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Jaws PDF Creator® software release notes
Windows Version
February 2007
- Support for Windows Vista on x86 systems
- A new version of the PostScript Language print engine has been incorporated
- Using the Microsoft Word toolbar, PDFs no longer open on page 2 when the
'Fit page width to window' option is set (163089)
- The user is no longer prompted to save the normal.dot file when closing
Microsoft Word (163515)
- When using Microsoft Excel, the page view no longer changes to a Page Break View when one PDF file has been created per active worksheet (163892)
- Automated installation support for custom configurations now works
correctly (163240)
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October 2006
- Using the Microsoft Excel and Word macros no longer change the value of the default printer to 'Jaws PDF Creator' (162526, 161946)
- The Microsoft Office toolbars for PDF Creator now remember where they have been moved to and are predictably placed when Microsoft Office is restarted (163034)
- Links created to PDF files where the file being linked to contains a space in the file name, no longer cause an error (162272)
- When launching Excel, Word or PowerPoint, the contents of the clipboard are no longer replaced with the Jaws PDF Creator icon graphic (162869)
- Setting the Microsoft Excel macro to 'Create one PDF file for the entire [Excel] document' and 'Create PDF file from all worksheets' now correctly sets the sheet-level bookmarks (163897)
- Users of the Microsoft Word macro are no longer prompted to save normal.dot when exiting Word (163515)
- Setting the Microsoft Excel macro to 'Create one PDF file [Excel] document' and 'Create PDF file from all worksheets' where more than one worksheet is defined, and where all non-blank worksheets have the same paper size and a blank worksheet having no paper size defined now no longer generates a spurious error message (163893)
- Setting the Microsoft Excel macro to 'Create one PDF file per worksheet' and 'Create PDF file from selected (active) worksheets' where more than one worksheet is defined, and where the option to keep the intermediate PS file is set to OFF, now no longer leaves intermediate PSD file behind (163899)
- The print quality setting in an Excel workbook is now no longer changed by the Excel macro (163908)
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October 24 2005
- The ability to create files conforming to the PDF 1.5 specification.
- Upgraded Microsoft Office macro capabilities to include highly-configurable
document watermarking; and page cropping; and, in PowerPoint, support for PDF slide transitions.
- Incorporation of product settings supporting creation of PDF conforming to
GWG-compliant profiles (v2 and v3).
- Numerous core product and Microsoft Office macro fault fixes and minor enhancements.
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March 21 2005
We have fixed a number of issues since the release of PDF Creator 3.6; some of these are listed below:
- Essential fixes required to support Citrix MetaFrame Presentation Server 3.0 on Windows 2003
Server. Note that Citrix MetaFrame Presentation Server 3.0 on Windows 2000 Server is no longer supported.
- Fixes relating to the Excel macro that was introduced into PDF Creator 3.6:
- The macro now prompts to save a workbook before running the macro
- Document info is now copied from the workbook to the PDF
- Links created for external local files are now only supported with a UNC path
- The position of the hyperlink bounding box is now more accurately positioned above the link text
- The "Hyperlinks to process" setting now works as expected
- The "9 subscript out of range" error is no longer generated when creating PDF
a file using the "Selected (active) worksheets" setting
- An issue whereby the PDF/X-3 and PDF/X-1a plugins supplied with the product failed to work has been resolved.
- The localised variants of the PDF Creator product now include localised product documentation and help files.
- The localised variants of the PDF Creator product now include localised versions of the revised
Citrix-supporting EULA.
- An issue whereby the 'PDF Client' icon remains visible in the taskbar after installation of the product
has been resolved.
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November 30 2004
- Inclusion of a macro for the creation of 'intelligent' PDF from Microsoft Excel. This provides the ability
to either generate one PDF per worksheet; or one single PDF for all worksheets where each worksheet will
begin on a new page in the PDF. In addition, links contained in an Excel spreadsheet are automatically
converted to PDF links.
- Plug-ins that Global Graphics has developed for pre-press work and that adjust or enhance the
functionality of Jaws PDF Creator are now supplied as standard with this product. These comprise plug-ins
that are approved and recommended by the Ghent PDF Workgroup (the body whose goals are to develop process
specifications for best practice in graphic arts workflows)as well as plug-ins to create PDF/X.
- Support for hosting the application on a Citrix server or via Windows Terminal Services.
- Enhanced support for the programmatic installation of the product. This includes the ability to
'silently' install the product with no user interaction or prompting.
We have fixed a number of issues since the release of PDF Creator 3.4; some of these are listed below:
- The Microsoft Word macro 'print to file' option now no longer remains set after creating a PDF using the macro
- Microsoft PowerPoint and Word macros are now correctly added in Microsoft Office 2003
- New page sizes have been added to the default PPD
- New options in the Microsoft Word macro to 'turn off text color' and 'turn off all formatting'
for bookmarks have been introduced
- Security options that are set in the 'Save as' dialog are now no longer ignored.
- You are no longer automatically prompted to save the normal.dot template
- TrueType fonts having more than 256 characters now no longer have missing glyphs
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January 13 2004
- The inclusion of an information gathering utility that will assist Global Graphics Support staff to debug customer issues.
- The User Manual and On-line help have been updated with new features that were added in this release.
We have fixed a number of issues since the release of PDF Creator 3.3; some of these are listed below:
- The entering of certain invalid license keys no longer cause memory overflow errors.
- The ToPDF utility no longer erroneously prompts for a filename when the "Do not prompt for
destination" box is ticked.
- The installation of the French version of the product no longer references 'NikNak'.
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August 4 2003
- Support for additional page sizes including: ANSI: A, B, C, D, E; Architectural: A, B, C,
D, E, E1, E2, E3; ISO: B4, B3, B2, B1.. The maximum size has been increased to 200x200.
- New Jaws RIP - a new updated RIP has been incorporated in to this version of PDF Creator.
- The default configuration has been changed to based on customer feedback.
- The User Manual and On-line help have been updated with new features that were added in this
release. On-line help is now delivered as HTML Help on the Windows platforms.
Existing v.3.0 customers can us their current serial number in v.3.3. If your version is older
than v.3.0 please upgrade. Both existing customers and evaluators can download the latest version
at the download page.
We have fixed a number of issues since the initial release of PDF Creator 3.0; some of these are
listed below:
- Improved support for Windows XP - fast user switching is now supported.
- Improved install/uninstall - many issues with installing and uninstalling, particularly on Windows XP have been corrected.
- Improved JPEG compression.
- Copy/paste - the Jaws icon will no longer paste in Microsoft Word when text is copied.
- Create new folder - when this option is selected, the new folder will appear in the list.
- DeviceN colorspace images will now display correctly.
- The Office macros will install in all versions of Microsoft Word and PowerPoint installed on the system
- Font handling has been improved. A number of font handling issues have been fixed in the underlying code used in PDF Creator.
- Pattern recognition - patterns are handled better in the PDF with the improvements made resulting in smaller files than previously created
- Improved handling of Photoshop duotones has been implemented.
- A number of issues with OPI preservation have been addressed.
- Creating monochrome thumbnails when color was requested has been corrected.
- Text rendering mode in some situations was being lost. This manifested itself in what should have been filled text being shown as outline text in the PDF.
- Illustrator EPS files should now be handled correctly.
- Windows 95 - PDF Creator no longer supports this platform.
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Aug 27 2002
- PDF 1.4 support - includes 128-bit encryption and color and font styling for bookmarks.
- Linearization - also referred to as Fast Web Viewing, this allows viewing of a PDF file sooner while it is
downloading from a web site.
- Kanji character searching - now included is the ability to search for and copy Kanji characters on Windows
2000 and Windows XP platforms only.
- New Microsoft PowerPoint macro - similar in functionality to the current Microsoft Word macro. Icons will
be added to the Word and PowerPoint toolbars when the macros are installed.
- pdfmarks - we now support all the available pdfmarks specified by Adobe except logical structure and 'pagelabel'
pdfmarks.
- Improved support for device independent colors - you will see improved color accuracy in the colors produced
where the job uses CIE-based colors. Over the next few releases this feature will be expanding. CIE-based color
spaces are now accurately stored in the PDF file in the most compact form - which may be CalGray, CalRGB,
Lab or an ICC profile.
- LZW compression - PDF Creator will now correctly process files that contain graphics that use LZW compression.
- The Microsoft Word and PowerPoint macros are now certified with Digital IDs from VeriSign, therefore when Word
or PowerPoint is first run and security settings are set to 'High', an option to trust all Global Graphics
macros from then on is provided.
- Each user will now have the ability to create their own configurations that are specific only to their
login. Administrative users will still have the ability to create configurations that are available to all
users but only editable by the administrator.
- The User Manual and On-line help have been updated with new features that were added in this release.
- Oemsetup ("silent installer") has been updated to allow the setting of Security options.
- Incorrect font displayed in a PDF file generated with PDF Library v3.00 now display correctly.
- /greaterequal glyph not shown from the Symbol font.
- Character spacing problems with xshow have been resolved.
- Improved behavior of DeviceN if the 'tint transform' function is not captured.
- Corrected the behavior of the ColorConversionStrategy parameter when UseDeviceDependent color has been
selected. This fixed problems with images rendered in a CIE space that does not have 3 inputs. Mappings:
CIEBasedA CSAs to DeviceGray, CIEBasedABC and CIEBasedDEF to DeviceRGB, and CIEBasedDEFG to DeviceCMYK.
- Problems with corrupt CFF fonts being embedded in PDF files in some situations have been corrected.
- Improved the end of job cleanup in an error condition.
- The Zip with Predictor option now works correctly.
- Quark jobs that use spot colors and blends now produce better PDF files.
- Corrected a situation with InDesign2.0 that was causing distorted fonts.
- Japanese filenames will now process correctly on Windows XP and 2000.
- PDF Creator now installs an updated version of PSCRIPT.DRV on Windows 98 Japanese.
- A new version of PScript5.dll on Windows XP will be installed.
- PDF files created with the Microsoft Word macro can now be cancelled at the Save dialog.
- PDF Creator now clears the undo buffer prior to executing the Microsoft Word macro.
- Japanese characters in comments will now be encoded correctly in the Microsoft Word and PowerPoint macros.
- Japanese strings will no longer be corrupted in the PostScript.
- Windows 95 - PDF Creator 3.0 will no longer support this platform.
- Windows XP - PDF Creator will operate on XP, however we do not support "Fast User Switching" mode,
where more than one user can be logged on to one workstation at the same time. We are working to resolve this issue.
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Feb 15 2002
- Windows XP Support (see notes below)
- Fix for some line width, scaling and rotational problems.
- Fix for malformed %%Page DSC comment causing a mysterious typecheck error to be raised.
- Fix for Type 2 Patterns, shading type 7 (and others) with /Function array.
- Fix for crash caused by a clipping region being passed into and inadvertently freed by a Type 3 font.
- Fix for "Preserve OPI" omitting clipping regions established prior to drawing images.
- Fix reference count of string destinations of GoToR /ANN pdfmarks (could result in the wrong destination name being
used).
- Fix for fonts with internal names containing '#' characters. Was resulting in PDF Creator crashing for all jobs
if such a font were present.
- If the default filename formed from the document name contained bad characters, the 'Create PDF' dialog would fail
to appear.
- Various fonts (eg: Courier-Oblique) were appearing in PDF files as the fonts they are derived from (eg: Courier).
- Implemented /OPM distiller param.
- Addressed PDF file size issues introduced in v2.1.
- Thumbnail generation is now disabled by default in the Web configuration for new installs.
- Fix for a memory corruption problem (manifested as a small number of jobs hanging).
- Image XObjects are now emitted even for small images. This can reduce PDF file sizes if there are lots of small
repeated images (but can increase it if there are lots of small but different images). Added /InlineImageThreshold
distiller param to control this.
- Fix for Word macro problem with hyperlinks attached to images.
- Word macro change to include numbering text from Word's autonumbered headings in PDF bookmarks.
- Various memory leaks in the slave process eliminated.
- Encryption passwords are no longer in plaintext in the registry or when viewed in the control panel.
- Fix a problem with embedded TrueType fonts. The problem caused copy/search to fail sometimes. Also printing a
PDF from Reader would sometimes drop characters.
If you already have Jaws PDF Creator installed and you wish to upgrade your operating system to Windows XP, you
should uninstall PDF Creator, perform the upgrade and then re-install PDF Creator.
Windows XP applies security to the registry more rigorously than previous versions of Windows. Consequently, it is
possible that a user without "Administrator" privileges will not be able to change PDF Creator configurations.
If you switch to an active configuration when logged-in as a "User", a "registry access denied" error will appear.
There are several ways to address this issue:
- Ask your System Administrator (as "Administrator") to change PDF Creator configurations for any Users.
- Change your user type to "Administrator". You can do this in the Control Panel > User accounts option.
- If the System Administrator wants all users to be able to modify the PDF Creator configurations, use the regedit.exe
tool (supplied with Windows XP) to reduce the security appropriately on the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\JawsSystems\PDFCreator
key (and all subkeys).
If you use the fast user switching feature in XP and have two users logged in simultaneously, any attempt to print to PDF Creator by the second user causes the "Create PDF" dialog to appear on the desktop of the first user. The solution is to re-boot and turn fast switching off or only have a single user logged-in.
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Sept 10 2001
- CID font support (Type 0 and 2)
- PPD/SPD files allow the user to explicitly specify a relative page rotation to be applied (not
available under NT4).
- Implemented parsing of: %%ViewingOrientation DSC comments.
- The /Orientation page device parameter is used even if auto-rotate is not enabled.
- Not attempting to kern text that uses a vertical writing font.
- Text orientation does not contribute to the page rotation if the text is invisible.
- No longer delete the PDF file if there's an error but the error handler has been redefined.
- Implementation of automatic reverse encoding for fonts emitted by the Win2K PS driver to result in
searchable text.
- Fix for some font identification problems causing corrupted characters.
- Fixed problem with the same font being downloaded multiple time but with a different subset of glyphs.
- Fixed bug that had the potential to cause memory corruption problems at the end of a job.
- (x)yshow could result in mispositioned characters.
- Don't report a crash if a job uses LZW (or other errors occur).
- Image downsampling caused image corruption in some situations.
- Some fonts were emitted with an incorrect bounding box (sometimes causing greeking in Reader).
- Fixes for matrix concatenation issues made manifest in Reader due to its inability to store real numbers
to high precision.
- Fix for "invalid dash arguments" problem with some rare jobs.
- Fix for a class of jobs where we would previously emit real numbers that Reader could not handle
(resulting in misplaced, missized or missing graphical elements).
- Fix for "/DEST pdfmark" with extra params causing VMerror during showpage.
- Fix for some image problems (eg: compression of images with >4 color components).
- DCTEncode fixes (JPEG compression).
- Error handling fixes (custom error handler that performed cleardictstack in handleerror caused problems).
- Fix for Type 5 halftones with Type 6 element.
- Fix occasional problem with the Flate encoder.
- Some settings weren't being reset if a different configuration was used within 1 minute of a previous
job using a different configuration.
- Fix for auto-view and send-as-email options from the default config being used rather than the
manually selected config in the Create PDF dialog.
- Not putting color operators in uncolored patterns.
- Modified to fix UNC file references.
- No longer causes Word97 to crash if there are cross-refs in the footer area.
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February 16 2001
- PDF v1.3 format support.
- PostScript LanguageLevel 3 compatibility.
- PDF encryption is now supported.
- Send PDF as e-mail attachment.
- Can opt to embed the base 14 fonts.
- Basic JobTicket information is embedded in the PDF.
- Page label support added.
- Now possible to upgrade an evaluation version to a full version via the About box.
- Bicubic downsampling added.
- Can now opt to overwrite existing PDF files.
- WORD MACRO: added option to include hidden text.
- 'Advanced' controls moved from the General pane on the PDF Creator control panel to a new 'Advanced' dialog.
- Functionality of 'Always Embed' list improved.
- Font Management is now a separate dialog accessed via the Settings pane in the Control Panel.
- WORD MACRO: PDF DOCINFO /Producer key shows the macro version.
- Fixes relating to use of initclip.
- Type3 font glyphs could sometimes be omitted at high resolutions.
- Some (erroneous) dvips-generated jobs could suffer from omitted glyphs and errors in Reader.
- Use of large disk-based CFF fonts could cause a crash.
- Uncached Type3 fonts could be omitted.
- Embedded subset CFF fonts with glyphs that use the deprecated endchar/seac construct could cause accented characters to lose their accents.
- setpagedevice with an empty dict was previously being ignored.
- White-altering transfer functions could be problematic with page sizes larger than 11"x17".
- Drawing operations following an initclip or setgstate could sometimes be omitted.
- Fixes for some 'path rendering' problems (such as outlined text).
- Stroked Type 3 font glyph charpaths were sometimes being ignored.
- Fix for Forms invoked from within Type 3 font glyphs.
- Eliminated a number of memory leaks.
- Incorrect font matrices for reencoded fonts were sometimes being used.
- Clipping occasionally wrong when generating thumbnail images.
- No longer optimizing out a Form XObject's Matrix entry if it is the identity matrix (PDF docs conflict regarding this entry being optional).
- Fixes for nested Forms, and other Form-related problems.
- /CapHeight could previously be omitted from a /FontDescriptor.
- Reencoded fonts based on original fonts that were unused were not being embedded in the PDF.
- Fix for stringwidth sometimes causing output from a Type3 font to appear.
- Ensuring font name uniqueness even for font names in the incoming job with PDF subset prefixes.
- Fix for TrueType fonts with empty 'glyf' tables (causing Reader to error)
- currentdistillerparams now returns a copy of the params dict.
- Text vertical positioning problem where the position was influenced by the font matrix' y-translation component.
- Rare horizontal text spacing problem fixed.
- A particular mix of text and pattern usage could cause memory corruption.
- Coping with a degenerate closed clip path (rare) which previously resulted in no clipping in the PDF.
- Use of nested patterns and/or forms could cause a crash.
- Performance improved and required memory reduced when creating a very large number of pages.
- Improved support for Separation color spaces in addition to those created with setcmykcolor operator.
- WORD MACRO: no error reported when displaying settings without open document.
- WORD MACRO: Added conditional definition of /pdfmark to preamble per TN5150.
- WORD MACRO: headings preceded by hidden text were sometimes not being added to the PDF as bookmarks.
- WORD MACRO: cross-references could sometimes be positioned on the wrong page.
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July 24 2000
- Duplicate Image XObjects are now detected and only one image embedded in the PDF file.
- Moved the System Fonts button to the font management pane.
- Can change things in the Font Management page without being forced to create a new
configuration.
- INSTALLER: Explicitly create install dir if it does not exist (was occasionally causing a problem on Win2K); applying OEM configs even if upgrading.
- INSTALLER: Fix so that installing under Win95/98 doesn't prevent uninstall during the same Windows session.
- MACRO: tweak for Word thinking that one heading is actually two coincident headings! (seen following a section break).
- MACRO: Jaws address change.
- MACRO: fix for /FitH in DOCINFO if using international settings so that floats didn't use period as decimal point.
- MACRO: Fix for PAGEREF problem.
- TT font substitution. We now cope with a real number as a font name suffix.
- Copes better with MultipleMaster font instances.
- CFF font with T2 charstring that uses endchar in an undocumented manner (as a T1 seac) is now accommodated.
- More font related changes for reencoded fonts (InDesign and Windows 2000 driver output).
- Spacing problem fixed (typically seen in some InDesign jobs).
- Rare glyph mispositioning problem fixed (CFF charstring problem).
- Some jobs that previously failed with a VMerror now work (jobs with thousands of fonts)
- Type3 font glyphs are no longer renamed. Fixes a problem where occasionally some non-existent glyphs were named in a font's Encoding dict's Differences array.
- Fix for text spacing problem where text with wide spacing drawn with show was followed by normally spaced text containing spaces drawn with xshow.
- Fixes for "/PS pdfmark".
- Fix "/PUT pdfmark" for array types.
- Type3 fonts were sometimes being emitted with .notdef charstrings that were in plaintext although their streams were marked with a filter. This could lead Acrobat Reader to crash when printing to a PS printer.
- Type2 font charstring HINTMASK operators that elided VSTEMHM operators weren't being processed correctly leading to corrupt glyphs.
- Image usage within Type3 font glyphs is now recorded so that jobs that used mono or color images only within Type3 glyphs would cause the relevant Resource usage to be flagged in the .pdf file. This problem caused some jobs to fail to print to PostScript printers.
- Image downsampling is inhibited if the resultant image would otherwise have either dimension set to zero. Was causing invalid streams or infinite loops with very small images at low resolutions.
- Coping with CFF charstrings containing stem commands with more than 48 arguments
- Auto-rotate: changed determination of text orientation to fix some jobs where the y-axis was inverted.
- The trailer dict is now written with an /ID entry.
- Fix for uncached forms invoked more than once.
- Construct and emit a Format 2 post table in a TT font if the font doesn't already have one.
- Embedded fonts are now less frequently renamed "Anonymous-...".
- Non-trivial notdef CFF charstrings are now processed (was causing Reader3 a problem)
- Emit strings in <hex> format if that would save space.
- Was sometimes emitting spurious ExtGState objects.
- Jaws PDF Creator Port name changed to work around a problem seen occasionally with Microsoft Excel.
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February 1 2000
- The installer for v1.51 will install over (ie: update) previous v1.5x installations. (However, existing v1.1 installations must first be uninstalled, as before.)
- The installer no longer forces associations with .ps/.prn/.eps files if another application is already associated with files with these extensions (this behaviour can be overrided with the Custom install option).
- The Word macro now runs under Japanese Word97/98.
- PJL header/trailer information is now ignored more reliably.
- Fixed problem with spot functions occasionally giving rangecheck errors with dvips jobs.
- Word macro: fixed document open mode.
- Word macro: Word could crash if there was a bookmark in a header.
- Word macro: fixed TOC problems with Word2000 and non-English versions of Word.
- Fixed some issues with artificial italic/bold fonts.
- Fixes for Type3 fonts defined in terms of glyphs from other Type3 fonts.
- Fixes for embedded fonts derived from MultipleMaster fonts (was previously causing Reader to crash).
- Fix for glyphshow occasionally resulting in missing characters.
- Fix for composite TrueType glyphs where glyph components that weren't independently present in the job were omitted (typically exhibited as missing accents on accented characters).
- Fixes for some jobs using halftones that caused Reader to display error messages.
- Fixed the page numbering for /GoToR pdfmark actions.
- The Desktop directory is now correctly set under NT (was previously using the Default User Desktop).
- Attempts to access the Jaws PDF Creator printer over a network under NT will now result in an access denied error.
- No longer verifying that the drive is the same as the install drive (was causing the software to stop working on a few systems).
- The timezone portion of the creation/modification date is now written correctly to the .pdf file.
- Some miscellaneous modifications to improve robustness.
- Default colour is now reset to black following a showpage.
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July 28 1999
- New architecture improves robustness (PostScript compatible interpreter no longer embedded in printing
subsystem).
- Install-time analysis of existing fonts is faster.
- Simpler means of switching to a different PostScript driver.
- Extra page sizes (A2, A1) defined in the Niknak PPD file.
- Job cancellation improved.
- Auto-rotate is now enabled in all preset configurations.
- Word macro to generate links, etc., in .PDF files.
- Document names are "rationalised" by removing defined prefixes/suffixes.
- Under NT, post-process app is launched in the context of the user (not system).
- Fixes for spacing problems when TrueType substitution enabled.
- Fix for TrueType substitution using font with composite glyphs.
- Fix when using TrueType substitution for jobs containing multiple Type1 and Type3 fonts derived from the same original font.
- Fix several potential GPFs when using TrueType substitution.
- Fix for fonts whose name contained a special character (would result in mysterious VMerrors when processing most jobs).
- A PostScript form would previously only render twice within the same document.
- Fix for missing symbol fonts.
- Fix for Type42 fonts that use the font storage area.
- ToPDF copes with more variants of PJL wrappers for PostScript jobs.
- /OBJ pdfmark is now more fully supported.
- Fix for the same font downloaded multiple times in the same document.
- Fix for some jobs that could cause the subsequent job to crash.
- Fix for exit used within pathforall procedure.
- Various text spacing problems fixed.
- Hyperlinks created using pdfmark now work.
- /ANN pdfmarks now cope with /Title, /Color and /ModDate.
- Using JPEG could previously significantly corrupt the output.
- Fix for jobs that were explicitly looking for the shfill operator.
- Some "execute on job completion" apps were not behaving correctly due to the .pdf file path containing forward slashes.
- Potential problem if a postscript file didn't contain a newline at the end of the file.
- Handling postscript filenames that contain unbalanced parentheses.
- Viewing a .pdf file in Acrobat Reader doesn't now cause a problem if the original .ps file is dropped onto ToPDF again.
- PostScript files that don't contain a showpage now produce .pdf files.
- Problem where incorrect pattern could be used in .pdf file.
- Problem with jobs that used "%%DocumentNeededResources: (atend)".
- Problem with font substitution with jobs from dvips.
- Fix for Illustrator screen problem.
- Jobs that use exitserver (deprecated) behave better.
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October 29 1998
- gsave and grestore are now correctly balanced. Reduces printing problems from Exchange.
Affects : printing on Adobe RIPs.
Symptom : early pages print (approx 8), later pages fail to print, if error handling is enabled,
the error is 'limitcheck' or 'invalidrestore'.
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August 7 1998
- %%BoundingBox now works with both page size and crop box.
- Some TrueType fonts could crash the Control Panel and installer, now fixed.
- Preserve Halftones works.
- AuthorName now works properly.
- No longer necessary to reboot after removing 'Execute on completion'.
- Can now remove fonts specified for 'Never Embed'.
- Help files brought up to date with control panel.
- Manual brought up to date with control panel.
- CD Key now displayed in control panel.
- Evaluation version created.
- Various 'quick keys' (Alt+letter) fixed in control panel.
- 'Log all messages' now logs to locations other than the default.
- ToPDF no longer overwrites without prompting when using dialog.
- capitalization of file names fixed when using file/open dialog in ToPDF.
- New reporting function 'only log errors'.
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May 1 1998
- ToPDF no longer corrupts memory when overriding control panel settings.
- ToPDF now accepts files from network drives under both NT and 95.
- Niknak now correctly subsamples monochrome and color images.
- Niknak now has a new reporting feature, which only generates logs on error.
- Niknak now has a link to the help file, and an about box.
- Control Panel now has help buttons.
- Monochrome and color thumbnails working.
- Selecting Thumbnail generation no longer downsamples blends.
- Jpeg compression now has more than one level of compression.
- Auto-rotate pages now rotates thumbnails too.
- Dropping multiple files onto the ToPDF application under Win95 no longer hangs.
- True Type font substitution much improved.
- Niknak.spd was incorrect, causing failed installation and monochrome printing.
- 'Always output to' now overrides ToPDF for saving files as per the manual.
- ToPDF now displays long filenames when drag-and-dropping.
- When 'Always prompt for filename' selected ToPDF no longer generates an error.
- File/Open from ToPDF application no longer overwrites existing files.
- Type 1 and 3 PostScript fonts are no longer un-removable when added to Niknak.
- No longer necessary to reboot after removing 'execute on completion' application from the Control Panel.
- Control Panel now saves changes to the 'Always log messages to' filename on the Reporting tab.
- .inf, .spd & .ppd files are now installed in the Niknak installation folder. These can be used to recreate the Niknak printer, should it be accidentally deleted.
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Macintosh Version
January 11 2006
- The ability to create files conforming to the PDF 1.5 specification.
- Incorporation of product settings supporting creation of PDF conforming to GWG-compliant profiles (v2 and v3).
- Support for Mac OS X 10.4
- Mac version upgraded to same level as Windows product (though without the Microsoft Office macro integrations).
- Mac and Windows versions of the product and now once again ‘synchronised’ and are able to share the same license keys.
- Numerous core product and Microsoft Office macro fault fixes and minor enhancements.
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May 12 2004
- Support for Mac OS X (10.3) including non-English language variants.
We have fixed a number of issues since the release of PDF Creator 3.3; some of these are listed below:
- The installation of the Italian version of the product no longer erroneously installs the German of the manual
- It is now possible to paste the product serial number into the application field
- The default configuration in the PDE now correctly reflects the chosen configuration in the Configuration Editor
- By default, the evaluation key is now seen during the product installation
- The value of the encryption level is now correctly displayed when no PDF configuration is defined
- The PDE is now uninstalled even if other applications are open at uninstall time
- The document name can now be used when naming product output
- The product serial number is now available in the debug information optionally generated by the product
- The help menu item is no longer names "help.help"
- The "Always output to..." folder is now honoured when printing from an application
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January 13 2004
- Support for Mac OS X (10.2.x) including non-English language variants.
- Localised interface and documentation for the new Mac OS X version in French, Italian, German and Spanish.
- The inclusion of an information gathering utility that will assist Global Graphics Support staff to debug customer issues.
- The User Manual and On-line help have been updated with new features that were added in this release.
We have fixed a number of issues since the release of PDF Creator 3.3; some of these are listed below:
- The entering of certain invalid license keys no longer cause memory overflow errors.
- The ToPDF utility no longer erroneously prompts for a filename when the "Do not prompt for destination" box is ticked.
- The epilogue.ps file that is supplied for Mac platforms has been updated to be the same as that supplied for Windows platforms.
- The installation of the French version of the product no longer references 'NikNak'.
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August 4 2003
- Support for additional page sizes including: ANSI: A, B, C, D, E; Architectural: A, B, C, D, E, E1, E2, E3; ISO: B4, B3, B2, B1.. The maximum size has been increased to 200x200.
- Import/export configurations - this new feature facilitates the sharing of configurations among users.
- New Jaws RIP - a new updated RIP has been incorporated in to this version of PDF Creator.
- The default configuration has been changed to based on customer feedback.
Existing v.3.0 customers can us their current serial number in v.3.3. If your version is older than v.3.0
please upgrade. Both existing customers
and evaluators can download the latest version at the download page.
We have fixed a number of issues since the initial release of PDF Creator 3.0; some of these are listed below:
- Improved JPEG compression.
- Create new folder - when this option is selected, the new folder will appear in the list.
- DeviceN colorspace images will now display correctly.
- Font handling has been improved. A number of font handling issues have been fixed in the underlying code used in PDF Creator.
- Pattern recognition - patterns are handled better in the PDF with the improvements made resulting in smaller files than previously created
- Improved handling of Photoshop duotones has been implemented.
- A number of issues with OPI preservation have been addressed.
- Creating monochrome thumbnails when color was requested has been corrected.
- Text rendering mode in some situations was being lost. This manifested itself in what should have been filled text being shown as outline text in the PDF.
- Illustrator EPS files should now be handled correctly.
- Macintosh 8.x - no longer supported.
- Mac OS X - we do not support this platform at this time. PDF Creator 3.3 will not install on this platform.
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Aug 27, 2002
- PDF 1.4 support - includes 128-bit encryption and color and font styling for bookmarks.
- Linearization - also referred to as Fast Web Viewing, this allows viewing of a PDF file sooner while it is downloading from a web site.
- pdfmarks - we now support all the available pdfmarks specified by Adobe except logical structure and 'pagelabel' pdfmarks.
- Improved support for device independent colors - you will see improved color accuracy in the colors produced where the job uses CIE-based colors. Over the next few releases this feature will
be expanding. CIE-based color spaces are now accurately stored in the PDF file in the most compact form - which may be CalGray, CalRGB, Lab or an ICC profile.
- LZW compression - PDF Creator will now correctly process files that contain graphics that use LZW compression.
- The User Manual and On-line help have been updated with new features that were added in this release.
Please upgrade to or evaluate Jaws PDF Creator v.3.0.
- Incorrect font displayed in a PDF file generated with PDF Library v3.00 now display correctly.
- /greaterequal glyph not shown from the Symbol font.
- Changing configuration in ToPDF will now be applied to a job on a Macintosh.
- Passwords will now be encrypted in the configurations on Macintosh.
- The PDF configuration is now correctly applied when submitting to the Macintosh PDF Creator printer icon.
- Character spacing problems with xshow have been resolved.
- Improved behavior of DeviceN if the 'tint transform' function is not captured.
- Corrected the behavior of the ColorConversionStrategy parameter when UseDeviceDependent color has been selected. This fixed problems with images rendered in a CIE space that does not have 3 inputs. Mappings: CIEBasedA CSAs to DeviceGray, CIEBasedABC and CIEBasedDEF to DeviceRGB, and CIEBasedDEFG to DeviceCMYK.
- Problems with corrupt CFF fonts being embedded in PDF files in some situations have been corrected.
- Improved the end of job cleanup in an error condition.
- The Zip with Predictor option now works correctly.
- Quark jobs that use spot colors and blends now produce better PDF files.
- Corrected a situation with InDesign2.0 that was causing distorted fonts.
- Switching windows on the Macintosh desktop will no longer affect changes made to the configuration settings.
- The items remaining to be processed counter has been fixed on the Macintosh.
- Installer setting mismatches between Normal and CD builds on Macintosh have been resolved.
- Fonts and resources folder now install on the non-Easy install setting on Macintosh.
- PDF 1.2 - due to the work to support device independent colors we no longer support creating PDF 1.2 files as these enhancements are not supported in PDF 1.2.
- Mac OS X - we do not support this platform at this time. PDF Creator 3.0 will not install on this platform.
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Feb 15 2002
- Refuse to install on an OS prior to 8.5
- Change the default configuration to "Web", change the downsampling for colour & greyscale images to "bicubic" where downsampling is used.
- Change the Web configuration so that thumbnails are disabled.
- Move "Jaws PDF Creator Shared Library" into the "Jaws PDF Creator Resources" folder. Move the "Jaws PDF Creator Resources" folder out of the Extensions folder and into the install folder. Change the search strategy for the Jaws resources folder to support moving them out of the extensions folder and into the install folder.
- Ensure that the installer's serial number *weak-links* against PrintingLib.Lib so that we can safely run on a system that does not (yet) have it installed.
- When bicubic downsampling for greyscale images was selected it actually activated bicubic downsampling for colour images!
- Update the license agreements.
- In the Control Panel's "Manage Fonts" window, mark the font list as written *before* we try to write it to stop repeated attempts in the event of an error.
- Reopen the preferences file inside each Nav Services callback to workaround a problem which causes the resource file chain to be 'corrupted'.
- Add the implementation of import and export of preferences via XML files. Add the XML file that describes the standard Jaws PDF Creator configurations.
- Pause the rip thread before queing a file when it is dropped on the window. This stops the thread waking up a processing the file before we can queue the next one!
- Correct the message '"%s" is already in Acrobat PDF Format' so that %s is filled in with the file name.
- Fix for some line width, scaling and rotational problems.
- Fix for malformed %%Page DSC comment causing a mysterious typecheck error to be raised.
- Fix for Type 2 Patterns, shading type 7 (and others) with /Function array.
- Fix for crash caused by a clipping region being passed into and inadvertently freed by a Type 3 font.
- Fix for "Preserve OPI" omitting clipping regions established prior to drawing images.
- Fix reference count of string destinations of GoToR /ANN pdfmarks (could result in the wrong destination name being used).
- Fix for fonts with internal names containing '#' characters. Was resulting in PDF Creator crashing for all jobs if such a font were present.
- Various fonts (eg: Courier
- Oblique) were appearing in PDF files as the fonts they are derived from (eg: Courier).
- Implemented /OPM distiller param.
- Addressed PDF file size issues introduced in v2.1.
- Fix for a memory corruption problem (manifested as a small number of jobs hanging).
- Image XObjects are now emitted even for small images. This can reduce PDF file sizes if there are lots of small repeated images (but can increase it if there are lots of small but different images). Added /InlineImageThreshold distiller param to control this.
- Fix a problem with embedded TrueType fonts. The problem caused copy/search to fail sometimes. Also printing a PDF from Reader would sometimes drop characters.
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Sept 10 2001
- CID font support (Type 0 and 2)
- PPD/SPD files allow the user to explicitly specify a relative page rotation to be applied (not available under NT4).
- Implemented parsing of: %%ViewingOrientation DSC comments.
- The /Orientation page device parameter is used even if auto-rotate is not enabled.
- Not attempting to kern text that uses a vertical writing font.
- Text orientation does not contribute to the page rotation if the text is invisible.
- No longer delete the PDF file if there's an error but the error handler has been redefined.
- Now installs by default into the "Applications" folder on the user's boot volume rather than the root folder. This can, of course, be changed by the user.
- Fix for some font identification problems causing corrupted characters.
- Fixed problem with the same font being downloaded multiple time but with a different subset of glyphs.
- Fixed bug that had the potential to cause memory corruption problems at the end of a job.
- (x)yshow could result in mispositioned characters.
- Don't report a crash if a job uses LZW (or other errors occur).
- Image downsampling caused image corruption in some situations.
- Some fonts were emitted with an incorrect bounding box (sometimes causing greeking in Reader).
- Fixes for matrix concatenation issues made manifest in Reader due to its inability to store real numbers to high precision.
- Fix for "invalid dash arguments" problem with some rare jobs.
- Fix for a class of jobs where we would previously emit real numbers that Reader could not handle (resulting in misplaced, missized or missing graphical elements).
- Fix for "/DEST pdfmark" with extra params causing VMerror during showpage.
- Fix for some image problems (eg: compression of images with >4 color components).
- DCTEncode fixes (JPEG compression).
- Error handling fixes (custom error handler that performed cleardictstack in handleerror caused problems).
- Fix for Type 5 halftones with Type 6 element.
- Fix occasional problem with the Flate encoder.
- Correct recognition of a Mac-style EPS file so that they are processed as such by ToPDF.
- Fix "Overwrite an Existing PDF file" control.
- Not putting color operators in uncolored patterns.
- Changed "Web" configuration to enable "Convert CMYK to RGB" and disable "Preserve UCR".
- don't duplicate parentheses in output file names.
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February 16 2000
- PDF v1.3 format support.
- PostScript LanguageLevel 3 compatibility.
- PDF encryption is now supported.
- Send pdf as e-mail attachment.
- Can opt to embed the base 14 fonts.
- Basic JobTicket information is embedded in the PDF.
- Page label support added.
- Now possible to upgrade an evaluation version to a full version via the About box.
- Bicubic downsampling added.
- Can now opt to overwrite existing PDF files.
- 'Advanced' controls moved from the General pane on the PDF Creator control panel to a new 'Advanced' dialog.
- Functionality of 'Always Embed' list improved.
- Font Management is now a separate dialog accessed via the Settings pane in the Control Panel.
- Extra reporting feature added to optionally display job name and time taken.
- Fixes relating to use of initclip.
- Type3 font glyphs could sometimes be omitted at high resolutions.
- Some (erroneous) dvips-generated jobs could suffer from omitted glyphs and errors in Reader.
- Use of large disk-based CFF fonts could cause a crash.
- Uncached Type3 fonts could be omitted.
- Embedded subset CFF fonts with glyphs that use the deprecated endchar/seac construct could cause accented characters to lose their accents.
- setpagedevice with an empty dict was previously being ignored.
- White-altering transfer functions could be problematic with page sizes larger than 11"x17".
- Drawing operations following an initclip or setgstate could sometimes be omitted.
- Fixes for some 'path rendering' problems (such as outlined text).
- Stroked Type 3 font glyph charpaths were sometimes being ignored.
- Fix for Forms invoked from within Type 3 font glyphs.
- Eliminated a number of memory leaks.
- Incorrect font matrices for reencoded fonts were sometimes being used.
- Clipping occasionally wrong when generating thumbnail images.
- No longer optimizing out a Form XObject's Matrix entry if it is the identity matrix (PDF docs conflict regarding this entry being optional).
- Fixes for nested Forms, and other Form-related problems.
- /CapHeight could previously be omitted from a /FontDescriptor.
- Reencoded fonts based on original fonts that were unused were not being embedded in the PDF.
- Fix for stringwidth sometimes causing output from a Type3 font to appear.
- Ensuring font name uniqueness even for font names in the incoming job with PDF subset prefixes.
- Fix for TrueType fonts with empty 'glyf' tables (causing Reader to error).
- currentdistillerparams now returns a copy of the params dict.
- Text vertical positioning problem where the position was influenced by the font matrix' y-translation component.
- Rare horizontal text spacing problem fixed.
- A particular mix of text and pattern usage could cause memory corruption.
- Coping with a degenerate closed clip path (rare) which previously resulted in no clipping in the PDF.
- Use of nested patterns and/or forms could cause a crash.
- Performance improved and required memory reduced when creating a very large number of pages.
- Improved support for Separation color spaces in addition to those created with setcmykcolor operator.
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July 24 2000
- Duplicate Image XObjects are now detected and only one image embedded in the PDF file.
- Moved the System Fonts button to the font management pane
- Can change things in the Font Management page without being forced to create a new configuration
- INSTALLER: Allowed an upgrade install to use the existing serial number.
- INSTALLER: Allowed an install to add a serial number to an existing installation.
- INSTALLER: Fixed a problem with installation onto French Mac OS 8.1.
- CONTROL PANEL: Corrected a bug when switching the logging action on a read-only configuration.
- CONTROL PANEL: Allowed 'Select All' on the Edit menu to select the items in a list on any of the tabs if it has the input focus.
- TT font substitution. We now cope with a real number as a font name suffix.
- Copes better with MultipleMaster font instances.
- CFF font with T2 charstring that uses endchar in an undocumented manner (as a T1 seac) is now accommodated.
- More font related changes for reencoded fonts (InDesign and Windows 2000 driver output).
- Spacing problem fixed (typically seen in some InDesign jobs).
- Rare glyph mispositioning problem fixed (CFF charstring problem).
- Some jobs that previously failed with a VMerror now work (jobs with thousands of fonts).
- Type3 font glyphs are no longer renamed. Fixes a problem where occasionally some non-existent glyphs were named in a font's Encoding dict's Differences array.
- Fix for text spacing problem where text with wide spacing drawn with show was followed by normally spaced text containing spaces drawn with xshow.
- Fixes for "/PS pdfmark".
- Fix "/PUT pdfmark" for array types.
- Type3 fonts were sometimes being emitted with .notdef charstrings that were in plaintext although their streams were marked with a filter. This could lead Acrobat Reader to crash when printing to a PS printer.
- Type2 font charstring HINTMASK operators that elided VSTEMHM operators weren't being processed correctly leading to corrupt glyphs.
- Image usage within Type3 font glyphs is now recorded so that jobs that used mono or color images only within Type3 glyphs would cause the relevant Resource usage to be flagged in the .pdf file. This problem caused some jobs to fail to print to PostScript printers.
- Image downsampling is inhibited if the resultant image would otherwise have either dimension set to zero. Was causing invalid streams or infinite loops with very small images at low resolutions.
- Coping with CFF charstrings containing stem commands with more than 48 arguments.
- Auto-rotate: changed determination of text orientation to fix some jobs where the y-axis was inverted
- The trailer dict is now written with an /ID entry.
- Fix for uncached forms invoked more than once.
- Construct and emit a Format 2 post table in a TT font if the font doesn't already have one.
- Embedded fonts are now less frequently renamed "Anonymous-...".
- Non-trivial notdef CFF charstrings are now processed (was causing Reader3 a problem).
- Emit strings in <hex> format if that would save space.
- Was sometimes emitting spurious ExtGState objects.
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