We are thrilled to announce the release of iText Suite version 8.0.5, featuring the latest version of iText Core, Apryse’s leading open-source PDF library. This release brings a host of new features, improvements, and bug fixes that will enhance your PDF processing experience.
We're excited to share that not only does this release include updates to the iText Core library, but also cool new additions to the open-source pdfHTML and pdfSweep add-ons. After almost 25 years(!) of development, iText continues to go from strength to strength, and we're committed to pushing new standards and technologies in the open-source community.
First on the list of new stuff is the introduction of a new, dedicated module to make the process of validating PDF digital signatures easier and more logical. The other main feature for this release is support for the CSS Grid module, which will be a boon to those using iText for PDF templating.
There’s also some improvements to the handling of broken documents, and a rather nice addition for redaction edge cases in the pdfSweep add-on.
Let’s take a closer look at these features, and what else is new throughout the iText Suite.
Release iText Core 8.0.5
Built-in Digital Signature Validation API
You may have noticed there’s a brand-new iText Core module called validation.v1 (Java/.NET). Our intention for this package was to separate the validation logic from the existing signatures module, and then focus on both simplifying and extending the process of signature validation. To this end, this release adds the new SignatureValidator and ValidationReport classes with more to come in future releases.
Bear in mind that the package will be renamed to simply validation in the next major release of iText. However, the validation API itself is already completely functional, and available now for you to start getting used to it.
You can find information on the usage of the new classes in a dedicated article on our Knowledge Base. Also, make sure to check out our Java and .NET signature validation examples on GitHub which have been updated for this release.
In other signature-related news we’ve improved the CrlClientOnline class to now support multiple Certificate Revocation List (CRL) distribution points per certificate. You can also now validate document revisions at the DocumentRevisionsValidator level based on the DocMDP and FieldMDP standards.
You can find more details on all these changes in the Core release notes linked above.
Updates to Layout Module
While our main focus for Grid Layout support was for templating with the pdfHTML add-on, the logic is located in the iText Core layout module. This is due to the fact pdfHTML heavily relies on integration with the layout module in order to transform abstract elements into low-level PDF syntax.
The Grid Layout logic uses the existing BlockRenderer class (Java/.NET) as a basis, and so works like any other high-level layout object renderer in iText. We suspect most people interested in Grid Layout support will be using pdfHTML for template conversion, and so you should see the pdfHTML release notes linked below for more detail. However, we’d love to hear from any developers who utilize it directly within iText Core, so don’t be shy!
Release pdfHTML 5.0.5
Grid Layout Support
Templating is a big use case for iText developers, and many people make use of our open-source pdfHTML add-on for iText Core. This allows you to easily create PDF from HTML/XML templates, using CSS for styling.
To add to pdfHTML’s already extensive support for advanced CSS, we’ve added support for the CSS Grid Layout Module which a number of users expressed a desire to see. Since CSS Grid Layout is beginning to see wider adoption, and is supported by all current major web browsers, we decided the time was right to spend some development time on it.
The neat thing about Grid Layout is it allows two-dimensional layouts of elements in both rows and columns, Grid Layout can be used either by itself, or in combination to the existing Flexbox Layout Module support in pdfHTML, giving you additional capabilities when designing templates for PDF creation.
Release pdfSweep 4.0.3
The pdfSweep add-on is another open-source add-on for iText Core, which enables you to securely redact content from PDFs. This is essential when you need to completely remove confidential or sensitive information from documents.
This release introduces a neat new setting for the accurate placement and sizing of redaction areas. This setting can prove particularly useful where the lines of ascending and descending character overlap with lines above or below redaction areas. More details are in the release notes as always.
In addition, an improvement was made for the handling of unsupported image file types when processing PDFs.
Pull Requests
We value the contributions of our open-source community and are excited to share that several pull requests have been integrated into this release. We'd like to thank p3p3pp3 for submitting a fix for the Deflate.cs fix code, and renlinch for rewriting the PdfHtmlHeaderAndFooter example.
Also, extra-special thanks go to MatthiasValvekens for his correction to XMP URI serialization in PDF/A and PDF/UA files.
We encourage developers new and old to contribute to our GitHub, and continuing to make iText even better.
Bug Fixes and Miscellaneous Improvements
We reviewed how iText will resolve issues in documents, and fixed a bug where documents were modified without first taking into account the StrictnessLevel property.
We also made some updates to the code samples repositories, adding the Signature Validation examples mentioned earlier, as well as updating our Two Phase Signing example (Java/.NET).
We’ve also made general improvements and bug fixes to ensure a smoother and more reliable experience. As always, check the Changelog for more details.
Don't forget, the release notes contain links to our Java and .NET GitHub repositories which are continually updated with useful code samples for iText Core and its add-ons.
Get Started with iText Suite 8.0.5
Ready to dive in? Whether you’re a seasoned developer or just getting started, iText Suite 8.0.5 has something to offer.
Remember, our free 30-day trial allows you to try out the entire iText Suite, which not only includes iText Core, but also all our open and closed source add-ons. The trial is covered by the terms of our commercial license, which releases you from the AGPLv3 conditions and keeps your intellectual property safe.
As always, happy coding and see you in Q4!
