The Document Foundation has released LibreOffice 26.8. The update brings a new “Paragraph Composer” for nicer typesetting, native support for variable fonts and numerous Calc improvements – and deliberately avoids intrusive AI features.
Better typesetting in Writer
The new Paragraph Composer considers consecutive lines together and balances word spacing across the whole paragraph, instead of computing justified text line by line. The result is a calmer, more even look. Also new is native support for variable OpenType fonts: weight, width or contrast can be adjusted from a single font file.
What’s new in Calc
- Pivot tables now support Calculated Fields.
- A new “Shuffle” command randomizes the order of cells; the border button remembers the last selected style.
- Calc automatically detects right-to-left text in empty cells and sets the cell direction accordingly.
Deliberately without AI
While many office suites push AI features to the foreground, LibreOffice sticks to classic productivity tools – a point the community explicitly welcomes. LibreOffice Math also expands support for the N’Ko and Adlam writing systems.
