Introduction

German ZUGFeRD and French Factur-X are standardized data formats for exchanging electronic invoices between suppliers of goods and services and their customers. To simplify cross-border document exchange, a new ZUGFeRD 2.1/Factur-X format was developed, which is fully compatible with the original ZUGFeRD 2.0 and Factur-X 1.0 formats. All of these formats, in simple terms, combine machine-readable XML data with a PDF file for human-readable presentation.

In one of the articles on our blog, we have already described how to create electronic invoices in Stimulsoft products, including invoices in the ZUGFeRD and Factur-X formats.

New version

At the end of December 2025, new versions Factur-X 1.08 and ZUGFeRD 2.4 were released and became mandatory for use on January 15, 2026. In the new version, the changes mainly concern the structure and content of the embedded XML file in order to achieve closer compatibility between the German and French standards.

Compatibility with Stimulsoft products

To create invoices in the ZUGFeRD and Factur-X formats, you need to load a prepared XML data file into our report generator. The tool then builds the visual part of the report, after which you can export the finished document to PDF.

Please note that after loading the report template, you must define the following property values in code:

• ZUGFeRDComplianceMode (format version);
• ZUGFeRDConformanceLevel (conformance level);
• ZUGFeRDInvoiceData (application of the XML file).

Important!

Starting from ZUGFeRD version 2.1, no changes have been made to the PDF part of the report. Therefore, to ensure compatibility with any subsequent version up to 2.4, it is sufficient to set the value 2_1 for the ZUGFeRDComplianceMode property. Thus, our products support the creation of ZUGFeRD and Factur-X invoices for all current versions.

If future versions of these formats introduce changes affecting the PDF container, we will promptly implement the necessary updates to ensure full compatibility.

We have also prepared a dedicated page on our website that provides a detailed description of the ZUGFeRD and Factur-X formats, includes code examples in C#, JavaScript, and Java for exporting reports in these formats to PDF, and much more.