LibreOffice 25.8: Faster, leaner, and finally speaks PDF 2.0
- Reference: 1755796812
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/08/21/libreoffice_258/
- Source link:
As we mentioned a year ago [2]looking at LibreOffice 24.8 , the Document Foundation has adopted a new version-numbering scheme. This reflects that LibreOffice is a very mature piece of software now, with roots in a [3]German word processor for the [4]Amstrad CPC a full 40 years ago. Expect small, incremental improvements instead of big, sweeping changes.
Many of the improvements in version 25.8 are along the same lines as we've reported on in recent versions. First, it's faster than it was. Notably, this release should start faster, scroll through documents faster, and open Writer and Calc files faster.
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If you open Microsoft Office documents, .DOCX , .XLSX , and .PPTX files should all import more faithfully. This version is better at handling hyphenation, its font handling is more compatible with PowerPoint, and the Calc spreadsheet supports over a dozen new functions that should mean Excel spreadsheets import better than before.
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LibreOffice 25.8 also can now export files in version 2.0 of the PDF format. This took us by surprise, we confess, because we had missed the news that there was a [8]new version of PDF , but there is: it came out in 2017. Now LibreOffice 25.8 can digitally encrypt and sign PDFs.
[9]LibreOffice adds voice to 'ditch Windows for Linux' campaign
[10]LibreOffice still kicking at 40, now with browser tricks and real-time collab
[11]LibreOffice 24.8: Handy even if you're happy with Microsoft
[12]German state ditches Windows, Microsoft Office for Linux and LibreOffice
As [13]we have described before , there are other Linux office suites with more modern-looking UIs – but if you actually like the Office "fluent" interface, LibreOffice has its own version of a ribbon-driven UI too. We read that 25.8 should offer you this option on its first run, but we never saw this – presumably because we already had it installed, and have for years.
There are, admittedly, some subtle traces of the nowadays-unavoidable integration with LLM tools, but they're small, off by default, and they seem to be easily avoided. LibreOffice has included hooks to call out to [14]DeepL for automatic translation [15]since version 7.5 . It can also use [16]LanguageTool spellchecking , which we mentioned about Collabora CODE a few years ago.
As before, LibreOffice runs on Windows, Linux, macOS, and FreeBSD, and we expect OpenBSD will update [17]its port soon. For this version, though, the [18]system requirements have increased slightly. You will need Windows 10 or above: it drops support for Windows 7, 8.0, and 8.1.
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Both Arm64 and x86-64 Windows editions are on offer, but there's no 32-bit flavor anymore. This release still runs on macOS 10.15 Catalina, but it's the last one that will. The full [20]release notes detail the new functions and changes. ®
Get our [21]Tech Resources
[1] https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2025/08/20/libreoffice-25-8/
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2024/08/23/libreoffice_24_8/
[3] https://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Star-Writer
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2014/02/12/archaeologic_amstrad_cpc_464/
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aKeW9zAeBIxAZGLNCQQaHgAAAFI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aKeW9zAeBIxAZGLNCQQaHgAAAFI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aKeW9zAeBIxAZGLNCQQaHgAAAFI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://pdfa.org/pdf-2-0-the-worldwide-standard-for-electronic-documents-has-evolved/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/16/libreoffice_ditch_windows/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/13/libreoffice_wasm_zetaoffice/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2024/08/23/libreoffice_24_8/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/04/germanys_northernmost_state_ditches_windows/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/21/onlyoffice_7_3_and_wps_11/
[14] https://www.deepl.com/
[15] https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/ReleaseNotes/7.5#Machine_translation
[16] https://languagetool.org/insights/post/product-libreoffice/
[17] https://openports.pl/path/editors/libreoffice
[18] https://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/system-requirements/
[19] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aKeW9zAeBIxAZGLNCQQaHgAAAFI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[20] https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/ReleaseNotes/25.8
[21] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Still no usable database
I've seen Word documents turned into a heap of slop in Word. If you're handed files from a different person, or running a different version of Office, or a different version of Windows, then chaos can ensue. LibreOffice isn't necessarily going to give a perfect rendition, but I usually see it do a pretty good job.
Re: Still no usable database
Several downvotes from people who can't handle criticism of a piece of software.
Base is beyond frustrating. Prove me wrong.
I mainly use Word documents in LO. My experience is LO is not good at handling tables in Word documents. My time is not free. If I waste time trying to fix up these documents, that has a cost. So I do hope importing Word documents 'more faithfully' is measurable.
Re: Still no usable database
> My time is not free. If I waste time trying to fix up these documents, that has a cost.
So why do you use a free software in the first place?
Go for M$ crap and pay them so you don't waste your "precious" time...
Or maybe it is not so "precious" after all?
(btw, I DID downvote you)
Re: Still no usable database
I did not downvote you, but may be you are being a bit unfair.
Does the Word document faithfully adhere to open standards, or is there some kind of idiosyncratic behaviour going on here ?
LibreOffice stands on its own, and as long as it has all the relevant capabilities and can open documents of older versions, then perhaps they are getting it right.
Does Word or any of the other Microsoft programs still open old documents perfectly ?
If Microsoft cannot get it right, why should a third party software be better at it than Microsoft for their own Microsoft formats ?
Re: Still no usable database
Inconsistency is their speciality.
Microsoft's selling technique for Office was based on new versions producing non-back-portable files, forcing everyone to upgrade when they received a file they couldn't open.
Re: Still no usable database
The problem for me is not older Word documents being opened in later versions of Word. The problem is exchanging current Word documents with LO. The inconsistencies and loss of formatting then becomes a problem.
If you are working solely in LO, say writing letters or doing even moderately complex spreadsheets, this is not a problem. If you need to exchange the same documents with Word users, then the problems appear. I have seen Excel documents with macros straight out refuse to work in LO. It's no good saying "don't use macros, they're bad anyway...". In Excel they work.
Whether you or I like it (I don't), MS is the standard for office-type documents. Hence I expressed my hope that the latest version of LO is more capable in this requirement.
Still no...
...Writer makeover to the godawful "like Microsoft used to do" outline list selector and editor. Word is even worse now, constantly reverting changes to the default and indenting the first entry different from all the others, etc. etc., but that's no excuse.
...Fix for the image bug where an image can sometimes disappear completely when it's thrown across a page (I think only when using columns, not sure) but is still there in the code and apt to bugger up everything up from that moment on. Can still be accidentally selected if you click where it is, so I have rescued some docs by deleting the invisible selection. Failing that, things can deteriorate to the point that the doc will no longer display and if you foolishly recover it after the crash then you can no longer reopen it at all.
...Better Indexing toolset.
...Better management of CSS when editing/exporting HTML.
You know, things that are useful if you are actually looking for something functional rather than a Word substitute.
Re: Still no...
Oh come on... According to you: MS-office is crap, LO is crap, Starmaker office is crap... And if it is that way: Choose your shade or use all three for what each can do better than the other, and then you can work with the pile of crap you obviously have to deal with. What about Latex or ascii or DokuWiki-format?
Thanks Liam!
I read the article... Hm, high probability written by him... scrolling up... of course! Who else :D.
I've been using LO for 25+ years and much prefer it to any version of Word after 2003 i.e. the bl**dy ribbon interface. My documents contain multiple page sizes and both landscape and portrait orientations. LO handles inserting different pages sizes and orientation far better and faster than MS. Given the same document, LO produces PDFs which are smaller than those produced by Word.
It is rare that I use Word other than for a couple of customers who need me to edit .docx files and when I do go back to using Word I realise how clunky and annoying the interface is to use.
I don't use Base so can't comment, and Calc does everything I need from a spreadsheet, so I have no need of Excel.
I will give the new version a try and see how it goes on the basis I can always go back - and it costs nothing, and isn't *cloud based* so I can continue using it even in locations where I don't have an internet connection (in my job a surprising number of places).
Long term user
Made the transition many moons ago. Problems with importing Word documents are rare these days, except for examples last edited in very old versions of pre-XML-formatted Word. Calc is solid, though it does have some of its own quirks that are yet to be fixed.
I would highly recommend that any individual or small business make the transition and stop paying the MS Tax.
Still no usable database
Base is still as bad as it was years ago. It's an exercise in frustration such that I stopped wasting my time fighting it.
>> If you open Microsoft Office documents, .DOCX, .XLSX, and .PPTX files should all import more faithfully.
This is the biggie. This is the number one thing. I've seen Word documents turned into a heap of slop in LO. It seemed bad at handling tables, and just regurgitated them onto the page. I hope it's better.