v0.3.0 | Unified API, PDF Creation & Editing

v0.3.0 Release

This release introduces the Unified Pdf API - one seamless interface for extracting, creating, and editing PDFs. Plus comprehensive PDF creation capabilities with tables, graphics, forms, and security.

🎯 Unified Pdf API (Extract + Create + Edit)

• Single API for all operations
  • Pdf::open("input.pdf") - Open existing PDF for reading and editing
  • Pdf::from_markdown(content) - Create new PDF from Markdown
  • Pdf::from_html(content) - Create new PDF from HTML
  • Pdf::from_text(content) - Create new PDF from plain text
  • Pdf::from_image(path) - Create PDF from image file
• DOM-like page navigation - pdf.page(0) for querying and modifying content
• Fluent builder pattern - PdfBuilder for advanced configuration
• Seamless save - pdf.save("output.pdf") or pdf.save_encrypted()

📄 PDF Creation

• DocumentBuilder API - Fluent PDF generation
  • Page sizing (Letter, A4, custom dimensions)
  • Text rendering with Base14 fonts and styling
  • Image embedding (JPEG/PNG) with positioning
• Table Rendering - TableRenderer for styled tables
  • Headers, borders, cell spans, alternating row colors
  • Column width control (fixed, percentage, auto)
  • Cell alignment and padding
• Graphics API - Advanced visual effects
  • RGB, CMYK, grayscale colors
  • Linear and radial gradients
  • Tiling patterns with presets
  • Blend modes and transparency (ExtGState)
• Page Templates - Reusable page elements
  • Headers and footers with placeholders
  • Page numbering formats
  • Text-based watermarks
• Barcode Generation (requires barcodes feature)
  • QR codes with configurable size and error correction
  • Code128, EAN-13, UPC-A, Code39, ITF barcodes

✏️ PDF Editing

• Editor API - DOM-like editing with round-trip preservation
  • Content addition without breaking existing structure
  • Resource management for fonts and images
• Annotation Support - Full read/write for all types
  • Text markup: highlights, underlines, strikeouts, squiggly
  • Notes: sticky notes, comments, popups
  • Shapes: rectangles, circles, lines, polygons, polylines
  • Drawing: ink/freehand annotations
  • Stamps: standard and custom stamps
  • Special: file attachments, redactions, carets
• Form Fields - Interactive form creation
  • Text fields (single/multiline, password, comb)
  • Checkboxes, radio button groups
  • Dropdown and list boxes
  • Push buttons with actions
  • Form flattening
• Link Annotations - Navigation support (external URLs, internal pages)
• Outline Builder - Bookmark/TOC creation (hierarchical, styled)
• PDF Layers - Optional Content Groups (OCG) management

🔒 Security & Compliance

• Encryption on Write
  • AES-256 (V=5, R=6) - Modern 256-bit encryption
  • AES-128 (V=4, R=4) - Modern 128-bit encryption
  • RC4 variants for legacy support
  • Granular permission controls (print, copy, modify, annotate)
• Digital Signatures (foundation, requires signatures feature)
  • ByteRange calculation for signature placeholders
  • PKCS#7/CMS signature structure support
  • X.509 certificate parsing
• PDF/A Validation - ISO 19005 compliance (A-1, A-2, A-3)
• PDF/X Validation - ISO 15930 print production compliance
• PDF/UA Validation - ISO 14289 accessibility compliance

📚 Document Features

• Page Labels - Custom page numbering (Roman, letters, prefixes)
• XMP Metadata - Dublin Core properties, custom namespaces
• Embedded Files - File attachments with MIME types
• Linearization - Web-optimized PDFs for streaming
• Text Search - Regex patterns with position tracking
• Page Rendering (requires rendering feature) - Render to PNG/JPEG
• Office Conversion (requires office feature)
  • DOCX, XLSX, PPTX to PDF conversion
  • Auto-detection and OfficeConfig customization

🐛 Bug Fixes

• Outline action handling - Correctly dereference actions indirectly referenced by outline items (PR #16 by @jvantuyl)

🏆 Community Contributors

🥇 @jvantuyl - PR #16 fixing outline action dereferencing! Uncovered a subtle PDF spec detail (Section 9.4.1) - some PDFs embed actions directly while others use indirect references. Your comprehensive tests ensure this won't regress. 🔍✨

🙏 @mert-kurttutan - Thanks for honest feedback on README clutter (Issue #15). Your perspective as a new user helped us realize we were overwhelming people. The resulting documentation cleanup makes PDFOxide more approachable. 📚

✅ Verification

• All library and integration tests pass
• Format checks and clippy pass
• Security audits pass
• Tested on Ubuntu, macOS, Windows

📥 Installation

Rust (crates.io)

cargo add pdf_oxide

Python (PyPI)

pip install pdf_oxide

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Release Date: January 10, 2026
Branch: main
Tag: v0.3.0
Closes: #15, #16