Introducing a New UI for iOS in PDFTron 8.0
By James Borthwick | 2020 Sep 24
Today we are excited to announce version 8.0 of the PDFTron iOS SDK.
With this version we are introducing an all-new UI, built-in PDF rubber stamps and other enhancements.
New Annotation UI
The new UI was designed for improved annotating and viewing, as well as straightforward programmatic customization. It is currently in beta, and can be opted into very easily, often requiring changing only a few lines of code (see our migration guide). You can give it a try using the sample app CompleteReader that is included with the .dmg download, or by downloading our showcase app Xodo from the AppStore.
The new UI features:
- Multiple annotation toolbars, with tools logically grouped, so that tools are easy to find. (It is also easy to programmatically add or remove new toolbars.)
- Annotation toolbars that scroll horizontally, so that more tools can fit than there is space.
- The ability for the user to re-order the tools in a toolbar according to their personal preferences.
- The ability for the user to create a new toolbar with their favorite tools.
- Annotation presets, that allow the user to toggle between property sets quickly for each tool type (for example, it is a single tap to switch between a yellow and green highlighter).
- On iPhone, all viewing-related buttons are located on the bottom bar for easy one-handed viewing.
The new UI is currently in beta and must be opted into (by instantiating a PTDocumentController rather than a PTDocumentViewController). We are hoping for your feedback on the new UI, please don't hesitate to let us know what you think.
Rubber Stamps
8.0 introduces a UI to create PDF rubber stamps, such as Draft, Approved, Sign Here, etc:
And More...
- The ability to edit actual PDF text. This feature can be seen in the Complete Reader sample app by selecting text and choosing "Edit". This feature is in beta and will be improved in future versions. It can be toggled on/off with
textEditingEnabled. - A magnifying glass (loupe) is now shown when creating measurement annotations to aid in the precise positioning of these elements.
- XLS files are now converted using a PDFTron-developed XLS to PDF converter rather than a WKWebView. PDFTron now handles all six primary Office formats (.doc/x, .ppt/x and .xls/x) using our own converter. As always, this functionality is all handled on-device (no server infrastructure or upload/download required).
For a complete list of changes in this release, please see the full PDFTron 8.0.0 for iOS changelog.
We hope you like these changes and any feedback is greatly appreciated. Please don't hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or suggestions for future updates. As always, we have some great new features coming soon so please stay tuned!
James Borthwick
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