LibreOffice 25.8 launches with faster performance, PDF 2.0 support, and privacy-first features, strengthening its case as the leading open source alternative to proprietary office suites.
The Document Foundation has released LibreOffice 25.8, a major update to the free and open source office suite that doubles down on its mission to safeguard user freedom and privacy. By ensuring that users retain full control over their documents, LibreOffice positions itself as a secure alternative to proprietary platforms that risk compromising data through vendor lock-in or monetisation.
Performance is one of the biggest highlights of this release. Writer and Calc now open files up to 30% faster, with smoother scrolling and rendering across the suite. Optimisations particularly benefit large XLSX files with complex formatting, while improved memory management boosts performance on virtual machines, thin clients, and remote desktops.
Another key enhancement is full support for PDF 2.0 (ISO 32000-2), including AES-256 encryption, PDF/A-4 compatibility, and improved export features. Hybrid encrypted PDFs are supported, and exported files are now more broadly compatible with Adobe Reader.
Accessibility and usability also advance, with the long-awaited Viewer-only mode finally introduced after a decade of requests. Other enhancements include better onboarding through the Welcome/What’s New dialog, UI refinements such as diacritic matching in Quick Find, password visibility toggles, and simpler toolbar and hyperlink options.
Component-specific upgrades extend LibreOffice’s versatility: Writer introduces an overhauled hyphenation and spacing engine, alongside redaction and improved change tracking. Calc adds powerful new functions like CHOOSECOLS, HSTACK, and WRAPROWS, while Impress and Draw gain embedded PPTX font support, Master Slide copying, and layout improvements.
LibreOffice 25.8 is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux, though it ends support for Windows 7, 8/8.1, 32-bit builds, and macOS 10.15 Catalina. Downloads are available from the LibreOffice website, Snap Store, and Flathub, with Ubuntu users advised to use DEB packages until Ubuntu 25.10 ships in October.
