General Comments
Jeremias initiated a survey for users of XML Graphics Commons, Batik and FOP to determine the level of desire to change the minimum required Java version from 1.3. From the results of that, and discussions between the developers, it was decided that subsequent project releases from XML Graphics will require Java 1.4. (Batik's 1.7 release will be the final one to require Java 1.3.)
XML Graphics Commons
No big changes in the last 3 months. Some work to complete the XMP metadata functionality is expected for the next reporting period.
Batik
Batik's two Google Summer of Code students finished their projects successfully, although they did not have as much interaction with the developer community (such as it is) as much as I would've liked. Ivan has recently finished ironing out the bugs in his DOM Viewer window enhancements and will be committed to the repository soon. Jasleen's project needs a bit more work before it can be committed.
A bunch of bugs were fixed recently, and after fixing a couple more, committing Ivan's code, and running through the regression test suite again we'll be ready for the final 1.7 release.
FOP
FOP sees the usual bugfixing. We've been able to process some of the open patches, but there's still some more to be done in this area. A few new features have also been added: some improvements on general XSL-FO compliance, preparations for PDF-in-PDF support, SVGZ support, improved SVG text painting for PDF output, improvements for PCL and AFP etc. A number of exciting things are in the works: improved layouting which should bring down memory consumption, Java2D support for AFP output, improvements in font handling and tables, a new image package...
We have two new committers: Adrian Cumiskey and Max Berger.