Bruno Lowagie's Online Gazette

Hello,

You've sent the following message to my users.sourceforge.net address: I am interested in the project. I am new to programming and [Java | C#]. Could you pls add me in project [iText|iTextSharp].

My answer is: No, project members on SourceForge are experienced people who have earned the right to be a project member by contributing a significant amount of source code. They have also signed a Contributor License Agreement.

Today somebody brougth Jee's blog to my attention.
This blog contains two posts about using iText:

I've updated the iText whiteboard with the plans for further development:

Our development team is currently working on XML Worker, but we have plans for better support for Digital Signatures in August.
My work in the next few days, is to write slides for the iText course I'm teaching next Friday. It will be the first time I teach an iText class since the second edition of "iText in Action" was published. I really need new slides...

It's a fact: ebooks are getting more popular than printed books. It was in the news yesterday, and my publisher, Manning Publications, immediately responded to this news in his Weekly Special:

Why we still love paper
Nothing beats the tactile pleasure of a printed book. At Manning we call them pBooks, and we like to think they will be with you for years of use, making a satisfying thud when you place them on your desk. Better still, when you buy a Manning pBook, you also get the PDF eBook instantly at no additional cost—as well as the epub and mobi mobile formats when they're available.

It was more work than expected, but we've finally released iText 5.1.0.
The core iText^® library
The first change that jumps to the eye, is that we no longer release "just the jar". You can now download a zip file containing several jars at SourceForge.

In my blog post the future of iText^®, I already gave a preview of upcoming development. In the meantime, we've started selling licenses for an "iText light for Android". That's a trimmed down version of the iText jar that can be used on Android smart phones and Tablet PCs. We've also implemented Adobe's Geospatial dictionaries (and we still need people to test it).

But our first master project was a complete rewrite of the HTMLWorker functionality. A while ago, we published an Invoice Demo, today, we're proud to announce our XMLWorker demo:

When my first book was published, I enjoyed searching for "iText in Action" and I blogged about every site where it was mentioned. Now that there's a second edition, I no longer have time to do so. Fortunately, the marketing department at Manning allows sites to use excerpts from the book for blog —and other— posts, giving away a promotion code for a 40% deduction. And when they do so, they tweet about it:

Two weeks are gone since the last top 5. What's new in this week's top 5?

1. Why doesn't my mail appear on the mailing list?

A question that is often sent to a private e-mail address, e.g. a users.sourceforge.net mail address.
The standard answer: please read The Rules.

2. Does iText have ligature implementation for Indian languages such as Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi, etc?

Two weeks are gone since the last top 5. What's new in this week's top 5:

1. Please delete my mail from the archives

In the last couple of weeks, several people have asked us to remove a mail from the list archives. See also Mailing list archive issues.

People who own the iText® book, or who follow the iText mailing list, know that all the examples from the book are available online. Part of these examples are small online demos, such as the text to PDF demo.
These small examples show what is possible with iText, but they don't reveal the real power of the library. That's why we've now published a more elaborate demo: create your own invoice!