Please download the latest version to take advantage of the new features, many other minor improvements and bug fixes.

This page lists what has changed across the Version 3 releases, with the newest release at the top.

What’s new in version 3.1?

Highlights: the Automatic Page Filler, a new Publications tab, a Printers tab for comparing print costs, a Cover Wizard, a faster Layout Only mode, and many improvements for diglots and polyglots.

Significant new features:

  • Automatic Page Filler (experimental)
    • Fills the pages of a whole book for you. It shrinks or expands individual paragraphs to remove underfilled pages and short last lines, so you don’t have to adjust paragraphs by hand.
    • Start it from the PDF Viewer. Several books can be filled at the same time, with a progress display for each book. Books that are finished show in green, and a Color Key button explains the other status colours.
    • The settings on the Advanced tab are now grouped into Speed and Quality settings with clearer tooltips.
  • New Publications tab
    • Define several publications from one configuration, for example a New Testament, a Gospel of Luke, and a Psalms booklet. Each publication has its own books, titles and other variables.
    • Tick the publications you want and click Print Selected to produce them all in one go. PTXprint opens the output folder when it has finished.
    • Multiple publications can also be printed from the command line with --pub (or -B).

  • Printers tab: compare printing costs
    • Describe your print job once and compare estimated prices from several print-on-demand printers, including Pretore and a few sample PoD providers.
    • A graph shows the cost comparison at a glance, and prices from different printers are converted to the same currency.

  • Cover Wizard (work in progress)
    • The Cover tab has been replaced by a Cover Wizard, which you open from the top of the Peripherals tab.
    • It supports background images (which can be cropped and positioned), colours, borders, rotated spine text, and the hinge allowance for hardback covers.
    • Covers without a spine (e.g. saddle-stitched booklets) no longer get spine crop marks or bleed.

  • Layout Only mode: much quicker re-runs
    • When only the layout is being changed, PTXprint can skip re-processing the USFM text on every run, which makes adjusting pages much quicker.
    • The above Layout Only setting turns itself off temporarily when it needs to: when you edit a setting which affects layout, or change the books being typeset or the chapter range.
    • New shortcuts: Shift/Ctrl+Left-click and Shift/Ctrl+Right-click on a paragraph in the PDF Viewer apply adjustments to the paragraph, so you can make several adjustments quickly.
    • The Make Diff checkbox has moved to the Finishing tab to make room for this option, and is now labeled as “Compare PDFs”.
  • Diglot and polyglot improvements
    • Study notes now work in diglots, with better space calculation. Separate and combined note styles can be mixed.
    • Text borders can surround just selected columns, for example only the Greek text in an English–Greek diglot. They can also surround just the verse text when a book has an introduction.
    • A new Diglot Front Matter template.
    • Pictures can come from more than one project. The PDF Viewer can switch between polyglot views, and diglot settings are now saved in the PDF.
    • Diglot is safer to switch on and off. PTXprint explains what enabling a diglot involves and shows the project selector for the secondary project. When you disable a diglot, it offers to Save as Monoglot….
    • Many fixes to line spacing, note positions, page-full calculations and merging.

  • Pictures
    • The Picture Catalogue is more responsive and easier to work with, and the ImageSet downloader has been improved.
    • The Picture List shows missing pictures in grey and highlights rows with problems (such as a scale error), with a tooltip explaining what is wrong.
    • A new right-click menu in the Picture List includes copying a picture’s details to the clipboard in USFM format.
    • Pictures load much faster, which speeds up starting PTXprint and switching configurations.
    • Picture references to bridged verses (e.g. 3-4) are resolved correctly, and when a picture has several possible anchors, PTXprint chooses the first one that is in the books being printed.

  • PDF Viewer
    • Missing glyphs (shown as boxes, often called “tofu”) are highlighted in purple, so a font that lacks characters is easy to spot.
    • Glyph-collision detection is now more precise (but note that the option needs to be enabled in Advanced settings).
    • Detailed status messages now show up in the tooltip of the (i) button with counts of information, warning and error messages.
    • The right-click menu has colour-coded options, tooltips that explain the keyboard and mouse shortcuts, and a new option to reset all adjustments until the end of the book.
    • Zooming and scrolling work more smoothly (Ctrl+scroll works anywhere in the viewer).

  • New kinds of content
    • Custom lists, such as a List of Measurements or a List of Prayers, can be generated using \DefineListOf, \zlistentry and \ztoc.
    • Marginal notes and side-aligned notes are supported.
    • Initial support for Markdown input using a conversion script for .md resources (ask for support if this feature is needed).
    • Ornament patterns can define a group of ornaments that repeats as a group.

General enhancements:

  • Updated to TeX Live 2026 on Windows.
  • changes.txt can now call functions, and in changes can match across several lines (see snippets.md in the documentation).
  • New Advanced controls for the hyphenation word list.
  • New Underline control on the Styles tab.
  • The chapter-pair separator can now be changed, and PTXprint uses the range separators set in the Paratext project settings.
  • When a font is missing, PTXprint now tells you which styles use it in the error message and status report.
  • Bad UTF-8 data in a USFM file no longer stops the job. The bad characters are replaced and listed in the report.
  • USFM checks have been added to the typesetting report.
  • PDFs are named using the book’s main title (when there is one) instead of the project’s full name.
  • Only one font (Charis) is now required, and it is included with PTXprint.
  • If PTXprint finds more than one Paratext projects folder when it first starts, it lets you choose which one to use.
  • The book list copes better with wrong book names or codes, and a Toggle Books button has been added to the book chooser.
  • Interlinear text can now be used without specifying a language (when \rb is already provided).
  • The -S command-line option is now needed before external scripts will run during command-line printing, for safety.
  • A new automated regression-testing framework, which can record tests from the GUI.

Minor UI improvements:

  • On Advanced > Other, you can show just the settings that differ from the defaults, and Ctrl+Click highlights a setting.
  • The Copy Configuration to… dialog now has a list of recently used projects.
  • Use Tab to move between rows and values in the Variables table.
  • Generated values have been added to the header drop-down lists.
  • The main window takes less vertical space, and the Project drop-down list scrolls.
  • A link to the PTXprint Master Slides has been added to the Help tab.
  • The TechRef documentation now opens in your system’s PDF viewer (not the PDF Preview pane), so you can search for content in it.
  • “Jump to Ref in Paratext” now brings Paratext to the front.
  • A warning message closes itself after 30 seconds and the job carries on.

GitHub issues fixed:

#534, #1093, #1096, #1125, #1127, #1142, #1143, #1157, #1160, #1161, #1162, #1163, #1164, #1165, #1166, #1175, #1231, #1243, #1245, #1249

Other bug fixes:

  • Tables that run onto more than one page (including Tables of Contents) are no longer cut off, and multi-line cells line up correctly.
  • Right-to-left Tables of Contents (without leaders) and right-to-left merged notes now work.
  • Inline Strong’s numbers no longer cut off the text that follows them.
  • Images no longer go missing because of padding, and big pictures and bottom pictures (including in diglots) appear where they should.
  • Repeated footers, repeated images and duplicated notes at the end of a book have been fixed.
  • Fixed a Windows hang after “Laying out…” when printing or previewing.
  • Fixed pictures in non-Scripture books, in modules and in the Glossary.
  • Many smaller fixes to cross-references, verse ranges, footnote spacing and page numbering.

What’s new in version 3.0?

Version 3.0 makes PTXprint easier to start using. It also adds a tabbed PDF Viewer and an improved Styles tab.

Significant new features:

  • Easier to get started
    • If PTXprint can’t find a Paratext project, it installs the Berean Standard Bible (BSB) sample project automatically, so you can see results straight away.
    • Import… is now the last option in the Project list. It accepts ZIP files containing USFM or USX, and creates BookNames.xml if it is missing.
    • The Charis 7.0 font is included with PTXprint and used as the default.
    • The Basic tab has been reorganised to be more logical (and the copyright & licensing information is now hidden in a section you can expand).
    • The Save and Print buttons stay disabled until a project has been chosen.
    • The Help tab has a new button for changing the Base Projects Directory.

  • Tabbed PDF Viewer
    • The PDF Viewer can show several PDFs in tabs: Content, Cover, Diff, Finished and Reference. Tabs that aren’t needed are hidden.
    • The cover appears in its own tab, so the separate Print Cover button has been removed.
    • The Ornaments Catalogue and the TechRef documentation open in the System’s default PDF viewer and come to the front.

  • Improved Styles tab
    • Search, filter and highlight styles. The list scrolls to the style you are working on.
    • “Hide/exclude marker” option is now reversed and worded as “Show contents of marker”, which is easier to understand.

  • Layout and typography
    • New default poetry indents and heading styles.
    • New DoubleSided option (Advanced > Other > Page Layout & Spacing) for two-sided printing where the left and right margins stay the same on odd and even pages.
    • Marginal chapter numbers have been reworked to give better control over spacing.
    • End of Ayah markers are easier to set up, and a line in the \va style controls how they look.
    • It is easier to turn on dynamic borders, and their settings are arranged more consistently.
    • Illustration credits have been improved, with an option to list all pages.
    • Cross-references are no longer links by default, and there are options for the border style of \jmp/\ref links.

General enhancements:

  • Importing from ZIP files works more predictably.
  • Strong’s numbers are processed before local changes, and \xts can be used inside \w for keyword marking.
  • Support for USFM tag variants such as \f^98.
  • Problems with letter spacing are only reported when letter spacing is turned on.
  • Unknown-tag error messages are no longer shown.

Minor UI improvements:

  • The menu button has moved to the top-left of the main window.
  • The Diglot tab layout has been refined.
  • Searching for a setting now also highlights matching drop-down lists, which makes settings such as Digit Mapping easier to find.
  • The ‘Refresh’ icon on several buttons is clearer.
  • The ‘Show USFM codes’ tooltip is clearer and uses Source Code Pro.
  • The View+Edit tab now cuts short only .log files. Other files load completely.
  • The window position is restored more reliably.

GitHub issues fixed:

#1091, #1110 (partly)

Other bug fixes:

  • Fixed crashes when the PDF Viewer updates, and when printing stopped the PDF from updating.
  • Fixed text borders, figure borders near peripherals, and map borders (partly).
  • Fixed some cases where subheadings on the line grid lost space.
  • Fixed strikethrough in styles, and chapters in interlinear text.
  • The ‘NoInternet’ setting now really disables all links.
  • Fixed finishing-file naming and saving the configuration after loading BSB.

For historical information on what was new in earlier releases, see What’s new in Version 2.