# Changes in the most recent release of Ghostscript

This document is news about the most recent Ghostscript release. For earlier versions, see the history documents:

> History of Ghostscript versions 8.n
> History of Ghostscript versions 7.n
> History of Ghostscript versions 6.n
> History of Ghostscript versions 5.n
> History of Ghostscript versions 4.n
> History of Ghostscript versions 3.n
> History of Ghostscript versions 2.n
> History of Ghostscript versions 1.n

For other information, see the Ghostscript overview.

### Version 8.12 (2003-12-08)

This is the second stable release in the 8.1x series. It contains numerous bug fixes; other highlights include improved font rendering and colorspace handling, and unicode text support for high-level devices.

The following bug numbers were open at the time of the last release:

> 405501, 414947, 430175, 446344, 456692, 458261, 458780, 463688, 465936, 487460, 487953, 493348, 509829, 526099, 526491, 530011, 535366, 535932, 542629, 553187, 555072, 558151, 563287, 572865, 578865, 592160, 592837, 601336, 602263, 603934, 604722, 605830, 607425, 607850, 610478, 611898, 614298, 617077, 617523, 626295, 628110, 629335, 634036, 634358, 645316, 651644, 656414, 667301, 669654, 674241, 674417, 674418, 677324, 677383, 677430, 680301, 681469, 685335, 686747, 686750, 686752, 686778, 686816, 686819, 686824, 686833, 686834, 686841, 686842, 686843, 686850, 686852, 686853, 686860, 686863, 686865, 686867, 686873, 686877, 686889, 686892, 686896, 686897, 686902, 686904, 686909, 686919, 686930, 686933, 686936, 686937, 686938, 686944, 686946, 686949, 686951, 686954, 686956, 686957, 686958, 686959, 686963, 686975, 686980, 686996, 686999, 687007, 687011, 687012, 687013, 687014, 687020, 687021, 687029, 687038, 687039, 687050, 687059, 687063, 687066, 687072, 687079, 687084, 687085, 687086, 687088, 687090, 687093, 687095, 687102, 687105, 687108, 687110, 687114, 687120, 687123, 687125, 687137, 687142, 687145, 687146, 687151, 687154, 687157, 687163, 687168, 687169, 687171, 687172, 687173, 687174, 687177, 687181, 687182, 687184, 687185, 687186, 687187, 687189, 687190, 687191.

### Incompatible changes

Type 1 font hints are no longer applied to charpaths. This is generally an improvement, but will generate a different outline from previously.

A new virtual functions `can_handle_hl_color()` is required for high-level devices derived from `gx_device_vector`.

The library client api now propagates `device_close` errors to the return value of `gsapi_exit()`.

Copyright © 2003 artofcode LLC. All rights reserved.

This software is provided AS-IS with no warranty, either express or implied. This software is distributed under license and may not be copied, modified or distributed except as expressly authorized under the terms of the license contained in the file LICENSE in this distribution. For more information about licensing, please refer to http://www.ghostscript.com/licensing/. For information on commercial licensing, go to http://www.artifex.com/licensing/ or contact Artifex Software, Inc., 101 Lucas Valley Road #110, San Rafael, CA 94903, U.S.A., +1(415)492-9861.

Ghostscript version 8.12, 8 December 2003