News

Check out the latest information on RenderX — major product releases, trade show announcements, our own press releases and external articles featuring our products.

RenderX has released XEP 4.31. This major release brings new features, extensions, improvements, and bug fixes:

• New features:
• Support of upper Unicode planes (characters beyond the BMP).
• Barcodes: rx:barcode can now contain page numbers (#page-number).
• XEPOUT images are now natively included in output stream.
• Improvements:
• Eliminate a possible security vulnerability by removing a dependency on an outdated library, James Clark's XT (xt.jar). This library was used for XSL-FO validation and SVG preprocessing. Default XSL Transformation engine (Saxon, unless overridden) is used for these purposes.
• Accessibility Improvements:
• New extension to XSL-FO: Custom Reading Order in Tagged PDF (Section 508): @rx:read-before, @rx:read-after.
• Role mapping of elements that have no text children are now possible.
• Static region content is not read out loud when it should be ignored.
• Fixed incorrect TH tag table header rows/cells.
• Fixed @rx:alt-description, @rx:actual-text, and @rx:abbreviation attributes were broken in some conditions.
• Fixed Document's ID creation when both encryption and linearization are enabled. Previously this caused Document Security failure.
• Fixed Acrobat's Accessibility check fails on PDF documents with links in static regions.
• Private tag is removed, using Artifact tag instead.
• null values for structure types in rolemap are now replaced with Artifact.
• Newly added FO elements from rolemap now can be included into the tagged structure.
• Artifacts are no longer added to to ParentTree.
• Replaced ParentTree key's structure.
• Fixed missing /RoleMap in output PDF. In some cases /RoleMap was mistakenly omitted in the output PDF.
• Fixed incorrect rendering of fo:external-graphic with no bounding box in some cases.
• Bug fixes:
• Kerning data in TTF/OTF fonts were parsed incorrectly.
• Fixed incorrect text extraction from PDF when TrueType / OpenType is not embedded due to broken /ToUnicode CMap.
• Fixed silently ignoring a stylesheet specified via xml-stylesheet PI in case of an invalid URL.
• Fixed broken content-type="auto" in XEPOUT images.
• Fixed incorrect calculating of spacing between the words using certain fonts and upper Unicode characters (found in the Unicode Symbols font).
• Fixed incorrect processing of SVG/path/T instruction.
• Inserting an invalid PDF as an image no longer leads to generation of an invalid PDF.
• Inserting a PDF with an invalid FlateDecoded page stream no longer leads to the "Unexpected end of Zlib input stream" error. Now XEP tries to read any streams that decode well, evading exception. This still may trigger errors while opening final documents with Acrobat Reader.
• Fixed a block-container that is split between the pages causes rendering problems with the following float block.
• Fixed a block with background causes color overlapping on a (preceding in XSL-FO) side float.
• Fixed broken line endings in distributed Linux shell scripts.
• Shell script files (Windows, Linux) refactored.
• Fixed the "Cannot find trial license" error in the installer of the trial version.
• Minor performance improvements.

This cumulative release is the last planned release in the XEP line of XSL-FO formatters. Customers that have a valid extended support and maintenance agreements are recommended to upgrade to this latest version. Active development except for critical security bug fixes is now stopped in the XEP line. IREn-based line of products is planned fully backward-compatible replacement, which will be released soon.

We at RenderX are committed to ensuring the security and integrity of our products. Recently, a severe security breach, CVE-2024-3094, involving xz-utils / liblzma5 library has been discovered, which could possibly affect OpenSSH on Fedora, Debian, and Ubuntu as well.

This breach primarily affects machines using systemd on publicly accessible ssh ports or those with glibc and xz-5.6.0 or xz-5.6.1.

It is likely this does not impact XEP or InGrid, our Java-based software products.

For any questions or concerns regarding security, please feel free to contact our support team.

RenderX is pleased to inform you about a new product’s availability: InGrid 1.0 is now released. InGrid is RenderX's second-generation formatting load balancer.

InGrid is a direct replacement of EnMasse. It is completely backward compatible with EnMasse, i.e. it accepts the same configuration files and supports the same working modes while providing significantly better performance. Additionally, InGrid provides with REST API.

The interfaces are:

• Active folder (Actinia)
• Network server (Toaster)
• SOAP and REST (Fairy)

Additional proxying interface Fork allows starting multiple interfaces simultaneously. It is especially useful for running multiple InGrid interfaces at the same time as Windows service.

InGrid is written purely in Java.

Customers who have valid extended support and maintenance agreements are advised to migrate to InGrid. RenderX does not plan to release any new versions of EnMasse.

InGrid 1.0 trial is available for download here.

RenderX has released EnMasse 3.4. This release comes with platform-independent and Windows specific distributions. The full list of improvements is:

• Security fixes:
• Removed support of legacy SSL block ciphers having block size of 64 bits (DES/3DES).
• Fixed potential XSS vulnerabilities (which may be reported by network security checking tools).
• Improved logic and wording of log messages.
• Bugfix:
• Minor bug fixes related to improper service stopping.

None of our software products nor our environment uses Log4j. We are aware of the CVE-2021-44228 Apache Log4j Remote Code Execution Vulnerability. We constantly monitor the situation with newly discovered vulnerabilities in the Java world.

We always encourage our customers to have a valid extended support contract. Please always update to the latest version of our software products, as support includes product updates.

RenderX has released EnMasse 3.3. This release comes with platform-independent and Windows specific distributions. The full list of improvements is:

• Status server requests now support HTTP/1.1 protocol.
• Some performance improvements.
• Bugfix:
• Fixed a misleading Fairy log message that arose in case if received a bogus connection from a non-Fairy application (e.g. network watchdog/antivirus, or simply a Web browser).

RenderX has released XEP 4.30. This major release brings new attributes, extensions, and improvements:

• New RenderX extension:
• rx:border-radius extension attribute for creating rounded corners on block areas and PDF Forms Fields.
• New PDF Forms attributes:
• text-align attribute for specifying alignment of the content value of Text fields.
• deselectable attribute to allow a Radio Button group to have a default, unchosen value.
• PDF Forms: Improved the visual presentation of Circle Radio Buttons fields that have black circle ● (● | \u25CF) as a checkmark.
• Bug fixes:
• PDF Forms: Minor improvements with positioning of elements.

RenderX has released XEP 4.29. This major release brings new extensions and improvements:

• New RenderX extension:
• rx:barcode extension to specify barcodes (uses ZXing library).
• Bug fixes:
• PDF Form Fields: Improved behavior of Text Fields having mandatory attribute and omitted default value.
• Font subsetting: Fixed choosing non-English name in case if several are set in the original font.
• SVG: Fixed an NPE when processing gradient on the tspan element.

The XEPWin installer no longer includes JRE.

RenderX has released XEP 4.28. This major release brings new features and improvements:

• Improvements in Section 508 accessibility:
• Added tagging (alt-description attribute) for PDF Form Fields.
• PDF Form Fields: Added new field type: Digital Signature.
• Improved Checkmark Position for Checkbox and Radio PDF Form Fields.
• Added the Adobe-style Cross Checkmark for Checkbox PDF Form Fields (see documentation for details).
• Added XMP Metadata injection.
• Bug fixes:
• New log warning: Tab Order field is a feature of PDF Version 1.5+; If the output document is generated for PDF 1.4, Acrobat 7 and 8 would report "page(s) with tab order that may be inconsistent with the structure order"; added a runtime warning about use it against PDF 1.4;
• Fixed a problem when the continued table headers and table footers in case of static-content were not marked as Pagination artifacts.
• Fixed wrong PDF tag order (TBody before THead) caused by background image in certain cases.
• Cliser HttpControl: fixed a potential vulnerability to Cross-Site Scripting (XSS 404).
• AFP backend: Fixed broken output stream caused by not 8 bytes long codepage name specifying in config.
• Fixed a bug that prevented embedded JavaScript from working in PDF.

RenderX has released EnMasse 3.2. This release comes with platform-independent and Windows specific distributions. The release features a multi-service mode, improved performance and security, and simplified config format. The full list of improvements is:

• Added multi-service mode - Fork. See EnMasse User Guide for details on using it.
• Increase in formatting speed: Test results showed up to 53% in certain configurations.
• Improved Cliser logs.
• Major refactoring and improvement of the Sample Client: It can be used for performance testing now.
• Simplified config format: Triple quoting is no longer necessary.
• Bugfixes: Fixed WinMasse service stop command on Windows systems.
• Actinia hanging when active folder becomes unreachable.
• Fixed Cliser HTTP control potential vulnerability.

RenderX has released XEP 4.27. This major release brings new features and improvements:

• New way of specifying the Date fields in PDF Forms allows for format validation and dropdown calendar.
• Improved kerning for OTF (OpenType) fonts. Both KERN and GPOS tables are supported.
• PDF embedded attachments improved:
• Embedding PDF attachments in PDF/A-3 implemented.
• Added rx:insert-document-position option to specify place of insertion, such as before or after page-sequence.
• Extended set of PDF Document Security Permissions implemented.
• Bug fixes:
• Wrong position of background image in embedded PDF when xep-pdf-page-scaling is used
• Regression with PDF Document Security
• Regression with broken footnotes in certain cases
• NPE on table with changebar outside of table-cell and with footnote with list-block
• Incorrect wrapping of fo:float

RenderX has released XEP 4.26. This major release brings new features and improvements:

• PDF/UA compliance (specification):
• Linear objects (lines, borders, rectangles etc.) are now marked as Layout artifacts.
• The content of region-before/region-after are now marked as Pagination artifacts (of Header/Footer subtype). Fixed the read-out-loud of partial sentences in a paragraph.
• Fixed null pointer exception on tagged documents, which happens when the same rx:pdf-structure-tag appears on two or more different pages.
• Section 508 Tagged PDF improvements:
• Added Colspan and Rowspan to the list of 508 attributes.
• Added the information about Section 508 tagged PDF to XEP User Guide.
• Fixed the order of the Link's children structure tags.
• Cliser:
• Added option to disable HTTPControl port.
• PDF linearization improvements and fixes:
• Improved compatibility of linearization info with new versions of Adobe Acrobat Preflight.
• Fixed HintTable and EOL marker in linearization mode.
• Bug fixes:
• SVG image caching that led to wrong images added to the output
• Page breaking on page-wide footnotes with id in a multicolumn content
• Overflow in tables with block with id
• Exception while reading CMap of Apple fonts
• PDF forms
• Printable combobox
• Printing of the borders of the comb boxes
• Broken multi-line textboxes
• Empty string causing multiline PDF form lose text traits
• NPE in "Read Out Loud"
• NPE on some tables with changebars
• Behavior with near zero RGBA color