PDF24 Creator

What's new in this version:

PDF24 Creator 11.22.0
reader: Additional UI Update Timer:
- The idle events for updating the UI are sometimes not sufficient to display the state of the UI correctly in every situation. There are some events where the update does not occur promptly. With the additional timer, this now definitely happens periodically.
- reader: Handle file:// URI actions with ShellExecute
- ShellExecute is able to handle the file:// URIs, e.g. to open a local folder or file. Therefore, URI actions of this type are now passed to ShellExecute.

reader: Fixed issue with CTRL + TAB behavior:
- CTRL + TAB switches to the next tab. We perform this action internally when this key combination is pressed. However, the UI framework now performs this action internally itself, so there were two switches. The problem is fixed with this version.

toolbox: Added command line handler -createInvoice:
- The pdf24-Toolbox.exe has a new switch on the command line that allows you to create e-invoices using a JSON data set. Output formats are PDF, XRechnung and ZUGFeRD PDFs. The JSON data set corresponds to what you get when you export an invoice in the corresponding tool for creating e-invoices. There are additional switches that allow you to specify a PDF or a PDF/A file for the ZUGFeRD format that would otherwise be created. A description of this new switch can be found in the manual.

toolbox: Natural file sorting in some tools:
- Output files from various tools such as "Convert PDF to Images" or "Extract PDF Images" are now automatically sorted by name. Simply sorting by name is often not sufficient, especially when page numbers appear in the file name.

einvoice: User-defined unit abbreviations added:
- There is now an additional free field for quantity information, which you can use to enter your own abbreviation for the quantity for a line item, which will then be added to the PDF output.
- einvoice: Fixed issue with charges and allowances on item level during import:
- If the charges and allowances were not percentage-based and the percentages were not defined, there was a problem with importing this item. This has been corrected.

einvoice: Support for additional payment methods:
- In addition to SEPA payment, other payment methods have been added. Payment methods 1, 30 and 42 have been added. User-defined codes can be added, but this only makes sense if they do not require their own form fields.

einvoice: More fields added to visual PDF output:
- Some fields in which you could enter data were not yet included in the PDF output. We have made additions here so that they are now visible.
- einvoice: Invoice type code 386 added
- einvoice: Automatic '.' for fields BT-20 and BT-22 disabled
- einvoice: Multi-page PDF generation improved
- einvoice: File attachments visible in PDF
- einvoice: The default name of the output file now contains the invoice number
- einvoice: Fields BT-17, BT-18, BT-25, BT-26 added
- einvoice: Reasons for VAT exemption listed at the end of the PDF output
- einvoice: Item number (BT-126) now visible in the form
- einvoice: Charges and allowances added at invoice level
- einvoice: Calculation switched to row-based mode
- einvoice: Import of an invoice in UBL format now possible
- einvoice: Unit code “MON” (month) and hectare (ha) added to the BT-130 selection field
- einvoice: Field for bank name added, which is then visible in the ZUGFeRD PDF file
- einvoice: Output type can now be configured in the settings
- einvoice: Website can be specified, which will then be added to the PDF output
- einvoice: Empty IncludedNote XML element is no longer added
- einvoice: Validation further improved
- einvoice: Local provision of the font used
- einvoice: Validation problem message now under the “Create invoice” button
- einvoice: Checkbox to disable the buyer reference field
- The buyer reference field is not necessary in the B2B area, but it often is for authorities. If you do not fill out this field, validation will fail. You can deactivate this field using the new checkbox in front of the field. Deactivation means that the XML generator inserts a placeholder in this field so that validation does not produce a negative result.
- einvoice: Invoice items can be moved up and down
- einvoice: Required and potentially required form fields are now highlighted
- einvoice: Dark theme added
- einvoice: Remember the name of a loaded data set
- When you load a data set from the local storage system, the app remembers the name. When you then save this record again, the name field is pre-filled so that you can update this entry more quickly.
- einvoice: New warning message during import
- When importing an XML invoice where the quantity of an item is 0 and there are charges or allowances at item level, a warning message is displayed because in this case the actual unit price cannot be calculated.
- einvoice: Gross unit price and net unit price can be entered
- The user can now also enter the gross unit price and the net unit price will be automatically calculated based on the VAT rate.
- einvoice: Item basis quantity field now available
- einvoice: Charges and allowances at item and invoice level can now be absolute
- einvoice: Alignment of position values ??in the table vertically at the top
- einvoice: Type of buyer ID can be specified
- This information is used to display a corresponding label in the ZUGFeRD PDF file that corresponds to the type. For example, you can now set it to customer number and the word customer number will then be visible as label.
- einvoice: Introduction text can now be specified, which will be added to the PDF output above the line item


PDF24 Creator 11.20.1
- Some users have reported that Toolbox crashed after opening certain tools. The problem is present in version 11.20.0. With the help of some users and the affected systems, we were able to isolate and ultimately resolve the issue. The new version 11.20.1 has solved the problem for users who had the problem.


PDF24 Creator 11.20.0
Reader: CTRL key to open a PDF in a separate window:
- The CTRL key can now be used to open a PDF file in a separate window instead of in a new tab. You must hold down the CTRL key and then double-click on a PDF. Previously, you could only do this via the context menu of the tab.

Reader: New option to open a PDF in a tab or in a separate window:
- The reader.openInExistingInstance option can be used to open PDFs as a tab in an existing instance or in a separate window. The default value is “true”, which means that a PDF is opened in a tab of an existing instance. This option can be set via the settings area.

OCR: Profile was not applied:
- Due to an internal name change, profiles were no longer applied. This problem has been fixed.

OCR: Clearing the internal cache improved:
- When changing certain properties after an OCR process, the internal cache must be emptied for the new settings to be applied. There have been improvements here.

OCR: Skip the optimization process in the 9.x version:
- The optimization process is not available in the 9.x version, as the corresponding components are not available. Therefore, the corresponding function is no longer executed, which previously did not work.

OCR: Some parameters deactivated in 9.x:
- In the 9.x version, some parameters cannot be used as the corresponding components are not available. So that the user can now see this, the corresponding parameters have been grayed out. Previously it was possible to use them, but they had no effect.

OCR: Tesseract updated to version 5.4.1

OCR: New option to remove existing text:
- There is now an option to remove existing text before text recognition. This option is useful, for example, if text recognition has already been carried out but is subsequently carried out again with other options. This avoids duplicate texts.

OCR: Other Tesseract models can be used:
- There is a new option in the UI to select the Tesseract model type. You can choose between DEFAULT, FAST and BEST.

OCR: Error message is displayed in the status column:
- If an error occurs during text recognition, not only “Error” is displayed, but also the exact error message, which could previously only be displayed via the context menu.

OCR: Selection fields in the option maximized:
- The selection fields in the options now take up the maximum space in the options area. This means they are now slightly larger. This makes language selection in particular a little easier.

OCR: Further action errors are automatically activated and deactivated:
- The Start, Stop and Save action fields are deactivated if the corresponding function cannot be executed. Previously, this was not correct in every state.

Toolbox: Redaction tool no longer rendered an edited page:
- With the redaction tool in the toolbox, a page that has been redacted is changed to an image. This image is then replaced with the actual page. This means that the content below the redacted area can no longer be made visible. This behavior was no longer available in the last version 11.19.0, as an internal error occurred. This error has been corrected.

Toolbox: Electronic invoice generator extended:
- The fields BT-3, BT-28, BT-29, BT-30, BT-45, BT-46, BT-47 have been added to the electronic invoice generator (XRechnung, ZUGFeRD). Modal dialogs are now also centered on the screen. Individual items in the invoice can now also be saved and reloaded.

Toolbox: Quick determination of installed fonts:
- Some functions in the toolbox query the installed fonts. The function that determines the fonts has been changed. The new version is now significantly faster. This means that the initial loading of certain tools is hardly delayed any more.

Creator: Drag and drop improvements:
- Some applications query the content of the drag and drop operation (usually files) while moving the mouse pointer over the target window. This can lead to a deadlock, as PDF24 opens the profile selection, which is then used to generate the file. We have changed this behavior. If the file is requested during the drag and drop process, the profile selection is skipped and the file is simply assembled. If the file is requested after the drop event, we can display the profile selection and use it to create the final file.
- There has also been another improvement to the drag and drop implementation. A user had reported that email attachments from a certain email application could not be dragged into the Creator. We have analyzed this and the problem has been fixed.

Toolbox: MSI Installer did not register the preview image handler correctly:
- The MSI package did not add a certain Windows registry element that is required for the thumbnail handler to work. As a result, the thumbnails for PDF files were not displayed. The EXE Installer did not have this problem. The problem has been fixed.

Toolbox: Missing text in DLL Explorer context menu handler:
- The text for searching for an update was no longer visible in the context menu. This problem has also been fixed.


PDF24 Creator 11.19.0
General: OpenJDK Thread Stack Size Adjustable:
- An option has been added to configure the thread stack size when the OpenJDK is called. Thus, there are now the options jre.xmx, jre.maxRamPercentage, jre.xss.

General: OpenJDK Xmx Parameters Problem Fixed:
- The Xmx argument is in the form -Xmx1G without using a à - between the name and the size. We had used a what was not correct.

General: GUI framework improved:
- This special GUI framework is used for multiple apps within PDF24 Creator. These improvements ensure more speed, so the appropriate apps that use this framework start faster and are more responsive.

General: App console added more apps:
- The app console has been added to other windows. The console can be opened via F12 or via the Sysmenu icon of the window.

General: No distinction between upper and lower case in setting keys:
- Setting keys are no longer made between case sensitive, since this is also the case with the Windows registry. This prevents problems.

General: Interprocess Backend Starter Protection Added:
- The interprocess backend starter protection prevents the backend from starting from starting from parallel processes. If you work with files in Windows Explorer and have them processed by PDF24, this can lead to parallel processes, which try to start backend, but this is unnecessary.

General: New options regarding the AppData path:
- The DWORD configuration values useRoamingAppData and webview2.useRoamingAppData can be used to use the roaming appdata directory instead of the local Appdata directory. In some areas of application, the data must be in the roaming area so that the user data is retained.

General: Fixed problem with the Web Optimization option:
- It seems that -dWriteXRefStm-false and -dWriteObjStmsà false are currently required for -dFastWebView. Therefore, we have added these two switches, otherwise Ghostscript creates defective PDF files.

General: Components updated:
- WebView2 updated to 128.0.2739.42
- PDFBox updated to version 3.0.3
- qpdf updated to version 11.9.1
- Aspose PDF Lib updated to version 24.7
- JRE updated to version 17.0.12
- PDFium updated to newest version

Toolbox: [+basePath+] placeholders added:
- The [+basePath+] placeholder contains the base path to the toolbox. This can be used to use absolute URLs. Can be used in HTML, CSS and JavaScript files.

Toolbox: Newly known path added:

Added the new known folder path https://pdf24/file/toolbox/. With this path, absolute references can be used in the toolbox code.

Toolbox: Fixed a problem with watermark in the background and opacity:
- If you placed a watermark in the background and at the same time sedated a color with less than 100% opacity, the content of the entire page has been reduced in its opacity. The problem has been fixed so that the opacity of the watermark no longer has any influence on the page content.

Toolbox: Visual invoice generator updated:
- We have improved some locations, especially when hiding some columns. The generator now corresponds again to the version, which can also be found in our Online PDF tools.

Toolbox: Title of the invoice customizable at XRechnung Generator:
- With the XRechung Generator you can now change the title of the invoice, which was always the “Invoice”.

Reader: Text links are recognized:
- Text links are now recognized and the user interface changes the cursor when the user hovers over such a link. A link click on such a link opens it in the user's default browser. With the Alt key, link detection can be skipped so that the user can highlight the text.

Reader: New forwarding icon in the toolbar:
- The new icon fits slightly better with the function with which you can open the current PDF in another PDF24 program.

Reader: New SVG icon types are supported:
- Icons can now also be used that do not contain fillers but also those that contain only outlines of shapes. The new forwarding icon is one.

Reader: Improved behavior of mouse wheel and scrolling:
- The behavior of mouse wheel and scrolling has been changed. The new implementation is pixel-accurate, so you can scroll to any pixel. We no longer need to dynamically adjust the gap between the pages to scroll exactly to the page beginnings. The scroll value can be configured via reader.scrollAmount. The scroll value can be increased by five times the ALT button.

Reader: Calculation of the most visible page improved:
- We have changed the algorithm used to determine the most visible page. The new algorithm now compares the sizes of the visible side surfaces.

Reader: New display mode:
- A new display mode with variable page count per line has been implemented, which is helpful when used on a widescreen monitor. This mode displays as many pages as possible horizontally and then removes.

Reader: Fixed problem in the algorithm for centering pages:
- The determined available horizontal size was smaller than possible. Therefore, it could happen that the sides were not exactly centered. This has been improved.

Reader: view navigation pane improved:
- The code for the first display of the navigation pane of a PDF file has been optimized. The transition is now a little faster and smoother.

Reader: Fixed a problem with unshown characters:
- We analyzed a problem where some characters were not displayed in a particular PDF file. We have reported this case to the PDFium team. The PDFium team has recorded this case and optimized the code. The problem with the missing characters in this PDF has now been fixed.

Launcher: New tiles in the launcher:
- Added to the output profile manager and the page extraction tool as a tile.

DocTool: Printing Excel Files on PDF Printer Improved:
- A localization problem with the OLE printing method of Excel documents has been fixed. Setting the ActivePrinter property for Excel documents via OLE is a bit difficult and not as easy as with Word or PowerPoint files.

DocTool: Multiprocess testing improved:
- The multiprocess testing and timeout handling have been optimized. This means, among other things, that the file UI is displayed a little faster, depending on how many files have been selected. Any problem that does not all files in the UI have been loaded should now be fixed.

DocTool: File UI can now be opened multiple times:
- The shell file UI can now be opened several times. A mutex no longer blocks this.

Printer installation: PDF printer installation improved:
- The location of the PostScript printer driver of the corresponding architecture is now found better. This also fixes a possible problem that the PDF printer could not be installed. Finding the driver has been optimized for the x64, x86 and arm64 architectures.

Printer installation: Added additional check for changed default printers:
- If the default printer is changed from Windows when printer installation, an attempt is made to undo it.

PDFPreviewHandler: PDF preview generator customized:
- The way PDF24 Reader is accessed to create the PDF preview has been improved. Even in the event of an isolation, a preview should now be able to be made.

PDFPreviewHandler: IInitializeWithFile interface implemented:
- The PDF preview can now be initialized with a file, which is slightly faster and requires less RAM. However, Windows itself does not use this interface anymore. You can now use other applications.

PDFThumbHandler: PDF thumbnail handler integrated:
- With the new PDF Thumbnail handler, thumbnails of PDF files can now be created via the PDF24 reader. If the PDF24 Reader is set as the default PDF file app and the preview mode is enabled in Windows Explorer, then a preview of the first page is displayed instead of the PDF icon.

Settings: Many new settings customizable via the UI:

Further settings have been added to the user interface. New sections: “Preferenced methods”, “Reader”, “Launcher”, “DocTool”, “Toolbox”. Each of the new sections contains some options that the user can customize. We have also extended the sections “Assist, Functions” and “Tray icon”.

Backend: single instance test improved:
- The individual instance examination was postponed to a better position, because there was a fact in which this examination did not take place

Compress: Option for web optimization is now also saved:
- The “webOptimize” option was not saved when the program is closed and was not restored when restarting

Compress: New location for recently used values:
- Recent values are now stored in the profiles of the Windows Registry under HKEY-CURRENT-USER-Software-PDF24-Profiles-compress-lastUsedSettings

CompressForm: Remember current settings:
- Added checkbox that can be used to save the current settings, which are then loaded the next time you start the form. Location is HKEY-CURRENT-USER-Software-PDF24-Profiles-compressForm-remember

OCR: OCR now remembers options:
- Recent OCR options are now stored in a profile under HKEY-CURRENT-USER-Software-PDF24-Profiles-ocr-lastUsedSettings

Installer: No use of -multiProcess at the directory background context menu:
- The flag -multiProcess for the directory context menu has been removed because the user cannot open this context menu for several directory backgrounds. If -multiProcess is not used, the GUI will be opened faster.


PDF24 Creator 11.18.0
Output profiles: Append file function improved:
- The append file function now first converts Postscript files to PDF and then merges the file using one of the available methods. Previously Ghostscript was used to merge Postscript and PDF files because Ghostscript supports PDF and PS files, but this can cause problems. To eliminate this problem, Postscript is now first converted to PDF.

Toolbox: Improvement in the overlay function:
- Some documents could not be processed due to a batch overflow error. We investigated this. We then changed the function so that recursion is no longer used at a certain point in the program, as this is what caused the problem.

Toolbox: New version of the XRechnung generator added:
- The new version of the XRechnung generator is now identical to the online version. The latest version brings several corrections and more options in the form.

Toolbox: WEBP support for the “Images to PDF” tool:
- The tool for converting images to PDF files now also supports the WEBP format

Toolbox: Remove and extract PDF pages tool optimized:
- When removing or extracting pages, you actually expect the new PDF to be smaller, because only certain pages are extracted or certain pages are removed. In some cases, however, this was not the case because the pages that were actually removed remained as objects in the PDF. We investigated the reasons and optimized the code. The optimization means that the system now searches for orphaned page references in the PDF that prevent page objects from being removed from the PDF file. These page references are removed so that the page objects are no longer included in the PDF when it is saved.

Toolbox: Continue button added:
- For example, if you merge several PDF files into one PDF, the result is presented to the user. The user can save this result or send it by e-mail. There is now a further button with which the user can further process the result. If the merged file is very large, for example, it makes sense to reduce its size using the compression tool. The user can now do this directly with the Continue button. Previously, the merged PDF had to be saved and then reopened in the compression tool. With the new Continue button, some processes are now faster and easier.

Toolbox: Navigation buttons added:
- In the toolbox, there are now also navigation buttons in the top toolbar with which the user can switch between the views seen. These navigation buttons are very helpful, especially with regard to the new Continue button, as they allow the user to return to the previous view if necessary. To make all this possible, the state management in the app had to be improved.

Toolbox: Sortable flag removed from tools:
- In most tools, the file view was marked as sortable, although the user could not sort at all. In most tools, the order of the files does not matter. This marker has been removed so that the correct mouse cursor is displayed when the user moves the mouse pointer over a file.

Toolbox: File preview for imported files:
- If files are imported into the Toolbox, for example because the Toolbox is opened with certain files or because the new Continue button is used, no preview was generated for the imported files. We have improved this. A preview is now also displayed for imported files.

Toolbox: Toolbox can be loaded from another location:
- This is more of a feature for us internally, with which it is now possible to load the toolbox from a different location in the file system. This is a very nice option for development.
- Toolbox: Reloading language files when changes are made:
- If the toolbox is reloaded via the reload button or via F5, the system now also checks whether the language file has changed. If this is the case, it will be reloaded. This feature is helpful for development and for translators, because then you don't have to reopen the toolbox.

Toolbox: File extension is displayed:
- It is not yet possible to generate a preview for some file types. In this case, the file view remains gray and the file size is displayed. Now the file extension is also displayed so that it is easier to see what type of file it is.
- Reader: Changes to text annotations result in the file change indicator being set:
- The displayed PDF file is now also marked as changed if changes are made to the text annotations. This was previously not implemented, so that the prompt to save the file did not appear when text annotations were added or changed.

Launcher: Additional tiles can be hidden:
Additional tiles can now be deactivated. This can be done via the registry. The launcher checks the following DWORD options:
- feature.launcher.fax
- feature.launcher.onlineConverter
- feature.launcher.onlinePdfTools
- feature.launcher.twainImport
- feature.launcher.screenCapture
- feature.launcher.ocr
- feature.launcher.pdfReader
- feature.launcher.toolbox
- feature.launcher.compress
- feature.launcher.assistant
- feature.launcher.creator
- feature.launcher.fileTools
- feature.launcher.updateCheckBtn

Ghostscript: Font mapping improved:
- There are sometimes PDF files in which no Postscript names are used for the fonts. This leads to Ghostscript not finding them in the operating system. We have made improvements here. Two alternative names are now also compared when searching for a font. With this improvement, the corresponding font could be found in the PDF files examined.

Allgemein: Many components updated:
- Ghostscript has been updated to version 10.03.1
- QPDF has been updated to version 11.9.0
- PDFium has been updated to version 6501
- Java has been updated to OpenJDK 17.0.11+9
- Webview2 has been updated to version 125.0.2535.85


PDF24 Creator 11.17.0
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


PDF24 Creator 11.15.2
- 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


PDF24 Creator 11.15.1
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.


PDF24 Creator 11.15.0
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


PDF24 Creator 11.14.0
- Change log not available for this version


PDF24 Creator 11.13.2
- 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.


PDF24 Creator 11.13.0
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


PDF24 Creator 11.12.0
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.


PDF24 Creator 11.11.1
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.


PDF24 Creator 11.11.0
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.


PDF24 Creator 11.10.2
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.


PDF24 Creator 11.10.1
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.


PDF24 Creator 11.9.1
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.


PDF24 Creator 11.9.0
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%AppDataLocalMicrosoftFonts.

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


PDF24 Creator 11.8.0
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.

R