BFO PDF Library 2.29 is released 24 Mar 6:00 AM (25 days ago)
The first release for 2025 brings a new Measurement API and changes for PDF/A validators
Digitally signing a PDF with the Cloud Signature Consortium API 23 Sep 2024 2:00 AM (6 months ago)
How to use a new open-source API from BFO to digitally sign using a key hosted remotely managed by a vendor supporting the Cloud Signature Consortium
BFO PDF Library 2.28.5 and Report Generator 1.2.10 18 Apr 2024 7:00 AM (last year)
A release announcement for a new PDF Library and Report Generator, which now supports the jakarta.servlet package.
BFO PDF Library 2.28.4 - with PDF/UA-2 and WTPDF 12 Mar 2024 8:00 AM (last year)
This is the PDF/UA-2 release, and it also adds code for converting PDF to HTML. Read on for details.
BFO PDF Library 2.28.3 is released 7 Dec 2023 7:15 AM (last year)
Release 2.28.3 of our PDF Library adds per-separation rendering for output preview, Factur-X, Document Parts and more.
Print-preview rendering 7 Dec 2023 7:00 AM (last year)
Creating a bitmap image from a PDF is normally done in RGB, but when that PDF contains overprinting or depends on CMYK blending, you need something more. This article tells you how.
BFO Publisher 1.3 released 2 Aug 2023 5:30 AM (last year)
The first update to BFO Publisher for 2023 adds some new features.
BFO PDF Library 2.28.2 is released 24 May 2023 3:00 AM (last year)
Release 2.28.2 of our PDF Library adds a lot of under-the-hood changes to support the upcoming PDF/UA-2 profile.
BFO PDF Library 2.28.1 - we broke timestamping 21 Mar 2023 3:15 AM (2 years ago)
Our last release, only ten days ago, broke applying a timestamp with Digital Signatures. This is a fix.
BFO PDF Library 2.28 - security and signatures 13 Mar 2023 3:15 AM (2 years ago)
A minor security issue has been discovered and fixed in this release, and signatures have had a lot of improvements.
Digitally signing a PDF with the GlobalSign Qualified Signing Service 13 Mar 2023 3:00 AM (2 years ago)
GlobalSign have updated their digital signing service and now offer qualified signatures. We show you how to integrate this with our PDF library.
Odds and Ends: Dates, Timezones and apostrophes 17 Jan 2023 4:30 AM (2 years ago)
An article on the oddities of dates in PDF.
BFO PDF Library 2.27.2 - introducing the Arlington Model 5 Dec 2022 3:00 AM (2 years ago)
A slightly overdue announcement of BFO PDF Library 2.27.2, which introduces the "Arlington Model": a vendor-neutral validation model for PDF.
BFO PDF Library 2.27 - a PDF/A update 6 Sep 2022 7:30 AM (2 years ago)
Details on the latest release of our PDF Library, which has many fixes and improvements for PDF/A
Announcing BFO Publisher 19 Jul 2022 5:30 AM (2 years ago)
Our first completely new product in 20 years, we're finally able to tell you about it
BFO PDF Library 2.26.4 and Report Generator 1.2.6 17 Mar 2022 10:30 AM (3 years ago)
Details on the latest release of our PDF Library, and the Report Generator build with it. This is the "certified with Java 17" release.,
BFO and Log4J 18 Dec 2021 6:50 AM (3 years ago)
Everyone is asking us about Log4J. Here's a quick statement.
BFO PDF Library 2.26.2 and Report Generator 1.2.5 12 Nov 2021 9:30 AM (3 years ago)
Details on the latest release of our PDF Library, and the Report Generator build with it. This is the "certified with Java 17" release.,
PDF/A at scale: analysis of a mass conversion 7 Oct 2021 4:15 AM (3 years ago)
We've been running our PDF/A conversion tools across some large Corpora. Here's what we've learned in the process.
BFO PDF Library 2.26.1 release announcement 30 Sep 2021 10:13 AM (3 years ago)
Coming two months after one of our major releases, the 2.26.1 release has seen a large number of small changes based on testing on tens of thousands of documents. But we think the one you're going to notice is the improvements to logging. Read on for more detail.
Using Webswing to simplify PDF Viewer deployment 28 Sep 2021 12:30 AM (3 years ago)
The advantages of using Webswing to run PDF Viewer via a standard web browser
Converting PDF to PDF/A 4 Aug 2021 8:00 AM (3 years ago)
Converting PDF to PDF/A has always been possible with our API, but we largely left our customers to choose their own approach. Release 2.26 changes that - we now have a very powerful new API for conversion.
BFO PDF Library 2.26 - a significant release 30 Jul 2021 9:00 AM (3 years ago)
Our latest PDF Library release includes a lot of new functionality. Here's a summary, other articles will follow with details.
Signing a PDF with Amazon CloudHSM 16 Jul 2021 12:25 AM (3 years ago)
A quick note on signing PDFs with the Amazon CloudHSM
BFO PDF Library 2.25 - what's new? 26 Feb 2021 6:30 AM (4 years ago)
A quick summary of some of the new features in the PDF library in the latest release.
BFO PDF Library 2.24.4 - what's new? 11 Dec 2020 4:00 AM (4 years ago)
A quick summary of some of the new features in the PDF library in the last six months. Again.
BFO PDF Library 2.24.2 - what's new? 3 Jun 2020 7:00 AM (4 years ago)
A quick summary of some of the new features in the PDF library in the last six months.
BFO Report Generator 1.2 with PDF/UA support 4 Dec 2019 12:45 PM (5 years ago)
Built on our new PDF Library release, the latest Report Generator can easily create valid PDF/UA Documents.
BFO PDF Library 2.24: a PDF/UA deep dive 4 Dec 2019 11:50 AM (5 years ago)
The new release of our PDF Library has completely rewritten support for the Structure Tree, required for PDF/UA. While mainly to support the addition of PDF/UA to the Report Generator, if you're working with Tagged PDF this release has lots for you.
Imperfect PDF Digital Signatures 3 Oct 2019 7:00 AM (5 years ago)
Why policy decisions by Adobe are damaging trust in PDF digital signatures
Perfect PDF Digital Signatures, EU style 22 Sep 2019 10:46 PM (5 years ago)
An updated version of the article we wrote 8 years ago, exploring how to create digital signatures with our API that are automatically approved by Acrobat: this time, with an EU Identity card
BFO releases Java PDF Library 2.23.2 11 Mar 2019 3:03 AM (6 years ago)
Release 2.23.2 adds a fix for a largely theoretical attack on PDF digital signatures, specifically the way they are verified with our API.
BFO PDF Library 2.23 - the Java 11 release 17 Oct 2018 10:30 AM (6 years ago)
Details on the recent 2.23 release of the PDF Library, and on where we are with Java version support
BFO PDF Library 2.22.2 2 Aug 2018 5:00 AM (6 years ago)
This one has been a while cooking, because it includes a JPEG2000 decoder and a rewritten Indic layout engine
JPEG2000, Java and PDF 2 Aug 2018 3:00 AM (6 years ago)
This article shows how to add support for JPEG2000 image decoding to the PDF Library.hi (updated for 2018)
Digitally signing a PDF with the GlobalSign Digital Signing Service 26 Mar 2018 4:00 AM (7 years ago)
GlobalSign have recently launched a digital signing service, and in this article we show you how to integrate this with our PDF library.
How to create very, very large pages in PDF 22 Mar 2018 8:00 AM (7 years ago)
In the unlikely event you wish to make pages larger them 25m², here'a s quick primer on how to do it with the latest release.
BFO releases Java PDF Library 2.22 15 Mar 2018 4:03 AM (7 years ago)
Changes include a reengineered text layout engine, updated internal Unicode model to version 10.0 and OpenType font parser to 1.8. GlobalSignDSS class added to create signatures that work with GlobalSign's digital signing service.
BFO PDF Library 2.21: some new features 14 Dec 2017 3:00 AM (7 years ago)
Some details on our latest PDF Library release
Verify PDFA online 8 Nov 2017 8:00 AM (7 years ago)
We've turned our PDF/A verification code into a public service, which you can use to compare our results to other testers.
BFO releases Java PDF Library 2.20.3 20 Oct 2017 7:00 AM (7 years ago)
Our latest release contains updates, support for non-standard form fields and the usual minor array of bug fixes.
PDF417 Barcodes, or, the nice thing about standards is there are so many to choose from. 25 Sep 2017 7:30 AM (7 years ago)
A mere 11 years after it was introduced, we have finally noticed an incompatible change in the PDF417 barcode specification.
BFO releases Java PDF Library 2.20.2 25 Sep 2017 7:20 AM (7 years ago)
In our latest update we've added several new features and created fixes for some unsual issues.
Creation of PDF/UA and PDF/A-3a documents 19 Apr 2017 2:00 AM (8 years ago)
Our latest 2.20 release of the PDF Library adds full support for the creation of PDF/UA compliant documents, and hopefully this article will shed a little light on what they are.
BFO releases Java PDF Library 2.20 18 Apr 2017 4:20 AM (8 years ago)
Our latest update includes several new features and fixes for some obscure problems.
BFO releases Java PDF Library 2.19 2 Mar 2017 5:20 AM (8 years ago)
Our latest release includes several new features, such as supporting PDF/UA standards.
How to Build an Image Extraction Webapp using Java 2 Dec 2016 6:44 AM (8 years ago)
Our second image extraction article, this time using a java webapp.
Extracting Images from PDF with the BFO PDF Library 24 Nov 2016 6:27 AM (8 years ago)
The first of two articles demonstrating how to extract bitmap images from PDFs using the BFO PDF Library API.
STMicroelectronics & BFO celebrate 10 year Anniversary 8 Nov 2016 2:03 AM (8 years ago)
Europe's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer celebrate tenth anniversary deploying the BFO PDF Library Extended.
BFO releases Java PDF Library 2.18.8 19 Oct 2016 7:18 AM (8 years ago)
Our latest release includes some basic bug fixes.
Merging and Concatenating PDFs 3 Aug 2016 12:50 AM (8 years ago)
A few simple examples for how to merge PDFs with the BFO PDF Library.
Working with LayoutBox 22 Jul 2016 8:40 AM (8 years ago)
How to format text with the LayoutBox class.
BFO Launch New Website! 12 Jul 2016 5:30 AM (8 years ago)
At long last, our new website has been released. Same address but new content coming soon.
Long-Term Validation of Signatures 17 Feb 2016 9:18 AM (9 years ago)
One of the main new features in release 2.18.2 of our PDF Library was support for "Long Term Validation" of signatures. The purpose of these isn't immediately clear - read on for details.
Software developers delighted with "wonderful" PDF Library 16 Nov 2015 6:47 AM (9 years ago)
Swiss software house hails BFO for having the most stable support and cleanest API in the Java PDF market.
PDF Library 2.18 and the OutputProfiler class 28 Sep 2015 6:39 AM (9 years ago)
We detail the major new change in 2.18, the OutputProfiler class
Software house phihochzwei UG use BFO to speed up development 17 Feb 2015 3:00 AM (10 years ago)
German based software developers use BFOs PDF Library, Viewer & Report Generator to satisfy customer requirements.
Text Highlighting with the PDF Viewer 25 Nov 2014 5:07 AM (10 years ago)
Here are a couple of examples of highlighting & redacting text with the BFO PDF Viewer.
New features in the PDF Library 2.16 5 Sep 2014 8:07 AM (10 years ago)
Our major new release has been several months coming - here's why.
Text Extraction Using BFOs PDF Library 8 Jul 2014 6:55 AM (10 years ago)
How to extract text from a PDF using BFO's PDF Library API. We will show you with code examples how it can be done.
BFO PDF Library 2.15 - but what happened to 2.14.1? 13 Dec 2013 3:21 AM (11 years ago)
You released 2.14.1 of your PDF API yesterday, and today there's a 2.15. What are you people playing at? Read on, we'll explain.
Valuation Företagsvärderingar - creating professional PDF reports & graphs with BFO Software 24 Oct 2013 2:05 AM (11 years ago)
Swedish company valuations leader creates valuation reports for clients with the BFO Report Generator and BFO Graph Library.
Archiving PDF Documents with BFO for the Austrian Notaries Chamber 10 Oct 2013 2:56 AM (11 years ago)
Long term PDF/A archiving for the Austrian Notaries Chamber, thanks to cyberDOC and BFO.
Converting PDFs to bitmap PDFs 9 May 2013 6:34 AM (11 years ago)
There are many situations where a PDF has to be "rasterized" - the contents of each page turned into a bitmap image - such as when a PDF is being converted to PDF/A and the page contents cannot be repaired. This article shows how to do it efficiently.
ObjectiveIT Integrates BFOs Report Generator into Insurance Tariff Comparison Software 4 Apr 2013 7:26 AM (12 years ago)
ObjectiveIT develops an insurance tariff comparison solution for their insurance broker clients with the Report Generator.
BFO releases Java PDF Library 2.11.24 22 Mar 2013 2:18 AM (12 years ago)
We've put out our first PDF library in 5 months, and although there are a lot of small changes there are very few headline grabbers. Perhaps the most interesting is the ability to restrict operations in the viewer with permissions - here we go into that framework in a little more detail.
The Firefox pdf.js Viewer 14 Mar 2013 5:00 AM (12 years ago)
We've been getting a few emails asking about the new "pdf.js" viewer in Firefox, and why some of our documents don't render correctly in that viewer. Read on to find out why.
How to print with "Comments Summary" 29 Nov 2012 3:51 AM (12 years ago)
This article shows how you can create a custom viewer feature that duplicates the functionality of Acrobat's "Print with Comments Summary" feature.
New features in PDF Library 2.12 25 Oct 2012 6:12 AM (12 years ago)
Yesterday we released our first PDF Library for a few months, version 2.12, so it's a good to give a bit of a summary of the changes
Client Customizes PDF Viewer Using Source Code 30 Jul 2012 5:35 AM (12 years ago)
Client adopts BFO's customizable Java PDF Viewer for their project.
New features in the PDF Library 2.11.25 16 Jul 2012 5:17 AM (12 years ago)
We've recently released version 2.11.25 - here's a quick summary of some of the features.
Barcode Fields 16 Jul 2012 5:15 AM (12 years ago)
Acrobat added dynamically updated barcode fields in Acrobat 7, but they haven't been documented until now, in the upcoming PDF 2.0 specification. This article shows you how to use them to make data extraction from printed forms a lot easier.
Handwritten Digital Signatures 16 Jul 2012 5:15 AM (12 years ago)
A new feature in 2.11.25 of the PDF Library is the ability to capture handwritten signatures from an iPad, iPhone or Android tablet. Useful? Maybe not, but it is kinda neat as you can see in the video.
Roll your own applet: the definitive guide 18 Jun 2012 7:06 AM (12 years ago)
We've covered them before, but Applets - a technology launched in 1996 with Java 1.0 - just keep changing. What follows is the definitive, step-by-step guide to compiling our viewer as an Applet useful as of mid-2012.
Create PDF Tax Receipts in Real-Time Using BFOs Report Generator 10 Jun 2012 3:41 PM (12 years ago)
Benevity, a micro-donation platform, implements BFOs Java Report Generator to create PDF receipts and invoices on the fly.
Reader Extensions, and why they break 5 Jun 2012 1:39 AM (12 years ago)
Usually on this blog we cover details of things you can do with our PDF API, so it's a bit of a departure to cover something we can't. Read on to learn about Reader Extensions and the limitations they imply.
University Goes Paperless with BFOs Java PDF Library 24 May 2012 4:00 AM (12 years ago)
UK University Integrates BFO's Java PDF Library.
OpenType Layout in PDF 24 Apr 2012 9:13 AM (12 years ago)
How to use the new OpenType layout features in the PDF Library and Report Generator.
Using Java to Print PDF Documents 15 Feb 2012 9:36 AM (13 years ago)
Printing PDFs is easy with the Java PDF API. In this article we go through the Java Print API at a high level, then guide you through the details in case things go wrong.
PDF/A Support for BFOs Report Generator 19 Jan 2012 3:37 PM (13 years ago)
Create PDF/A-1b documents using BFOs Report Generator.
Odds and Ends: avoiding non-heap OutOfMemory 16 Jan 2012 6:34 AM (13 years ago)
When working with Java APIs that use native code you can hit an OutOfMemory in the PermGen space due to weaknesses in Java's garbage collectors. Here's an ugly little hack that might help.
PDF Text Extraction in Java 15 Nov 2011 7:06 PM (13 years ago)
How to extract text from a PDF in Java? Using our API of course!
Extending the PDF Viewer - Part 2 8 Nov 2011 10:10 AM (13 years ago)
In the second part of our "extending the viewer" series, we show you how to go all the way - we create a new "Custom Stamp" feature, then show you how to compile it, bundle it with the Jar than prepare the Jar in the most efficient way for applet delivery.
New features in Report Generator 1.1.51 27 Oct 2011 6:53 AM (13 years ago)
The Report Generator has got a few new tricks in release 1.1.51. Graph Library integration, Flash, PDF sets and Xinclude - read on for a summary and some examples.
PDF/A Standard - Long Term Archiving Solutions 28 Sep 2011 9:36 PM (13 years ago)
PDF/A is the ISO standard for the digital preservation and long term archiving of electronic documents. The ability to search documents, include digitial signatures and reduced file size is resulting in both Governments and corporations adopting the PDF/A standard.
Using Acrobat JavaScript 25 Aug 2011 3:59 AM (13 years ago)
PDF documents can contain JavaScript, which opens up all sorts of possibilities - not all of which are gaping security holes. Here's an article showing how to use it in PDF - both how to embed it from the Report Generator, and how to run it in the Viewer.
Yet another happy BFO PDF Library customer 10 Aug 2011 5:35 AM (13 years ago)
QNT Systemy Informatyczne is a leading manufacturer of software for government organizations in Poland. We develop software for accounting, payroll, human resources and many other fields.
Perfect PDF Digital Signatures 1 Apr 2011 5:47 AM (14 years ago)
Not all digital signatures are created equal. Our PDF Library has been able to digitally sign documents for years, but digitally signing a file with a key that's trusted by Acrobat is a little trickier, and requires hardware. Here, we show you how to do it.
Smaller, Faster, Better - BFO Release New PDF Library 30 Mar 2011 6:50 PM (14 years ago)
The recent PDF Library 2.11.15 has a few highlights, including better support for digital signing from hardware, generation of "Aztec Code" barcodes, basic support for Flash file embedding in PDF, and a large number of bug fixes and improvements. This release offers improvements in memory and speed across the board, with tweaks to the low level data-structures that underly all PDFs. The Jar has shrunk by 10% as well, and our packed PDF Viewer Applet now scrapes in at just under 800KB.
Odds and Ends: Creating a new X.509 Certificate 8 Mar 2011 3:01 AM (14 years ago)
A quick tip completely unrelated to PDF or Graphs: How to create a new self-signed X.509 Certificate with Java.