Datalogics Offers Stronger Support for PAdES Digital Signatures with New Release

The latest release of Adobe PDF Library (APDFL) v18.0.5PlusP2a, available as of March 13, 2026, introduces important enhancements for developers focused on secure, standards-compliant document workflows, along with key updates to dependencies and packages.

Stronger Support for PAdES Signatures

The headline feature in this release is the addition of API updates that enable the creation of ETSI PAdES-EPES (Explicit Policy-based Electronic Signatures).

In simpler terms, developers can now:

• Define a signature policy when signing a PDF
• Attach policy identifiers and related metadata directly to the signature
• Ensure compliance with ETSI PAdES standards for advanced electronic signatures

This is especially valuable for organizations operating in regulated industries or across the EU, where policy-based signatures are often required for legal and compliance reasons. It gives teams more control and transparency over how signatures are created and validated.

Platform Availability

It’s worth noting that ETSI PAdES signature support is not available on:

• Linux 32-bit
• AIX 64-bit

For most modern environments, this limitation won’t have a significant impact, but teams working in legacy systems should plan accordingly.

Dependency and Security Updates

This release also includes several updates aimed at improving security and reliability:

• libpng updated to 1.6.55 to address known vulnerabilities
• libcurl updated to 1.18.0 for CVE mitigation
• Foxit Conversion SDK updated to 3.0 for improved Office document conversion

Keeping these underlying libraries current helps reduce exposure to security risks and ensures smoother performance across document workflows.

Package Version Updates

To align with these changes, several package versions have been incremented:

• Maven package: now version 18.59.0
• NuGet package: now version 18.59.0
• APDFL.SharedLibs NuGet package: updated to version 1.0.7

Visit the Datalogics Dev Site to read the full release notes.