# JadeTeX 3.14

Release Notes

JadeTeX Development Team Release 3.14
July 2026
2026 Ian Castle/David Carlisle

## JadeTeX 3.14 Release Notes

JadeTeX is a companion package to the OpenJade DSSSL processor. OpenJade applies a DSSSL stylesheet to an SGML or XML document. The output of this process can be in a number of forms, including a set of high level LaTeX macros. It is the task of the JadeTeX package to transform these macros into DVI/PostScript (use the command `jadetex`) or Portable Document Format (PDF) form (use the command `pdfjadetex`).

JadeTeX is architecture and platform independent. If LaTeX is available for your platform, then JadeTeX will be also.

### Obtaining JadeTeX

The latest version of JadeTeX may be obtained from `http://jadetex.sourceforge.net`

### Dependencies

Jadetex is dependent upon OpenJade and a reasonably up to date and full featured LaTeX installation. For best results OpenJade 1.3.1 should be used. However, JadeTeX will work fine with older versions (including Jade 1.2.1), although it may be necessary to adjust your `jadetex.cfg` configuration file to supply JadeTeX with any features missing from your version of OpenJade.

Any recent LaTeX distribution such as TeXlive, fpTeX or teTeX is required. As a guide the following table lists some of the requirements and suggested minimum versions.

Dependencies on LaTeX

Package | Minimum Required Version
--- | ---
`times` |
`fontenc` |
`array` |
`longtable` |
`color` |
`colortbl` |
`marvosym` |
`graphicx` | 1997/06/09
`multicol` |
`hyperref` | 2000/03/01
`fancyhdr` |
`inputenc` | 1997/12/20
`ulem` |
`pdfTeX` | 0.13d

### Installation

See the installation guide.

### Configuration

It is possible to customize the behavior of JadeTeX by placing definitions in the file `jadetex.cfg`. This is usually placed in your working directory, but theoretically make be placed anywhere in your TeX path.

If you are producing PDF files then you may wish to consult the `hyperref` documentation. Options for customizing the look and feel of the PDF file described in the hyperref documentation should be placed in the `jadetex.cfg`. For example:

    \hypersetup{pdfpagemode=None,  pdfauthor=jadetex team,  colorlinks=false,
     linkcolor=black,  pdfstartview=FitH}
    \def\Gin@extensions{.pdf,.png,.jpg,.mps,.tif}

Would cause the PDF document to open without displaying book marks. Links would not be highlighted in anyway (if they were, the would be color black). The document will be placed in a "fit width" viewing mode. Finally, pdfjadetex would prefer image with a pdf extensions over a png extension if none is specified. This is useful if you want to give priority to scalable documents for a PDF file, while preferring a bit mapped format for other output types.

If you have a out of date version of openjade, which does not support the characteristics

      "UNREGISTERED::OpenJade//Characteristic::page-two-side?"

      "UNREGISTERED::OpenJade//Characteristic::two-side-start-on-right?"

and you want to use two sided output then you would have to add the definitions

    \def\PageTwoSide{1}
    \def\TwoSideStartOnRight{1}

to your `jadetex.cfg` to make up for the deficiency.

### Version 3.14

Released July 2026

This release is primarily a maintenance release tracking changes in the LaTeX format.

### Version 3.12

Released January 2002.

This release is primarily a maintenance release and is intended to be used with openjade 1.3.1. In addition to fixing some bugs it also provides enhanced support for the "euro" monetary symbol €.

Changes for release 3.12

Item 1 | Fix for space above horizontal rule
--- | ---
References | Source Forge patch #444445
Category | Software Bug
Problem | A horizontal rule has spurious blank space above it
Resolution | Added \nointerlineskip to suppress the blank space
Item 2 | Graphics centered within page not column
References | Source Forge patch #470586
Category | Software Bug
Problem | External Graphics are centered with respect to the entire page. This causes a problem in multicolumn mode.
Resolution | External Graphics are now centered within the column width
Item 3 | Fix fatal error with unbalanced columns
References | Source Forge patch #492522
Category | Software Bug
Problem | The TeX multicol package supports both balanced and unbalanced columns. However, JadeTeX 3.11 didn't call the functions for unbalanced columns correctly. Since a bug in the handling of %page-balanced-columns?% was fixed in 3.11, this is now the common case - so multicolumn documents that used to work in 3.10 no longer work
Resolution | Reworked the invocation of the unbalanced column macros. It isn't pretty, but it works.
Item 4 | Add `DESTDIR` environment variable to `Makefile`
References | None
Category | Software Installation / Configuration
Problem | Makefile doesn't have `DESTDIR` environment variable
Resolution | Make makefile more friendly for packagers with introduction of `DESTDIR` environment variable. This change is transparent to those that don't want to use `DESTDIR`.
Item 5 | Long directory/file names disappear of the page
References | Red Hat Bugzilla bug 47345
Category | Software Bug
Problem | If there is a long directory path in a document it goes off the side of the page. Long pathnames should be split or put on a separate line so that they don't go off the edge of the page.
Resolution | Added '\setlength\emergencystretch{2in}'. In case of overfull hboxes, an extra stretchable length gets added to the end of the lines.
Item 6 | Add Extra Fonts
References | sf.net request #452537, Mandrakesoft Documentation Project
Category | Software Bug
Problem | Many commonly installed fonts such as Charter and Utopia are not available for use with JadeTeX
Resolution | Added the following fonts: Utopia, ZapfChancery, Fibonacci, Funny, Dunhill, Concrete, Charter, Fontpxr, Fontaer, Fontaess, Fontaett, Fontlcmss, Fontlcmtt, Fontlcmvtt, Fontcmbr, Fontcmtl, Fontpxss, Fonttxss, Fonttxr. Note that this justs makes the fonts available to JadeTeX. You must have them installed already to actually use them in documents
Item 7 | Enhanced Euro symbol € support
References | None
Category | Functional Change
Problem | Using the reference `&euro;` does not produce any output. Using the Unicode character reference produces a black square unless a Computer Modern font is being used.
Resolution | Switched to the `marvosym.sty` package for the euro symbol. This is provides a good quality postscript font containing the euro symbol. Some consideration was given to using Adobe's freely available euro fonts and the `eurosans.sty` package. However as the adobe fonts cannot be distributed freely this option was not chosen. In addition, the `marvosym.sty` package is available in most modern TeX distributions. Additionally, support was added for the `&euro;` entity reference.