Quick PDF Library 8.12 beta 1 has been released and is ready for download and testing.

This new beta includes 64-bit support for the Delphi, ActiveX and DLL editions of Quick PDF Library, as well as support for Delphi XE2. Though please note that for 64-bit support this is very much a beta release and so you should not use it in a production environment yet. We look forward to hearing all of your feedback on the 64-bit version.

The 8.12 beta 1 installer can be downloaded from the button below.

Release Notes

Enhancements

• 64-bit support for Delphi, DLL and ActiveX editions
• Support for Delphi XE2 (Win32 and Win64)

Bug fixes

• Bug fix in DrawHTMLText function, return characters in correct MSB/LSB order
• Memory usage reduction for certain mono images

Technical Notes On Upgrading To Version 8

There were a number of technical changes to the Quick PDF Library API in version 8, so if you are still using version 7, and have not tried version 8 yet, you should take a look at a recent blog post that we made which outlines the various changes to the API:

• Quick PDF Library 8 API Changes

Upgrading To Version 8

If you would like to upgrade to version 8 then you can do so on this page:

• Upgrade To Quick PDF Library 8

More information on upgrading to version 8 can be found online here.

Feedback! Any feedback large or small is appreciated. We’ll shortly be planning the next round of exciting new features for Quick PDF Library, so we’d really like to know what you want to see added to the SDK. Don’t be shy, email us at support@quickpdflibrary.com and have your say.

Quick PDF Library 8 is a major new version of Quick PDF Library and contains a few changes to the API that were necessary to provide native support for Unicode and to improve the way secured PDF files are handled by the library. We also took this opportunity to rename some functions which used terms that conflicted with terms used by Acrobat.

This document contains a list of items that developers looking to upgrade to Quick PDF Library 8 should pay attention to. Changes to code may be required in order for your projects to compile using the new version.

1. Changed functions definitions

• The LoadFromFile, LoadFromString, LoadFromVariant and LoadFromStream functions now have a Password parameter. Note functionality changes below.
• The ExtractFilePages and GetFileMetadata functions now have a Password parameter.
• All functions that previously returned or accepted 8-bit character strings (either UTF-8 encoded, WinAnsi encoding or unspecified encoding) now use UTF-16 Unicode strings.
• Certain functions continue to accept or return 8-bit data, others have been renamed to more easily facilitate working with binary data.
• All the text drawing functions (such as DrawText, DrawHTMLText) allow the text to be specified using UTF-16 Unicode strings. The fonts automatically convert the text string’s Unicode characters to the appropriate encoding for storing in the content stream.

2. Renamed functions

• The fullowing functions have been renamed due to the changes from 8-bit to 16-bit strings. The change results in two new functions to replace each original function:

• In QPL v7 the term “layer” was used to describe a part of a page’s content stream. This conflicted with Adobe’s use of the term “layer” for the PDF feature known as optional content groups. To avoid confusion, all the layer functions have been renamed:

3. New functions

• GetContentStreamToString and GetContentStreamToVariant have been added to replace the functionality previously provided by the GetPageContent function.
• SetContentStreamFromString and SetContentStreamFromVariant have been added to replace the functionality previously provided by the SetPageContent function.
• SetTextExtractionOptions was added to provide greater contrul over the text extraction functions.
• CheckFileCompliance was added to check for PDF/A compliance along with the GetStringListCount, GetStringListItem functions needed to retrieve the compliance test results.
• SetPDFAMode was added to allow the creation of new PDF/A-1b compliant documents.
• Other new functions include DrawPDF417Symbul, AddTrueTypeSubsettedFont, SetLineDashEx and SetRenderCropType.

4. Removed functions

• The SetAdvancePassword and SetPassword functions have been removed. They are no longer necessary because the LoadFrom* functions now have an additional parameter for specifying the password.

5. Changed functionality

• When the LoadFrom* functions are used to open an encrypted document the objects will be automatically decrypted as necessary. Calls to SetPassword, SetAdvancePassword and Decrypt are no longer necessary to access any parts of an encrypted document. The SaveTo* functions can be used to save an encrypted document and the original encryption will remain in place with any new content automatically encrypted to the existing security settings.
• The LoadFrom* functions now return 1 on success and 0 on failure. In QPL v7 these functions would return 2 if an encrypted document made use of object streams or cross reference streams. This is no longer necessary as these functions have a new password parameter. If the wrong password is given, the LoadFrom* functions will return 0 and the LastErrorCode function will return error code 404.
• The Encrypt and Decrypt functions can still be used to add or remove security and full access to the document is possible even after encryption has been applied.
• In QPL v7, the GetPageContent function returned only a portion of the page’s content stream. The replacement functions GetPageContentToString and GetPageContentToVariant now return the entire content stream of the selected page, not just an individual part.
• Similarly, the SetPageContentFromString and SetPageContentFromVariant functions now set the entire content stream of the selected page, not just an individual part.
• The SecurityInfo function returns the active encryption details even though encrypted object in documents are internally decrypted as needed.
• XMP metadata is now added to new documents and maintained in existing documents. Calling functions like SetInformation will result in the XMP metadata being updated to keep that particular item in the document information dictionary in sync.

Quick PDF Library 8 is a major new version of the product which means that the upgrade process is different from the minor version upgrade process, namely, upgrades aren’t free unless you meet certain requirements.

Free upgrades

Customers who purchased version 7 of Quick PDF Library on or after the 1st of June, 2011 (within 90 days of version 8’s release) or who own an active Premium Upgrade Protection subscription are eligible for free upgrades from version 7 to version 8.

Contact our sales team if you fall into this category and we’ll help you out.

Purchase an upgrade

An upgrade from version 7 to version 8 can be purchased at a discount (40% off) through our online store. Look for the products that include “Upgrade License” and “7.x to 8.x” in the product name and then choose which version of those products describes your upgrade situation.

For example, if you own a Single Developer License + Standard Upgrade Protection for version 7 of Quick PDF Library then you will need to purchase the Single Developer Upgrade License + Standard Upgrade Protection (7.x to 8.x) product in order to upgrade to version 8 — though you can choose to buy the Premium Upgrade Protection version of that product if you prefer.

Online Store – Quick PDF Library

Contact our sales team if you have any questions about upgrading.

We’re excited to announce that Quick PDF Library 8.11 has been released and is now available for download and purchase through our website. This new major release is jam-packed with new features and major enhancements to the usability of the library.

What’s New

• PDF/A-1b compliant output
• Support for AES-256 encryption
• TrueType font subsetting
• HTML5 renderer output
• New plain text extraction with natural reading order
• Support for PDF417 stacked linear barcode symbology
• Changed API for full Unicode string support

Upgrade Offer for Existing Customers

Existing customers are eligible for a 40% discount when purchasing the new version and can do so through our online store. Look for the product that has upgrade in its name with 7.x to 8.x.

Customers who own an active Premium Upgrade Protection subscription can contact our support team for a free upgrade.

What’s Next

Embarcadero released a 64-bit compatible version of the Delphi compiler today, which is great news, and means that for version 8.12 of Quick PDF Library our goal will be to provide native support for 64-bit applications.

However, if you purchase version 8.11 now then you will receive a free upgrade to version 8.12 when it is released as per our upgrade policy.

Enjoy!

Thanks to all the customers who participated in the beta release process. We hope you enjoy this new release.