See also INFO/Changes-ver_2 for changes released for PDF::API2, and
incorporated into PDF::Builder.
See also INFO/Changes_2019 for earlier version 3 release logs.
3.020 2020-11-29
lib/PDF/Builder/Content-Outline-NamedDestination.pm, INFO/DEPRECATED
Rename previously deprecated names "spline" (to "qbspline") and "pdfile"
(to "pdf_file").
examples/042_links
Add some examples showing non-default positioning (fit) on
target PDF's page.
lib/PDF/Builder/Basic/PDF/File.pm
Extend cross-reference stream handling (read-in PDFs) to cover field
widths of 5, 6, or 7 bytes (40-, 48-, or 56-bit integers). Special case
of 8 byte (64-bit integer) where top 32 bits are all 0, is treated as
32-bit integer to avoid requiring a 64-bit Perl build just for unpacking
this field.
lib/PDF/Builder.pm, lib/PDF/Builder/Docs.pm
Per [RT 130722, RT 133131, et al.] get any /Version override (in /Catalog)
and update the read-in PDF version (beyond 1.4, even if the PDF header
still claims 1.4). This minimizes extraneous warnings about having to
bump up the PDF version from what is claimed in the header.
Cross-check parent/kids links, report orphaned objects, report objects
referenced but not defined, report missing Info and Root objects, etc.
The input PDF file or string is not changed, but at least it can give
you an idea of why an error occurs, or the resulting PDF does not work
correctly.
lib/PDF/Builder/Basic/PDF/File.pm, INFO/RoadMap
Per [RT 133131, Vadim Repin's fix], change Quad int unpack code from Q
to Q> to indicate "Big-Endian" byte order (MSB at left) for incoming data
field in a cross-reference stream. Apparently, with just Q, Perl will
assume the doubleword int is native format (for instance, Little-Endian
on an Intel chip).
Note: This is a PDF 1.5+ feature (cross-reference streams) and has
no business being in a PDF 1.4 file (the original bug report).
Also add warning if imported file declared to be PDF 1.4 (or lower), as
cross-reference streams are a PDF 1.5 feature. Earlier fix had added
cross-reference stream support, but it really doesn't belong in PDF 1.4.
lib/PDF/Builder/Outline.pm, lib/PDF/Builder/Basic/PDF/Objind.pm
Per [RT 131657, Vadim Repin's fix] add weaken statements to eliminate
"Deep Recursion" error messages.
lib/PDF/Builder/Matrix.pm
Per latest changes to PDF::API2, some code cleanup in Matrix.pm (no
functional change except for adding some diagnostic carps).
lib/PDF/Builder.pm
Per [PR 139, by ppisar], replace some hard-coded checks for
Graphics::TIFF and Image::PNG::Libpng with calls to LA_GT() and LA_IPL().
docs/buildDoc.pl, lib/PDF/Builder/Basic/PDF.pm, MANIFEST
Add NAVIGATION LINKS section to go Up to parent(s), sideways to
Siblings, and Down to children. This enables you to get from any place
in the docs to any place else without (usually) having to go all the way
back up to index.html. PDF.pm added just for a place to put links (no
code).
lib/PDF/Builder.pm, INFO/RoadMap minor updates
lib/PDF/Builder.pm, README, INFO/LICENSE
Make license-related text more consistent, and attempt to clarify the
relationship between the LGPL 2.1 master license and the various other
licenses that some files are under, as well as the ability to
redistribute under a higher version of LGPL. ref [CTS 35]
Makefile.PL, t/author-critic.t, tools/1_pc.pl
Update to fix some perlcritic warnings, enable author-critic (not useful,
as tools/1_pc.pl does a better job of it). Suggested by 'carygravel',
but [PR 135] rejected, as 1_pc is a superset of author-critic function.
Can't change .perlcriticrc SEVERITY from 5 to 4, as the GitHub Actions
CI testing appears to be using it, leading to a lot of errors.
lib/PDF/Builder/Resource/XObject/Image/TIFF/File_GT.pm, t/tiff.t,
lib/PDF/Builder/Resource/XObject/Image/TIFF_GT.pm, Makefile.PL,
lib/PDF/Builder.pm, lib/PDF/Builder/Resource/XObject/Image/TIFF.pm,
Fix problem with reading colormap from TIFF [GH 133], by 'carygravel'.
Note that this requires upgrade of Graphics::TIFF from 6 to 7.
t/tiff.t upgrade so tests 10 and 11 are no longer always skipped. This
works only on a Linux system (definitely not on Windows), and makes use
of ImageMagick and Linux utilities 'convert' and 'tiffcp'. Graphics::TIFF
is needed for test 10, and test 9 (alpha layer) is still skipped. Thanks
to GitHub user 'carygravel' for the upgrade.
INFO/DEPRECATED add a couple long-deprecated items ("PDFStr" and
"PDFUtf") that were missing from this file.
INFO/RoadMap, lib/PDF/Builder/Docs.pm add discussion on why images
(especially JPEG) are sometimes rotated and/or flipped, and what can be
done about it.
t/fonts-synfont.t, t/fonts-ttf.t fix a couple paths to DejaVu fonts on
certain Linux boxes. From 'gregoa' at Debian Perl Group.
lib/PDF/Builder/Resource/XObject/Image/PNM.pm
Bi-level (1 bit per pixel) PNM/PBM image was not being handled
correctly if the row length (width) was not a multiple of 8. Not enough
data was copied over to the PDF. Continuation of [RT 132844].
Almost complete rewrite of PNM.pm to properly support all combinations
of comments in the header, and support "plain" (ASCII) image files
(P1..P3) and 16 bit samples for grayscale and RGB. Not yet supporting
multiple images per file, as I don't have any firm definition!
lib/PDF/Builder/Resource/XObject/Image/PNG_IPL.pm
Make use of the new 'split_alpha' call in new release 0.47 of
Image::PNG::Libpng (this version specified as minimum, for optional
library installation). This brings the speed for RGB and Gray scale
with Alpha channels up to reasonable levels, as the 'vec' call is no
longer called (4 or 8 times per pixel). Note that in contrast to
PDF::API2, both 8 and 16bps samples are supported, and Gray scale is
supported, at high speed; not just 8bps RGBA.
lib/PDF/Builder/Docs.pm, Makefile.PL, README, t/00-all-usable.t
PDF::Builder will (again) attempt to install or upgrade OPTIONAL
libraries (see README). Includes a warning in Makefile.PL not to be
unduly alarmed if an optional install should fail. The user is given
a choice of selecting none/all/specific optional libraries when
running Makefile.PL (default "all").
README add instructions for installing on pre-5.020 Perls, which may be
adaptable to other OS's and Perls. Note that there's no guarantee that
PDF::Builder will actually RUN on older Perls! (But you're welcome to
try.)
lib/PDF/Builder/Docs-Content.pm, lib/PDF/Builder/Content/Text.pm
Fix spelling errors/typos, per report by 'carygravel'.
lib/PDF/Builder/Resource/PaperSizes.pm
Fix a couple missized entries (B7 and jr-Legal), added a bunch more
sizes (mostly archaic American and British sizes): dbill, statement
(= student), half-letter (= student), old-paper, b-plus
(B+/Super-B/A3+/super-A3), arch-a, arch-b, arch-c, arch-d, arch-e,
arch-e1, pott, post, large-post, crown, large-crown, demy, small-demy,
medium, royal, small-royal, super-royal, imperial, a7, a8, a9, a10.
Note that some "standard" sizes, such as broadsheet and foolscap, seem
to have a different size specification depending on where you look. You
should check that the size used matches your actual paper supply, and to
either update PaperSizes.pm to match, or specify the MediaBox in points
instead of by name. This is probably a good idea with any unusual,
large, archaic, or special-order paper... you want to check what its
actual size is before going through a lot of expensive failed printing!
examples/HarfBuzz.pl, examples/resources/HarfBuzz_example.pdf
In the updated 3.019 example, note that the entire AdobeMingStd-Light.otf
font (ttfont call) appears to be embedded, rather than just the subset.
This resulted in 3.019 being about 8MB larger than 3.018's version! It may
be related to bug [RT 130041]. Use caution when embedding CJK fonts, even
when not using the cjkfont call, as at least some apparently don't subset.
I replaced the font with AdobeGothicStd-Light.otf, which appears to embed
just a subset of the font, greatly reducing the size of the PDF file.
3.019 2020-07-27
lib/PDF/Builder/Content/Text.pm Per [CTS 31], expand documentation of
textlabel() call to emphasize that it is a standalone call, and doesn't
play nicely with other text-output calls (such as not leaving a current
position for the next write). It is intended for one-off labels, etc.
lib/PDF/Builder/Content.pm, examples/HarfBuzz.pl,
examples/resources/HarfBuzz_example.pdf
Support TTB (top to bottom) and BTT (bottom to top) vertical text in
textHS(), now that HarfBuzz::Shaper supports these modes. Requires
HarfBuzz::Shaper 0.23 or higher for TTB and BTT support, 0.21 for just
LTR and RTL support. The "example" PDF is provided in case you don't
yet have HarfBuzz::Shaper installed, and want to see what it does. TTB is
recommended for both normally RTL (bidirectional) and LTR languages.
Vertical writing is most often used with East Asian languages.
.perl-version, Makefile.PL, README
New minimum Perl version 5.20, which is already 6 years old, so we don't
waste a lot of time chasing down bugs due to ancient Perl versions.
PDF::Builder will likely work with older Perl versions, but your installer
(e.g., cpan or cpanm) might refuse to install it.
examples/042_links, examples/README, examples/examples_output,
tools/3_examples.pl, lib/PDF/Builder/Annotation.pm, MANIFEST
Per [CTS 29], improved documentation of annotation-based links: PDF links
and targets.
lib/PDF/Builder/Content.pm, lib/PDF/Builder/Resource/XObject/Image/PNM.pm
image() and form_image() calls default x,y to 0,0, so can call without
lower left corner x,y. PNM processing [RT 132844] fix routine forgetting
where it is in the PNM file and failing to read part of it. Note that
132844 is still open, as PNM handling has not yet been thoroughly checked.
lib/PDF/Builder/Resource/XObject/Image/PNG-PNG_IPL.pm ref PR #25 for
PDF::API2. Some have reported that apparently there can be some cases
where the deletion of some streams may cause errors in the vec() calls.
This may be dependent on the Perl version, use of nonstandard flags
(such as -e), or other unusual usage.
lib/PDF/Builder/Resource/Font/CoreFont/courier-courierbold-courieroblique-
courierboldoblique-helvetica-helveticabold-helveticaoblique-
helveticaboldoblique-timesroman-timesbold-timesitalic-timesbolditalic-
symbol-zapfdingbats.pm, t/text.t
In 3.018, the Core Font metrics (in particular, the 'wx' character widths)
were changed to use the values in the TTF files actually used (at least,
on Windows systems). Per [CTS 27] et al., I received complaints about
3.018 not using the exact Adobe font metrics for Core Fonts as before. I
have gone back to using the canonical Adobe metrics, even though (for
core fonts) this is likely to result in a small mismatch between the
indicated glyph width and the actual glyph displayed. In most cases it's
just one glyph grid unit wider (e.g., 667 instead of 666), which should
have no visible effect in any real document. However, there were a
handful of (rather esoteric) glyphs where the difference was
considerable. I compared the claimed widths for both Adobe metrics and
the TTF metrics, and picked one or the other, or even devised a new
width. These are documented in the .pm files under 'wx' (widths).
Note that these are only the base 14 core fonts. The 15 Windows fonts
were not changed, as there is no Adobe AFM standard for them.
INFO/CONVERSION, MANIFEST, README add conversion info for going from
PDF::API2 to PDF::Builder.
INFO/RoadMap minor updates
3.018 2020-04-24
lib/PDF/Builder/Content.pm-Page.pm
[RT 132403] clarify documentation on the two different rotate() methods.
lib/PDF/Builder/Content/Hyphenate_basic.pm, lib/PDF/Builder/Content.pm-
Docs.pm, lib/PDF/Builder/Resource/BaseFont.pm, examples/HarfBuzz.pl,
examples/resources/HarfBuzz_example.pdf, examples/examples.output,
examples/README, tools/3_examples.pl, INFO/old/examples.bat,
Makefile.PL, README, MANIFEST
Implement support for use of HarfBuzz::Shaper (to shape chunks of text).
[RT 113700] This is an optional installation (manually done).
examples/HarfBuzz.pl will not run if you do not have HarfBuzz::Shaper
installed. HarfBuzz_example.pdf is provided in examples/resources/ in
case you can't (yet) run HarfBuzz.pl. It demonstrates the use of
HarfBuzz::Shaper for a variety of Western (ligatures and kerning),
Middle Eastern (script and RTL), and South and Southeast Asian scripts.
lib/PDF/Builder/Content.pm Add 'none' option to text underline and
strikethrough options. This was added to permit the option (underline or
strikethrough) to be given in the code, but allow a 'none' value in
those cases where drawing an underline or strikethrough is not desired.
This is still the default.
examples/021_synfonts, examples/examples.output, examples/README
The synthetic font example only showed for regular BankGothic font.
Added bold, bold-italic, and italic cases. Note that there is something
a bit odd about Bank Gothic -- it looks like it may only have regular
weight (no bold) and the italic is questionable.
tools/TTFdump.pl, MANIFEST, lib/PDF/Builder/Resource/Font/CoreFont.pm,
lib/PDF/Builder/Resource/BaseFont.pm, examples/022_truefonts,
lib/PDF/Builder/Resource/Font/CoreFont/courier*.pm-
helvetica*.pm-times*.pm-georgia*.pm-trebuchet*.pm-verdana*.pm
Add full set of glyph widths to core font metrics files [RT 57248].
This is intended to allow correct rendering of non-Latin-1 single
byte fonts, by expanding the width listing beyond Latin-1. A utility
is provided to read a TTF/OTF font and return glyph lists in a format
that can be dropped into a [typeface].pm file. Only glyph widths table
was changed (no other metrics). Arial was used for Helvetica metrics,
BankGothic could not be found (not sure what's being substituted for
it), and various symbology fonts were not changed. Courier "missing
width" updated to reflect the character used to indicate a missing glyph.
INFO/RoadMap Update some items. Mention other packages PDF::Table,
Text::Layout, and HarfBuzz::Shaper that may be useful.
lib/PDF/Builder/Resource/CIDFont.pm For TTF (ttfont) fix improper
ToUnicode cmap so that a PDF may be searched (was broken in 3.016).
lib/PDF/Builder/Content.pm Add example of using add() function to
cancel Chrome browser scaling and Y-axis flip before new content is
added to an existing PDF.
lib/PDF/Builder/Content.pm, lib/PDF/Builder/Content/Text.pm
Remind users not to use charspace() when working with a connected (script)
font such as Arabic, Devanagari, cursive handwriting, etc. Add -nocs
option to text line fill (justified) routines to not use any charspace()
values when expanding or shrinking text content to fit.
lib/PDF/Builder/Basic/PDF/File.pm. The earlier fix for corrupted xref table
only ran under diagnostics. Now only the warning message is under the
diagnostics flag (-diags), and the fixup attempt is always run.
INFO/Changes_2019, Changes, MANIFEST, lib/PDF/Builder.pm, README,
Makefile.PL, INFO/KNOWN_INCOMP
3.017 build/release, 2020 copyright, archive 2019 changes.
(see INFO/Changes_2019 for earlier changes)
(see INFO/Changes-ver_2 for changes to PDF::API2 up through 2.033)