fax tool

If the user double clicks on the fax icon then the fax window pops up and loads a fax with an empty document. This was a bug, introduced in one of the previous versions. Double clicking on the fax icon now opens the fax file load page where the user can choose a file which can then be send as a fax.

Enhancement: Optimized loading of PDF files

Saving merged PDF files could result in errors for special input files. We have optimized the loading process of files so that merging and saving should now work fine for all files.

Enhancement: Extended the send as email feature

We have extended the send as email feature in the PDF24 Assistant and PDF24 Editor. This new feature makes it possible to email not only as a PDF file. All output filters can now be used. This makes it possible to send the file as PDF, as images or any other output format which the PDF24 Creator supports.

Enhancement: Extended the fax tool

Added file type check on fax tool start. The fax tool accepts a PDF file as command line argument which is loaded as a fax. If the user starts the app with no file or with a file which is not a PDF file then the fax tools pen the file choose page where the user has to choose a PDF file which can then be send as a fax.

Language file update of some language files

Version 4.7.0

(12.07.2012)

BugFix: Fixed a special name bug

Sending a document attached to an email directly from the PDF24 Editor changed the name of the corresponding document to a cryptic one. This was a bug which is now fixed.

BugFix: PDF24 Editor window appeared behind other windows

The PDF24 Editor window could appear behind all other windows when you print to the virtual printer and the Editor is set as default target. This problem is fixed.

Enhancement: Font replacement in settings dialog

The font in the settings dialog of the PDF24 Creator has been replaced with a better readable one. Now the dialog looks more modern.

Feature: Close assistant after sending the document via email

There was already an setting to close the assistant automatically when the file was saved. This feature is now also available for the email function of the assistant. You can configure the assistant so that the assistant closes after you have sent the document via email.

Enhancement: PDF password obfuscation

Passwords in Save as Dialog are now obfuscated by "*" characters so nobody can read them. This was a potentially risk in prior versions because the password was visible in the input field.

Enhancement: Save as PDF with digital paper and security enabled

Digital paper and security can now be used together when saving a PDF file.

Feature: Format options and profiles can now be opened via a menu entry

In older version you could only add profiles when you have saved a document via the save as dialog. Now we have added a menu entry in the PDF24 Editor's main menu where you can open the format options and where you can manage your output profiles.

Feature: Refresh option in folder tree of the PDF24 Editor

We have added a refresh option to the explorer tree in the PDF24 Editor so that the user can refresh the tree manually if something have changed what the application do not track automatically.

Enhancement: Password encryption in output profiles

When you specify a password in your profiles, the text was visible in the registry. This was a potential risk. Now passwords are saved encrypted in the profiles which are stored in the windows registry.

Feature: Names of network drives are now displayed

The names of connected network drives where not visible in older versions. Names are important to identify a drive fastly and therefore we have added the names of network drives to the explorer tree of the PDF24 Editor.

Feature: Better cursor when opening a folder

This version now uses better cursors when opening folders in the explorer of the editor. Especially when operating on network drives it could take a little longer to get results. In the waiting time a wait cursor is shown so that the user knows that the application is busy. The application switches back to a normal cursor, after the operation is finished.

Feature: Dropping files to the favourites folder

Dropping files to the favourites folder in the explorer of the editor now creates only shortcuts to the dropped files. No files will be moved or copied any longer. Now the favourites folder is a special folder with shortcuts to often used files.

Enhancement: File icon query improved

The module which is responsible for querying file icons has been improved in many cases. Especially the risk of potential deadlocks has been better taken into account.

BugFix: Fixed an icon bug in the file list of the explorer of the PDF24 Editor

The bug was responsible that in some cases wrong file icons was presented to the user. This part has been overworked and the bug is fixed.

Enhancement: Many core module enhanced

We have overworked many core modules of the software with the result of a better API and many minor improvements and minor fixes.

Enhancement: Shortcut resolution improved

We have improved the explorer inside the editor to handle shortcuts properly. Shortcuts too files and directories are now handled correctly within the file list and the folder tree.

Enhancement: Icon creation of shortcuts improved

Furthermore we have improved the creation of image icons of shortcuts. Shortcuts are resolved and an icon of the linked file is determined.

Enhancement: Improved selection and deselection of documents

We have slightly improved the selection and deselection of documents in the document list of the editor. Now it is more Windows Explorer like selection and deselection which is more intuitive.

Feature: Drag & Drop of documents to move them

Now it is possible to drag & drop documents inside the document list of the editor to move them up and down. This makes working with documents easier.

BugFix: Drag & Drop memory leakage fix

There was a memory leakage in some circumstances when dragging and dropping documents in the PDF24 Editor. The responsible parts have been overworked so that the bug is fixed.

Feature: Drag & Drop documents combined with output filters

We have extended the drag & Drop support of documents in the PDF24 Editor. If you drop documents you can now choose an output filter which is used to create the resulting file which is then dropped to the target. This way you can drop documents to create PDF files, images or any other file format which the output filter accepts. Furthermore you can configure the output filter so that the dropped result is what you need. Additionally you can now drag & drop multiple files at once. This extension is a quite cool new feature which eases working with the PDF24 Editor and which makes dropping of files very powerful.

Enhancement: Error handling when opening PDF files

We have added an error handling when opening PDF files in the PDF24 Editor. If a PDF file can not be opened directly we try to recreate the file and we try to open the recreated one. This often helps to load PDF file with small errors.

Enhancement: Image to PDF quality improved

We have increased the default image quality in image to PDF conversion. Now, images inside PDF files have a better default quality. We have also added customizable config values to the image to PDF tool. This options are currently not available in the settings pages of the application.

Enhancement: PDF processing improved

We have optimized some internal processing parameters to produce better PDF file results.

Version 4.6.0

(22.05.2012)

PDF API improved

This release brings improvements of the PDF API. Improvements affected the reading of PDF files which is now more robust. We have added a reading feature for some PDF files which contains some invalid offsets for special data objects. Furthermore wee have added another feature so that some PDF files with special incorrectnesses can be read. The result is that the PDF24 Creator can open and read more PDF files.

Dutch language file added

Version 4.5.0

(07.05.2012)

Viewer in PDF24 Editor now opens maximized

Double-clicking on a page of a document in the PDF24 Editor opens a viewer of the document. This viewer now opens maximized and no longer in a small window.

Font in Save As dialog replaced with a better readable one

Older versions uses the font Times New Roman in the Save As Dialog UI. This font looks a little outmoded. This font was replaced with Verdana. Now, the options in the Save As Dialog are better readable.

Standard profiles modified

Automatic page rotation is now used in all default profiles. This wasn't the case in older versions. Automatic page rotation were not used in in the good and best profile which was a little confusing. Now the automatic page rotation options are consistent.

Fax Upload improved

A new retry upload feature was added to the fax tool. Sometimes fax file transmission results in an error. A reason can be a bad internet connection. If the transmission results in an error a retry button and an information message is displayed. Clicking on the retry button restarts the fax file transmission.

Saving a file in PDF24 Editor updates the UI element with the new name

Saving a file in PDF24 editor under a new name did not updated the UI name element of that file. This version fixes this issue.

New language file: Serbian

Version 4.4.3

(03.04.2012)

Drag & Drop Bug in PDF24 Editor fixed

The Drag & Drop support in the file list of the file explorer in the PDF24 Editor could cause problems under some circumstances, which can result in a data loss. The bug is fixed. We recommend to update to the new version.

Version 4.4.2

(14.03.2012)

Fixed a critical bug in PDF lib

This bug is one of the reasons why the PDF24 Editor could not open some PDF files. Opening such PDF files crashes the application. This bug is fixed.

Fixed a critical bug when dropping files into the PDF24 Editor

Dropping files from some applications could cause an unresponsive PDF24 Editor. Outlook was one of these applications. This problem ist fixed.

New language file version: Portuguese

Version 4.4.1

(06.03.2012)

Non-translated GUI elements added to language files

New language files version of Danish, Italian, Russian

Some minor bug fixes

Version 4.4.0

(09.02.2012)

Fax printer to send faxes for free

The new version 4.4 also install the new PDF24 FAX printer on all windows versions. The new FAX printer is a very handy new printer which enables you to send faxes very easily.
Printing on the Fax printer opens a small form where you can enter the FAX number of the target device. A preview of the fax is also displayed.
The Faxes are sent through the new PDF24 Fax service, which is located at fax.pdf24.org. To send faxes, a short registration is needed.
Currently the service is completely free, but limited to a few number of faxes each day. After a short beta phase the service will be extended and then you can remove the limits by paying for each fax. Receiving faxes will also be possible by registering and paying for a fax number.

Better names when loading a document into the PDF24 Editor

Names for documents in the PDF24 Editor are now the file names when dropping file to the job list or when opening a file from a file system. This is more intuitive and easier. If a name can not be determined, e.g. if a drag & drop operation does not deliver a name, then a new name is created for that document.

Bug in PDF24 Editor fixed

Importing a single file via File->Import->From filesystem did nothing. Importing multiple files worked without problems. This bug is fixed.

Better names for files when saving as an image

This version uses leading 0 in front of the page number. This improves the sortability of the produced page image files. Old names and sorting was like this: Page1, Page10, Page11, ..., Page20, Page2, Page3, Page4, Page5. This is changed to the new names: Page001, Page002, Page003, ..., Page010, ... Page020. This is better for sorting.

Added support for new keys in page container of a document

The new supported for keys are LEFT, RIGHT, HOME, END. This eases the navigation inside a document.

Support for new keys in document container of the editor added

The new supported keys are UP, DOWN, PAGE_UP, PAGE_DOWN. This eases the navigation inside the document list.

Improved drag & drop of pages in the PDF24 Editor

The support for the new keys introduced some new complexity concerning the drag & drop of pages. The drag & drop components have been overworked to fix all these problems.

Fixed a bug concerning the debug console

The debug console received not every outputs which were produced by the applications. This problem is fixed.

Components of the PDF24 Creator improved

All components now link against the msvcr100.dll and msvcp100.dll, which are part of the setup. This reduces the size of the PDF24 Creator and enables some nice things for the future.

New version of ZLib added

The setup itself now supports new languages: Hungarian, Danish, Finnish

New language file Croatian added and some other language files overworked

Version 4.3.0

(02.02.2012)

Fixed temporary file bugs

We have fixed two temporary file bugs which could result in non-deleted temporary files when deleting jobs in PDF24 Editor.

Automatic file conversion to PDF optimized

Overworked the automatic document conversion part with the result of some small improvements.

Automatic document conversion sequentialized

Conversion of multiple documents is now sequentially and uses less system resources which solves the problem of a wrong document order in most cases. Documents can be sorted, but if the documents have no sortable names then sorting gives no good results.

Printing of multiple documents to PDF24 Editor sequentialized

Printing multiple documents on PDF printer with opened PDF24 Editor is sequentialized too. This solves the ordering problem and uses less resources.

Printing many documents to PDF24 Editor optimized

Printing a lot of documents on PDF printer with opened PDF24 Editor - such as reports from an access database - works better now. We have fixed some bugs which were the reason for lost documents and incorrect ordering. Less system resources are used too.

Language file fixes

Fixed a bug in all languages files: rotate-left and rotate-right keys were reversed

Bugs in Updater fixed and Updater extended

We have added some new parts to the Updater which makes the Update more flexible. Furthermore we have fixed some small bugs which could cause errors.

Language file updates: Lithuanian, Czech, Italian, Spanish

Version 4.2.0

(23.01.2011)

Bug fixes and enhancements in PDF core components

Opening and saving PDF files in PDF24 Editor could generate an erroneous PDF file which could not be opened by a PDF reader. This was a minor bug because the problem only occurred on some special PDF files. Furthermore we have enhanced some PDF components so that the PDF24 Editor can open more PDF files.

Bug concerning users personal folder fixed

The PDF24 Creator could not start if the users personal folder was not reachable. One cause why this folder can not be reached is that the folder is stored on a network drive and the network is not available. We have fixed this bug. Now the PDF24 Creator also runs if this folder is not available.

Added support for right shift key in PF24 Editor

Some user work with the right shift key to select something. Before this release the PDF24 only supported the left shift key to select pages in the PDF24 Editor. This version introduces the support for the right shift key.

PDF printer driver installation improved

The component which installs the PDF printer driver contained some minor bugs which could be the cause why a PDF printer driver could not be installed. We have overworked this part and now PDF printer driver installation should work better.

Romanian language file updated

Version 4.1.2

(16.12.2011)

Text elements from PDF24 setup added to PDF24 Creator language files

The setup also contains some text elements which are to be translated by translators. This elements are now part of the PDF24 Creator language files so that the translators can translate these elements.

Bug BugFix: 2 minor GUI problems fixed

Italian texts added to PDF24 setup

New version of the language file Lithuanian added

Version 4.1.1

(15.12.2011)

Bug BugFix: Version number bug fixed

The version number was not correctly compiled in so that the version number could not be displayed correctly in PDF24 GUI. Instead of the version number a c cryptic text was shown. The version number is highly important for the update process. Without a correct version number no updates will be found. This bug is fixed.

Version 4.1.0

(14.12.2011)

Bug BugFix: Default Printer Bug fixed

The recently published version 4.0.0 contains a bug which prevents a component to make the PDF24 PDF printer temporarily to the default one. This is bad because this caused that some documents could not be converted to PDF and nice drag & drop conversion in editor is not working. We have overworked this part of the application and now everything should work fine.

Component based setup introduced

Version 4.1 introduces a new component based setup by which single components of the PDF24 Creator can be selected or deselected. Currently there is only a single component but in the near future we will add some more optional components which than can be checked or unchecked during setup phase.

This new feature is also helpful for system administrators. Admins can select or deselect some components via the command line. A list of all supported command line arguments of the PDF24 Creator setup is documented in the manual.

Language file Hungarian added

Added more meta information to language files

Meta information are helpful for translators. We have added the encoding information because PDF24 Creator language files should be encoded in UFT-8 with BOM.

New version of the language file Italian added

Version 4.0.0

(09.12.2011)

Added debug console to several parts of PDF24 by pressing F12

This new feature makes a debug console visible to the user into which debug outputs are shown. This outputs helps in some circumstances to find errors. If you have problems with PDF Creator you can open the console and you can email the outputs to us so that we can look at it to find problems.

Bug BugFix: PDF creation problem when Ghostscript was installed before

If another version of Ghostscript was installed in your system PDF24 had problem to work correctly if the version installed by PDF24 and the other version was different. PDF creating failed in this case. This was bad because Ghostscript is installed on many computers and all those people could not use the PDF24 Creator. We have searched the problem and we have found and fixed it in this version.

Bug BugFix: Wrong state of Save All icon in PDF24 Editor toolbar

The save all icon in the PDF24 Editors documents toolbar was selectable in some cases if no document was visible. This was a wrong state. We have corrected that so that the button is only usable if documents are available.

Bug BugFix: Fixed some PDF profile inconsistencies in several modules

There were some PDF profile inconsistencies in exchanging data between several PDF24 Creator modules. In most cases users shouldn't have noticed anything. We have fixed this problem in version 4.0.

Version 3.9.0

(05.12.2011)

Slovak and Finnish translation added

Misspellings in English language file removed

Drag & Drop bug fixed

Fixed a bug when dragging a document in PDF24 Editor to Windows Explorer. Dropping failed in prior versions.

Remember last used profile in assistant and auto select last used profile after printing on PDF printer

Version 3.8.0

(03.11.2011)

New feature: Blank pages can be added to documents

This feature is provided by the PDF24 Editor and is located in context menu of pages. Just right click on a page of a document and you will see two options to add blank pages. Blank pages can be inserted before or after a page. The inserted blank page has the same dimension as the page before or after which the blank page was inserted.

Bug BugFix: Fixed a bug in PDF library

With this bug fix the PDF24 Creator now can open more PDF files. Some special PDF files could cause problems. There are still some PDF files which can't be opened by the PDF24 Editor. If a PDF file can't be opened there is a trick to open the file. Just print the file on the PDF24 PDF printer to create a new PDF file based on the old one. The new file should work fine. That's possible because real PDF readers often can still open these files.

Added /NOUPDATE flag to setup

Use this flag when installing the PDF Creator to disable update checking and installation. This flag is useful for companies which wants too use the PDF24 Creator on their clients. Use this flag and you can disable updates which are often the preferred update mode.

Changed button name Save in format options dialog to Continue...

The new name is often better than the old one because the user has to do some more things after clicking on the save button. The Continue... button is better if some more steps follows.

Romanian and Bulgarian language files added

The PDF24 Creator is available in 16 different languages. To make the PDF24 available to more people we need more language files. If you have translated one language files to a language which is not available in PDF24 Creator setup then send us your file and we will add it to the PDF24 setup. Many people would be very thankful.

All language files overworked

We have overworked all language files and added missing parts. Not translated parts are marked with a #! marker. All these lines needs to be translated by translators. Please translate these parts and send us your files.

Improved data removement if not used any more

The PDF24 Editor had stored not used data longer than required. We have fixed this. Not used data is freed as soon as possible.

Slightly improved drag & drop support in editors document list

Invert selection feature added to page extract dialog

We have added a context menu to the page container in the page extract dialog. This context menu contains a invert selection entry which inverts the current selection of pages. This new feature is useful if extracting pages of large documents.

Mouse wheel feature added to page container in page extract dialog

Now you can use the mouse wheel to scroll up and down in the page container of the page extract dialog. Very useful when using large PDF files.

Version 3.7.0

(11.10.2011)

Drag & Drop Support enhanced in PDF24 Editor

We have worked hard on PDF24 Editor to increase the usability. The focus was on Drag & Drop support.

Drag & Drop Operations which are currently supported:
  • Drag & Drop of files and directories in the explorer list to Windows Explorer, to the explorer tree and to the job list
  • Drag & Drop of directories from the explorer tree to Windows Explorer and to the explorer list
  • Drag & Drop of jobs in job list to Windows Explorer, to the explorer tree and to the explorer list
  • Drag & Drop of pages of a job into other jobs and into the same job to a new position

New language file Swedish added

Some language files overworked

Version 3.6.0

(27.09.2011)

Selection of multiple files in import dialog of PDF24 Editor

The import dialog in File->Import->From file system now supports selection of multiple files at once. Prior this version only one file after another could be imported.

Multi-page TIFF support in Drag & Drop import in PDF24 Editor added

In previous version only the first page of a multi-paged TIFF file was imported into the PDF24 Editor. Now all pages become imported into a single document.

Bug BugFix: Uppercase/lowercase bug in email function of PDF24 Assistant fixed

After PDF file creation the assistant opens which has a sent via email button. After clicking this button the user has to enter a PDF file name which us used as the filename for the email with the attached PDF file. The problem was that the entered name was converted to lowercase letters regardless whether the user had entered uppercase letters. This problem ist fixed.

Image to PDF A4 paper size optimization added

In image to PDF conversion process the paper size of the final PDF files was computed with a fixed DPI values and the image size. The conversion of large images results in large PDF file paper sizes. This is a little problem especially when merging PDF files. The PDF file with the images could be very large and the displaying of the merged file was bad in such circumstances. Now we optimize the paper size to A4 format. The paper size of PDF files from large images will always be not greater than the A4 format. The paper size of small images remains as in previous versions of the software. In future versions we have planned to add an option to preferences to make this configurable.

New Drag & Drop support added to PDF24 editor

Not it is possible to save document from the PDF24 Editors document list via Drag & Drop. Just drag & drop a file to a target and the PDF file is saved automatically and transferred to the target. We have planned to add more drag & drop support to the editor.

Version 3.5.3

(07.09.2011)

Update of language files and one new language file added

Language files which has been renewed are Japanese, Italian, Lithuanian and Czech. The new language file is the Danish one.

Version 3.5.2

(05.08.2011)

Bug BugFix: Bug in profiles fixed

There was a bug in creating and selecting profiles. If you had added and then selected a profile without selecting a signature the PDF24 crashed. This bug is fixed. Profiles should work without signatures now.

Version 3.5.1

(05.08.2011)

Bug BugFix: Watermark could not be underlayed

The watermark could not be printed under the content of the file. It always was printed above the content regardless what option the user had checked. This problem is fixed in this version.

There is a new language file for Lithuanian.

Version 3.5.0

(03.08.2011)

Bug BugFix: Quality loss in PDF file composing and merging

In composing and merging process could be a noticeable quality loss in PDF file with images. The reason was some incorrect settings. This problem is fixed.

Options for image resolution in PDF files added

Image resolution options are now part of the save as dialog in PDF pages. You can enter your preferred image resolution. This is useful if you want to fine-tune the PDF quality and therefore the PDF file size. Lower resolutions results in a smaller PDF file.

Version 3.4.0

(01.08.2011)

Feature Digital Paper added

This new feature gives you the possibility to combine the content of a PDF file with the content of a digital paper. The content of the digital paper is displayed under the content of the PDF file. This has the same effect as if you had printed the PDF file on a normal printer with special paper. The digital paper can contain more than one page. The last page of the digital paper can be repeated and underlayed to the other pages of the PDF file.

Some minor non critical bugs fixed

Language files overworked and extended

The language files has been updated. A lot of new text are translated. Thanks to the translators. The current PDF24 Creator contains some new text elements which needs to be translated.

Version 3.3.0

(07.07.2011)

Watermark/Stamp Feature added

The new feature makes it possible to add a watermark to a PDF file. The new feature is located in save as dialog. Click on Save As button in assistant and you will see the new menu entry. There are a lot of options to configure the watermark. You can configure the Text, the font, the font size, the angle, the color, the mode and the margins. All options can be saved into a profile. This new feature can be used as a stamper too. Choose the overlay mode and the text will be printed on top of the page content.

Some bugs fixed

PDF/A OutputConditionIdentifier Bug fixed. The OutputConditionIdentifier couldn't be set. PDF/X and PDF/A Bug fixed. There could be problems in creation of these types. Weboptimize bug fixed. The Weboptimize feature could not be used.

Version 3.2.0

(27.06.2011)

Signature feature in Save As dialog integrated

This change provides the signature feature also in assistant. You don't need to open the editor to add a signature to a PDF file. You can also use the signature with profiles. Make your settings in Save As dialog, save all into a new profile and than you can use the new profile instead of making all settings again. The eases signing PDF files. Currently there is a limitation web optimize feature. Signature and web optimization can't be used together.

Old signature process removed from editor

The old PDF signature process has been removed from PDF editor because the old variant is not needed any longer. In the last version we have change the editor which uses the Save as dialog. This dialog now contains the PDF signature feature. Therefore the old dialogs are redundant.

PDF security bug fixed

Security settings in PDF preference pages contained a bug. PDF permissions have not been set correctly into the PDF so that permissions were wrong. We have removed the bug and now PDF permissions should work correctly.

Translations notes added to language files

The head of each language file contains a block with note for translators. Please read the notes if you plan to translate a language file.

Language files overworked and new language file Vietnamese added

We have updated all language files and marked missed texts with the #! marker. We have received a new Spanish language file with a lot of corrections. Furthermore we have added the new language file Vietnamese which we have received from a user.

Version 3.1.0

(16.06.2011)

Rotation problem fixed

For some documents, the rotation function did not work correctly although the pages were shown at the right angle. It could be that that the rotation was changed after saving a document. This problem is fixed. The rotation should now work correctly. Please note the automatic page rotation feature in saving dialog. If this property is marked in this dialog, the rotation can be changed during saving. The automatic rotation depends on the text in the document and is set accordingly for each page.

Properties dialog of a document removed from PDF editor

The properties dialog of a document which was accessible via the context menu has been removed. This has become redundant. All properties of a document can now be set when saving. There is also a new dialog as it already exists in the assistant in the save as function. The use of profiles is possible in this new dialog which speeds up working.

Properties dialog added in editor save, sign, and mail function

The new properties dialog to set properties of an output format was also added to the sign and mail function so that you can also set your desired properties prior.

Sorting of files in Explorer

All people who have already missed the feature have it now. Files are now sorted in Explorer.

PDF quality bug fixed

In some situations the PDF quality was not set properly. We have fixed this problem.

New language file Czech added

If you have already translated the PDF24 into another language, then send us your translation and we add it to the PDF24 Creator setup.

Version 3.0.0

(28.04.2011)

Rotation of pages of documents in PDF Editor

There is the possibility to rotate pages of documents. The new feature can be found in context menu and the main toolbar. You can rotate single pages, all pages or selected ones.

Sorting of documents in PDF Editor

Now you can sort opened documents in PDF Editor. The new feature can be used via toolbar. The sorting function always uses the document name and can sort in ascending or descending order. The new feature is very useful when editing many documents like many images which are to be merged to one PDF.

Main menu in editor overworked

The main menu in editor has been re-structed and extended by some new elements.

PDF Editor Start/Close delay fixed

If there where remote devices connected to a PC which where temporarily not available then the PDF24 Editor started and closed very slowly. The problem was the request of information of the remote drives which ends in a timeout. This problem is fixed.

All language files overworked and updated

The structure of all language files has been checked and missed elements has been added. Some parts of some language files are not translated. These texts are marked with the letters #! at the beginning. Translators, please translate not translated texts and check the language files.

Bug fixed in assistant when saving a PDF by using a user profile

There could be problems in saving a PDF file using a user profile. The PDF file could be broken.

Version 2.9.9

(18.04.2011)

Bug with file name determination fixed

There was a bug in file name determination process when printing a file via PDF24 PDF printer. If a file name contains more than one dot the name could be truncated to much. Normally only the file extension should be truncated. This bug is fixed in this version.

Version 2.9.8

(18.04.2011)

Case sensitivity bug in save as dialog in PDF editor fixed

There was a bug with case sensitivity in save as dialog in editor. If the user entered a file name with capital letters these letters becamed converted to lowercase letters and the PDF file was saved under the filename with the lowercase letters. This was a bug which is fixed now.

Version 2.9.7

(08.04.2011)

Bug while creating large files fixed

The creation of large files was not possible because of a bug. The progress bar in PDF creation process showed 100% but the process doesn't finnished. We have fixed this bug. Large files can now be created as well as small ones. Users are recommended to update to this version.

Version 2.9.6

(08.04.2011)

Default PDF Profile Bug fixed

In PDF24 Creator settings a default PDF profile can be configured. This configured profile was not used as default profile in assistant and PDF editor. This bug has been fixed. If a PDF has been created the assistant and the editor now uses the default profile as the selected one. The user can change the profile for each PDF file separately.

Bottom bar in PDF Editor GUI removed

The bottom bar did nothing special. We have classified the bar as unnecessary. The bar has been removed. The application has now more room for the explorer and the files. This helps to increase the usability.

PDF Editor split view enhanced

The split view has been enhanced. The ration between explorer and files is now 40 to 60.

Drive names in explorer inserted

The drives in explorer were displayed as drive letter (C: D:) only. Now there also the drive name if there is any.

Bug in file explorer fixed

A bug in file explorer could cause that some directories could not be opened. This bug is fixed.

Last opened directory in file explorer is saved

The PDF24 Editor saves the last opened directory in file explorer so that this directory will be opened the next time the editor starts. Previous versions always opened the favorite directory.

Version 2.9.5

(06.04.2011)

Bug in Save dialog of Editor fixed

If images or other documents were converted to PDF then there could be a problem while choosing a filename to save the PDF. If known file extensions are hidden in Windows the user had no chance to choose the correct .pdf file extension with the result that the saved file had an incorrect extension and was not recongnised as PDF in Windows Explorer. We have fixed this bug.

Version 2.9.4

(06.04.2011)

Bug in Save As dialog fixed

Because of a bug several settings in save as dialog were not applied to the saved PDF. It was not possible for example to set security settings of a PDF. We have fixed the bug which has slipped in in one of the earlier versions.

Version 2.9.3

(06.04.2011)

Some Bugs in PDF API fixed

The Screen Capture feature and the conversion of images to PDF was broken. There were some bugs in the PDF API which we have fixed in this version. Screen Capture and Image to PDF conversion now works.

Updated Italian language files added

Version 2.9.2

(31.03.2011)

Bugs in PDF API fixed

We have fixed some bugs in PDF API. Some special formatted PDF could cause problems while reading the PDF. There was another bug with encrypted PDF files. Normally encrypted PDF cannot be opened in PDF24 Editor but it was possible in version 2.9.1 which results in errors. Version 2.9.2 blocks encrypted PDF. If you want to open the encrypted PDF just create a new non encrypted file by printing them on the PDF24 PDF printer. This creates a new PDF file which is not encrypted.

Foreground/Background bug in PDF editor fixed

If the PDF24 Editor was open and overlayed by other windows and if you printed a document on PDF printer so that the editor loads it the application windows stayed in background and became not a foreground window. There was no possibility to bring the window to front. We have fixed this bug. Not the windows automatically becomes a foreground windows if a new files is available.

Option to create multi-page TIFF files added

There was no option to create multi-page TIFF files in save as dialog. If a file had more than one page every page was saved in a separate TIFF file. A TIFF file can be multi-page. We have added this option. If selected a multi-page TIFF file will be created.

Chinese language file added

Version 2.9.1

(01.02.2011)

Bugs fixed

We have fixed some minor bugs and we have returned to an older Ghostscript version. In PDF24 creator we have introduced Ghsotscript 9.0, but this version of Ghostscript seems to be instable. Because of that we use an older Ghostscript version in PDF24 Creator 2.9.1.

Preparation for service apps

We have introduced an interface by which it is possible to integrate other service apps. This new interface is for future purposes. The PDF printer service already used the new interface.

Reduced setup size

We could reduce the size of the setup by circa 3 MB.

Version 2.9.0

(24.12.2010)

Feature: Support for PDF/X and PDF/A

The support for creating PDF/X and PDF/A files has been integrated. This two new file formats can be created by using the Save as dialog. Each of these type has it's own properties which can be configured in the dialog.

Feature: Selecting multiple pages in editor enhanced

In previous versions of the PDF24 Editor it could only be selected one page after another. There was no possibility to select more than one page at a time. This was no problem for documents with only a few pages, but if the document is large and if you would select a range of pages you had to select every page manually by using the CTRL key and the left mouse button. We have improved that. Now you can select a range of pages by using the LSHIFT key and the left mouse button. The behaviour is similar to the Windows Explorer file selection. To do a range selection do this: Select the first page by clicking the left mouse button, then click the last page by holding down the LSHIFT key. If you the CTRL key is also pressed then this page range will be added to currently selected pages, otherwise all other pages will be deselected.

Feature: PDF output profiles chooseable directly in assistant

In Save as dialog you can add profiles for the output format to preconfigure an output. If you define a profile for the PDF file type this profile is then chooseable in assistant's profile list. This workflow is shorter than saving to PDF by using the save as dialog.

Feature: Automatically close assistant after file save

There is a new option in settings by which you can configure the closing behavior of assistant. By activating the close after save option the assistant will be closed automatically after a file was saved.

Improvement: Better font for input fields in user interfaces

There were some incorrect fonts in some input fields which don't suited to the rest of the user interface. We have enhanced some core parts of our rendering engine to improve this.

Improvement: Profile intention for profiles in save as dialog added

A profile in save as dialog now contains an intention for which output type a profile was made. A profile switch now opens the output type page for which the profile is intended. This property is also used in assistant for collecting all PDF profile and for make available in profile selection box in assistant.

Bug BugFix: Bug in conversion util fixed.

There could be unpredictable results in conversion util when be used with multiple files at a time. This version contains a solution for that problem. Now you use the conversion util ith multiple files without any problems. The conversion util is used in editor to automatically convert documents to PDF by dragging files into the appropriate area in editor.

Bug BugFix: Solved problem in signature util when signing documents with only one page.

Documents with only one page could not be signed because of a bug in a algorithm. The editor crashed when doing it. We have fixed the bug.

Bug BugFix: Optimize for web an security option in PDF properties can not be used together in all circumstances

A PDF could not be saved when optimize for web and security options with user password was activated. This version contains a workaround for this problem. If security with user password is active a PDF will not be weboptimized. We will improve this behavior in future versions.

Version 2.8.8

(18.11.2010)

Improvement of program updater

We have improved and changed some parts of the update of the pdf24 creator. The new updater contains a new update request mode which is more flexibel. With this change we prepare for future and increasing update request.

Version 2.8.7

(16.11.2010)

New printer driver installation

The focus of this version was on optimizing PDF printer driver installation. We have introduced a new installation mechanism which has some advantages compared to the old variant. These are:
  • This variant works with all Windows version on which the PDF24 Creator can be installed. These are Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and the corresponding server versions.
  • No Windows Logo Test Message about unsigned driver.
  • Installation can run without user interaction. There are two modes which can be used. Use the command line argument /SILENT to install without interaction but with visible progress or use /VERYSILENT to install without interaction and invisble progress. This simplifies deployment of PDF24 Creator in your intranet.

PDF lib improved

We have fixed two bugs in our PDF lib which caused problems in reading and writing special PDF files. We have also added some new parts into the lib to build up new features for future versions of the PDF24 Creator.

Integration of Ghostscript improved

No registry keys are needed for Ghostscript any longer. We have switched to environment variables which are also possible to run Ghostscrpt. This has a main advantage. A user can install other versions of Ghostscript and the PDF24 Creator will not be affected by this.

Bug in BMP output filter fixed

The 3-Bit mode of BMP output filter has been removed. This mode is not possible.

Setup images changed

The setup now contains images with the sheep. The images are better than the old ones. During installation everyone can see the images with the sheep which makes a good impression to persons who installs the software.

Version 2.8.6

(13.10.2010)

New GUI in PDF24 Assistant

The new GUI in PDF24 Assistant displays elements better than the old one. The formatting of elements should now be ok with all languages. The old GUI had formatting problems using languages with bigger text elements. Forthermore there were problems in older versions of the PDF24 pdf printer when using it in Windows environments with DPI settings other than the default 96 DPI.

Hide drives in explorer of PDF24 Editor

The explorer of the PDF24 Editor now uses the Windows Explorer setting, which is located in registry under the path HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\NoDrives, to hide drives. Admins of Citrix systems now can use this to hide drives which some user must not see.

Settings - Load PDF in editor if it is open - added

With this option you can control whether printed PDF documents are to be loaded in editor if the editor is open or not. By default PDF documents will be loaded in assistant and if the editor is open it will be loaded in it. User who don't want this behavior can change this with this new option.

Remove some strings from filenames determined in PDF printing process

The settings contains a new area in which a user can add some strings which are to be removed automatically from filenames which were determined in PDF printing process. Some applications add prefixes to filenames which are unwanted. This new area gives you the possibility to remove this automatically. There are preconfigured strings for some Microsoft programs like Word.

Removed flickering in GUI of PDF24 Editor

Partially there was annoying flickering in the list of loaded PDF documents when you have clicked on a document. This flickering is removed now.

Improved renderung of some GUIs

GUIs which are rendered by our small HTML rendering engine are now rendered faster. Some GUIs looks better now and have removed or reduced flickering.

Problems in explorer preview mode of PDF24 editor fixed

The explorer preview mode of PDF24 editor has been optimized so that all preview elements should be displayed as it ought to be. In older versions it could be that some preview elements could not be displayed correctly.

Rotation of preview modes of loaded PDF documents in document list of PDF24 Editor by using CTRL + MOUSE-WHEEL

PDF documents in PDF24 Editor can be displayed is some preview modes which can be changed by menu entries. Now you can also change or rotate the display mode of all documents in the document list by hold down the CTRL key and using the mouse wheel.

Language file Portuguese added

The PDF24 Creator now contains a portuguese language file. This is for all of the portuguese users which now can choose this file to localize the PDF24 Creator to portuguese.

Additional PDF options added in Save as dialog

Clicking on Save as button in PDF24 Assistant opens a dialog in which a user can select and configure a output filter. The PDF output filter now contains some more options to customize PDF output. You can now configure the PDF standard, page rotation, resolution, color model, image compression method and fonts too.

Version 2.8.5

(23.08.2010)

Installation of enhanced PDF printer driver under Windows XP

Windows 7 and Windows Vista user could already use the enhanced PDF printer driver. Now this driver is is usable under Windows XP too. The new PDF printer driver is tuned for PDF creation. The driver supports a lot of new paper formats and does not contain a real limitation in paper size. The paper sizes A0, A1, A2 can now be used in addition to the old paper formats. Forthermore there is a option to customize the paper size.

Some minor bug fixes removed

This version is mainly a bug fix version which removes some minor bugs which we have found in the past. Forthermore we have enhanced some core parts of the software to be able to integrate new feature in the future.

Version 2.8.4

(21.06.2010)

Language files Spanish and Japanese added

The PDF Creator now contains the language files spanish and japanese.

Installer contains more language files

The installer now contains more language files too. The old installer had activated only the german and english language files. Now there is a german, english, french, italian, russian and spanish language file.

Version 2.8.3

(14.06.2010)

French language file added and italian language file improved

We got a french language file and an improved italian one. The new files are provided in version 2.8.3.

Automatic language selection enhanced

We have enhanced automatic language selection. Language files must have a special name so that the automatic language selection are able to find the files. If a language file isn't named with a correct name the auto language selection doesn't recognise the file but the file can be choosen manually in preference pages. Prior version 2.8.3 language files could only be named with english names but now files can also have the name in appropriate locale, e.g. the italian language file can be named Italian.lang or Italiano.lang.

Version 2.8.2

(09.06.2010)

Shortcut problem of mapped network drives solved

If a folder contains at least one shortcot to a mapped network drive and the drive isn't and can't be connected, then the user had to worry about delay times caused by auto resolving the shortcut. The problem is solved. There are no waiting time anymore. The waiting can occure only if you double-click a network folder shortcut and the network drive isn't connected.

Problem solved sharing the pdf24 printer in a domain based network

If the PDF24 printer of a pc belonging to a domain has been shared and connected to another pc in that domain, then print jobs could not be redirected to the right user account. We have enhanced the pdf printer and now you can use and share pdf printers between computers in a domain.

Placeholder problem when changing the language solved

If you change the language of the PDF Creator without restarting the software after the change, then you could see placeholders in some places. After a restart of the pdf printer placeholders are replaced correctly. This small imperfection is solved.

Russian language file added

The PDF24 Creator now contains the language files German, English, Italian and Russian. You can add forther languages by copy and edit an existing language file. A small instruction is located in our forum.

Tray icon can now be disabled in preference pages

The tray icon can now be disabled or enabled in preference pages. The tray icon contains the nice screen capture feature which can't be used if you disable the tray icon. Some users doesn't need this feature or be annoyed of the additional tray icon, this users can now disable the icon.

Better button coloring in assistant

Now the buttons better fit to the background. Edges are much more softer.

Enhanced language selection

If no language has been configured for a user the language will be determined from system language. The automatic language determination has been optimized. Now the right language should be determined correctly if the needed language file is available.

Further changes

We have enhanced the setup and some componennt of the PDF24 Creator.

Version 2.8.1

(11.03.2010)

Problem with read confirmation using email function solved

Using the buttons to send created PDF files via email had activated read confirmation by default. This has been changed in version 2.8.1. By default read confirmation is deactivated. You have to enable this option manually if you want a a read confirmation.

Version 2.8.0

(09.03.2010)

Preview in assistant integrated

The assistant contains a preview now which gives you a fast overview of the created pdf file. The preview loads fast and has basic functionality to overview the document. Based on the preview you can see whether all pages were created correctly.

Filename request in assistant integrated when using email feature

When using the email function an inputbox is shown first to request a filename for the file which will be attached to the email. In older versions there was no filename request with the consequence that files could have cryptic names in an email. There was no possibility to change the name. Sometimes the name was ok because PDF24 Creator hat a method to request the name from windows printer monitor, but a name isn't always given. Now you can enter a good name.

Names of documents in editor can be changed now

You can change the name of a document in editor via the context menu. The context menu contains an entry to start changing a name. In older versions name changes were done when saving a document. Useful is this feature when sending a document via email. The name of a file attached to an email is the name of a document in editor. The new feature gives you the possiblity to change the name and therefore to enter a good name for files in emails.

Removed bug in email functionality

When sending a created file via email the standard email program is used. There could be a focus problem when opening this standard mail program. This focus problem has been removed.

Removed bug when sharing the PDF printer in a network

A printer can be shared in a network. This can be done with the PDF24 PDF printer too, but there was a bug while printing on this shared printer from a pc which uses this shared printer. The message "Could not open user pipe" popped up in this circumstances. This problem has been removed. Now you can share a PDF printer in a network and use it on other PC's in the network. A typical instance is a client server application. If you have a server in which a program is running which is used by clients, you can share the client PDF printers and install them on the server so that the clients can print on their PDF printers to get some printouts of the application on the server.

Faster viewer in editor

The viewer has been enhanced. The viewer is faster and annoying flickering has been removed.

Version 2.7.0

(19.02.2010)

Alternative output formats added

The PDF24 Creator 2.7.0 provides a way to save documents not only as PDF. A lot of output filters have been added so that you can save documents as the following formats: PDF, PS, EPS, PCL, PNG, JPEG, BMP, PCX, TIFF, PSD. The most of the new output filters are image file formats. For the moment these new output filters are only available in PDF24 Assistant. A new button named "Save as" have been added to the assistant to open a formular and to choose an output format. Each of these output output formats have own properties which can be changed to customize the output. Furthermore all properties can be saved to profiles to reduce the time to change properties and therefore to create a file.

Visualization of processes in assistant

Processes are visualized now. If the assistant saves or converts a document a small process windows is shwon so that the user can see that something happens. This is helpful even when operating with large files.

PDF core components extended

PDF core components have been extented so that the PDF24 Editor should read more PDF files. Most of the PDF files could already be read before, but now the software can read some more documents.

PDF Screen Capture extended

A new capture option have beed added. PDF24 Creator now supports the Windows Clipboard. As soon as an image is available in the clipboard the appropriate option can be selected to generate a PDF of that content. To copy the current screen to clipboard just use the "Print" button on your keyword.

Enhanced property area

The property area have been enhanced graphically. Sections are better structured now.

Version 2.6.3

(15.12.2009)

PDF24 Creator supports Twain interface now

PDF24 Creator can import images from devices like scanner, digicam or webcam to create PDF files based on these imported images. The requirement is that these devices supports twain interface too. If a device supports twain interface you can select the device through device selection box. That way you can create PDF image maps and you can use PDF24 Creator to optimize PDF for some purposes, e.g. you can compress PDF to send it via email.

Version 2.6.2

(07.12.2009)

PDF24 Creator now usable with Windows Terminal Server

Version 2.6.2 of PDF24 PDF Creator is now installable and usable within windows terminal server. This version has been tested within a Citrix terminal server environment.

Version 2.6.1

Problem fixed when installing PDF printer on Windows Vista/7 x64

When the PDF printer was installed on systems with 64-bit versions of windows vista and 7 then the user got a error message that the pdf printer couldn't be installed. This problem is fixed. The installer finished with no errors on 32-bit versions of windows. The PDF24 Creator can now be installed on 32-bit and 64-bit systems with windows XP, Vista, 7 as operating system.

Installer improved, to install when an old version is available

If the PDF24 Creator has been installed without removing an old version it could come to conflicts. Now the new installer checks whether an old version is installed and uninstalls the old version before installing the new one.

Uninstaller improved

To uninstall PDF24 Creator all running components have to be closed. If one component is running, the uninstaller blocks uninstallation process. The problem was that PDF24 Creator uses a running hidden component to create PDF files and this component had to be closed by user. To ease that the installer and uninstaller first closes this hidden component automatically and the user only have to close all running visible components belonging to PDF24 Creator.

Version 2.6

(25.11.2009)

Multi user environments now supported

The PDF24 Creator has been optimized for multi user environments. There were problems in older versions when using PDF printer on PC's with more than one user. This problems has been fixed. Now you can use the pdf printer on PC's with more than one users.

The update behaviour has been changed too. Not every user can install updates. The PDF creator checks security attribues of users now and determines whether a user has necessary rights to update the program. A user with limited rights can't install updates but administrators. The new concepts of Windows Vista and Windows 7 has been taken into account. Users with limited rights will only see a notification that an update is available.

PDF Screen Capture feature integrated

Now you can capture the screen or only a portion of the screen to create a PDF of that content. There are several options: whole screen, screen working area, active windows, active window content or a user defined area. The screen capture feature is located in PDF24 Creator windows tray icon.

Windows Tray Icon integrated

There is a windows tray icon for the PDF24 Creator now. Currently the tray icon is used to display settings, open the PDF editor, show infos, close backend program and use screen capture feature. The icon becomes visualized if a pdf creation process via pdf printer in running. Programm notifications can always be shown.

New pdf printer drivers for Windows Vista and Windows 7

The PDF24 Creator uses new printer drivers for pdf printer. The new drivers provides more features than older used ones. Now there is no limitation in paper size. Small pages can be created as good as large ones. The driver contains most of the common used paper formats A0 - A7, letter, ledger, executive. A user defined paper size is also possible.

Settings area extended

Now there is a central preferences area. This area can be opened from several locations. The user can configure more settings than in older versions. The preferences area can be used on PC's with more than one user too. Not every user can change all settings, e.g. only administrators can change update behaviour. The UAC of windows Vista and 7 has been taken into account. A user will see a message if a property page can't be selected because of limited rights. There is also the possibility to elevate a user if the user is an administrator to do all changes.

Program restructured

The PDF Creator has been restructured to make ready the program for future developments.

PDF Viewer in PDF Editor enhanced

There could be a dealock in some circumstances in PDF viewer. The problem has been fixed. Furthermore you can navigiate through pages with arrow keys now.

File explorer in PDF editor enhanced

The explorer supports shortcuts/links now. The explorer can be hided so that only the document list is shown up. There are appropriate menu entries to hide or show the explorer.

Program settings strictly separated from user settings

The settings of the program and the settings of a user are strictly separated now. Every user can change his PDF creator so that it suits his requirements. The changed will be saved in user profiles. Only administrators can change settings which concerns the whole program.

Document to PDF converter tool supports shortcuts/links now

The component which is responsible for converting documents to PDF now supports shortcuts/links in file system. In addition a bug in the tool has been fixed.

Updater extended

The updater of the PDF24 Creator has beed redesigned and extended. The user user guidance has been changed to. The updater supports multi user environments now. Users with limited rights can execute the updater to look for updates, but they can't install ones. This is reserved for administrators.

PDF signature bug under Windows Vista and Windows 7 fixed

There was a bug in signature process when signing a PDF file under Windows Vista and Windows 7. Partly the signature was incorrect. The bug is fixed. PDF signatures are correct now. Signatures can be checked in Adobe Reader.

Signature time bug fixed

The time of a signature process was not saved correctly. The problem was time offset for time zones. The bug is fixed.

Enhanced installer

The installer of the PDF24 Creator has been enhanced. The installer searches for active components now. If a components is active the installer notifies the user that all components have to be closed. The installer only installs an update/new version if all components are closed. This works also in a multi user environment. As long as any user has a running components the installer blocks installations.

PDF editor can be started with a file

The PDF24 Editor can be started with a file, e.g. drag & drop a file to the PDF24 editor icon. This was disallowed in older versions. The start file will automatically be loaded in editor and becomes converted if the files wasn't a PDF.

Version 2.5.1

(25.09.2009)

Better icon set for Windows Vista and 7 integrated

The new icon set contains now bigger icons too, so that program symbols looks much better when using a large preview in windows explorer.

Language selection at program start optimized

The language selection at first program start has been optimized. There is a problem in version 2.5. In this version the german language becomes selected, but this isn't good for non german people. The problem is fixed. The german language becomes selected on systems with german language and the english language for all other. This version is shipped with a german and a english language file.

Version 2.5

22.09.2009

Profiles integrated

With the profiles you can control the quality and compression of a PDF. A lower quality results in a smaller PDF file size and a higher quality results in a larger size. A profile can be changed in PDF creation assistant after creating a PDF through the pdf24 printer or in context menu of a document in editing user interface. The program settings contains an option to set standard profile which is selected as default.

Send PDF via email

PDF files can be send via email. This can be done in PDF creation assistant after a PDF was created with pdf24 printer or in editing user interface. A button was added in the PDF creation assistant and several menu entries and a toolbar button where added in the editor to send a PDF.

Sign a PDF

The PDF24 Creator can now sign PDF documents. The software contains everything to create and embed a signature into a PDF document. Signing can be done with self signed certificates, which can be created with PDF24 Creator or with a signature card. When using a signature card a special windows middleware is required to make certificates on the card available and useable. Signing is only integreated in editor. The editor contains a new toolbar button and a new context menu entry to open a signing dialog. In signing dialog you have to choose a certificte and to enter some informations required for signing.

Determination of a filename for a created PDF

This version determines filenames for created PDF files with help of the windows printer interface. If you print a document with name XYZ on pdf24 printer, a PDF file will be created and the name XYZ will be determined as name for the PDF. This helps when working with PDF24 Creator especially when creating a lot of PDF files. This can be used by opther software to give PDF documents a name when created via pdf24 printer.

Optimized conversion of image to PDF

Image can now be converted to PDF a little better. The created PDF don't contain an ugly margin any more but only the image. This can be used to create nice PDF image maps when converting images to PDF and merging them to one PDF file. The resulting file can contain image with different sizes.

Enhanced usability

The usability where enhanced in several ways so that the user has to click a little less when working with the editor. This includes the functions merge and delete with toolbar buttons. Based on the document selection can be decided what should be merged or deleted. This saves a click when choosing between all or only selected documents.

Bug concerning security settings removed

If you open security settings dialog, make changes there, close and than reopen it, made changes doesn't be displayed despite being saved correctly. This problem is solved.

Bug marking single pages fixed

Selecting a single page doesn't select all loaded pdf documents any more. This is a bug in previous versions. If the user selects a single page in a document then the document which contains the page becomes selected. All other documents becomes unselected.

Splash Screen when opening PDF24 editor removed

The PDF24 editor starts very fast. A splash screen makes no sense here. Therefore we have removed it. The splash screen has shown the personalisation image. As replacement for the splash screen we have inserted a link in booter area of the editor. I click on this link opens a windows with the content which was shown previously in splash screen. The personalisation image in that window is clickable. A click on the image opens a browser with the url which was specified at personalisation.

A couple of menu entries changed

Menu entries which stands for options which are selected were displayed in gray and could not be selected again. The intention of this grayed menu entries are normally a state which is unuseable. We have changed this with a state which displays a marked checkbox in front of a menu entry to show the user that this state is currently selected. This is better and easier to understand.

Settings area enhanced and more options added

The settings area is displayed now in a new user interface and we have added some more options to customize the PDF24 Creator. Now you can change the update behavior, language and standard quality profile.

PDF printer driver for windows 7

The installer installs an suitable printer driver when installing in windows 7. The PDF24 Creator can be used now with Windows 7.

Signed PDf24 Creastor components

All components of PDF24 Creator are signed with a certificate so that you will have the certainty that PDF24 Creator are secure and have not been changed by a third party. Windows Vista and Windows 7 will show you a corresponding message when you start the PDF24 Creator whether the program is secure or not.

Update behavior changed

The update behavior have been changed slightly. You can customize the behavior in settings. You can choose between three options (automatic, only check and notify, disabled). The updater and other program parts have been adapted to the new options.

PDF creation assistant restructured

The layout of the assistant have beed improved. A selection box to select a quality profile and a button to send the created PDF via email have been added. The update and info button have been removed and inserted as link into the bottom bar. All buttons now represents pure function buttons which do something with the created PDF.

Editor tools menu extended

There are two new tools in the PDF24 editor. The first new tools can create a self signed certificate and the second tool opens a certificate manager where you can manage your certificates. These tools are importent for the signing feature.

Version 2.0.1

31.01.2008

Deadlock problem in integrated viewer

There could be a deadlock in integrated viewer when a document contains pages of other documents and when this document is shown in viewer. Browsing between pages could cause the deadlock. This bug have been removed.

Version 2.0

PDF editor introduced

This version contains a PDF editor which has the following functionality:
  • Merge PDF
  • Split PDF
  • Extract pages
  • Reorder pages
  • Print PDF
  • Integrated explorer
  • Integrated viewer
  • PDF editor area for loaded PDF
  • PDF preview
  • Change PDF properties and security settings
  • Automatic document to PDF conversion
  • uvm.

Improved updater

The updater have been extracted and inserted into an own executeable and the functionality have been extended.

Background program PDFBackend optimized

The background program PDFBackend have been improved. This program waits in background for a new print job which was printed on pdf24 printer.

PDF printer driver installation improved

The PDF printer driver installation have been improved. The new installer can now install different printer drivers which can be used with pdf24.

Program which comverts documents to PDF integrated

A program have been build which converts documents such as word or powerpoint to PDF. In this version the conversion is done with help of PDF24 PDF printer. The program has to be started with a document as argument and then it prints it out on pdf24 printer.

PDF edit button in PDF creation assistant added

The assistant now has a button to edit a created PDF. A click on this button starts the editor and loads the created PDF file there.

Automatically load documents in editor

If the PDF editor is open and if a new PDF is created with pdf24 printer then the created PDF becomes loaded automatically in editor and not in assistant.