Displaying multi-page documents in a zero-footprint web application can be a challenge because of the limitations associated with the <img> tag, which can only display a single image. A common solution is to implement a separate thumbnail viewer and attach JavaScript listener events to change the displayed image in your main "viewer." A more advanced solution may involve detecting the scroll position and modifying the DOM to create a continuously scrolling viewer. Those are both great for any file with multiple pages, but what if you want to take full advantage of more advanced file format features such as PDF bookmarks and hyperlinks?

Many applications don't bother supporting the PDF file format and assume you want to use a third party plug-in to display it. However, the LEADTOOLS HTML5 SDK includes support for not only rasterizing the PDF into an image, but also reading the text, hyperlinks and embedded thumbnails so that you can develop a fully-featured, zero-footprint PDF viewer application! Our engineers are very proud of this functionality and have created the HTML5 PDF Thumbnails and Bookmarks demo so you can see the amazing technology LEADTOOLS has to offer. Additionally, it gives you a huge head start on developing your application since the source code for this demo (and all of our other HTML5 demos) is included with the free, fully-functional LEADTOOLS Evaluation download

Want to hear a cool fact? LEADTOOLS Version 18 was released one year ago (January 30th, 2013). So to celebrate V18's first birthday, LEAD is giving you a present! Today we released a major update to LEADTOOLS Version 18, highlighted by many new features and enhancements to the entire Document, Medical, Multimedia and Imaging product lines.

There is a lot to be said about this release, so your best bet is to check out the press release or see a list of all the new features and enhancements. We hope you enjoy this update and join us in saying "happy birthday LEADTOOLS V18!"

A few weeks ago we announced a new MICR demo for iOS and OS X. Today we're happy to announce that the same app has been ported to Android and is now available on Google Play! MICR is useful in decoding the special fonts used on checks, making it an invaluable resource for any developer writing software for the financial sector.

As a reminder, LEADTOOLS has many additional demos available for iOS, Android, WinRT and Windows Phone including features such as OCR, Barcode, DICOM and more. If you are a mobile application developer, you can see first-hand how LEADTOOLS works on your devices. As an additional benefit, they serve as a living example of how using LEADTOOLS will have positive effects during the approval process for your app's respective stores.

LEADTOOLS Anywhere™ is still going strong and extending its reach into the native mobile app market. Today we are announcing a new demo featuring Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) technology for iOS. MICR is useful in decoding the special fonts used on checks, making it an invaluable resource for any developer writing software for the financial sector.

As a reminder, LEADTOOLS has many additional demos available for iOS, Android, WinRT and Windows Phone including features such as OCR, Barcode, DICOM and more. If you are a mobile application developer, you can see first-hand how LEADTOOLS works on your devices. As an additional benefit, they serve as a living example of how using LEADTOOLS will have positive effects during the approval process for your app's respective stores.

Some of you may have noticed already, but our web-based .NET documentation has gone through a major renovation and upgrade. Our documentation team has been collecting feedback and requests for a while and had a chance to start implementing the enhancements after Version 18 was completed. Some of it is cosmetic, but there are some pretty neat features and user interface updates that have greatly enhanced the webhelp. Here are a few of the major features added or enhanced in the new webhelp:

• New toolbar and TOC (Table of Contents) with larger, modern icons
• Visually pleasing keyword indexes
• Embedded chat page to facilitate communication with Support
• New search options
• Smarter and more efficient TOC
  • Dynamically generated TOC increases speed and navigability
  • Persistent state remembers which branches you have opened
  • Sync button highlights where your current article is located in the TOC

• Always visible direct link to the currently displayed article for easy sharing and bookmarking
• New option to email link to the current page
• Ability to show and hide the webframe
• New icons that show which platforms are supported by a function, property or event

We hope you find the documentation more thorough and easier to navigate, giving you more time where you need it most: in your code. As always, if there are any more features you would like to see, let us know!