After switching from version 2.03 to version 2.04 I get the error that it did 
not find the font file (see full error below). The reason for this is that the 
string "null" was appended to the current directory string.

The workaround is to append "null" to the name of the font directory. Works 
like a charm, but looks so so.

Full error:

[ERROR] Failed to read font metrics file nullFonts\VerdanaBold.xml : 
U:\dev\quote\nullFonts\VerdanaBold.xml (The system cannot find the path 
specified)
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NullPointerException
        at org.apache.fop.render.pdf.fonts.LazyFont.getAscender(Unknown Source)
        at org.apache.fop.layout.FontState.getAscender(Unknown Source)
        at org.apache.fop.layout.LineArea.<init>(Unknown Source)
        at org.apache.fop.layout.BlockArea.start(Unknown Source)
        at org.apache.fop.fo.flow.Block.layout(Unknown Source)
        at org.apache.fop.fo.flow.Flow.layout(Unknown Source)
        at org.apache.fop.fo.flow.Flow.layout(Unknown Source)
        at org.apache.fop.fo.pagination.PageSequence.format(Unknown Source)
        at org.apache.fop.apps.StreamRenderer.render(Unknown Source)
        at org.apache.fop.fo.FOTreeBuilder.endElement(Unknown Source)
        at org.apache.xerces.parsers.AbstractSAXParser.endElement
(AbstractSAXParser.java:559)
        at org.apache.xerces.impl.XMLNamespaceBinder.handleEndElement
(XMLNamespaceBinder.java:853)
        at org.apache.xerces.impl.XMLNamespaceBinder.endElement
(XMLNamespaceBinder.java:643)
        at org.apache.xerces.impl.dtd.XMLDTDValidator.handleEndElement
(XMLDTDValidator.java:2978)
        at org.apache.xerces.impl.dtd.XMLDTDValidator.endElement
(XMLDTDValidator.java:918)
        at 
org.apache.xerces.impl.XMLDocumentFragmentScannerImpl.handleEndElement
(XMLDocumentFragmentScannerImpl.java:11 45)
        at org.apache.xerces.impl.XMLDocumentFragmentScannerImpl.scanEndElement
(XMLDocumentFragmentScannerImpl.java:988)
        at 
org.apache.xerces.impl.XMLDocumentFragmentScannerImpl$FragmentContentDispatcher.
dispatch(XMLDocumentFragmentS
cannerImpl.java:1446)
        at org.apache.xerces.impl.XMLDocumentFragmentScannerImpl.scanDocument
(XMLDocumentFragmentScannerImpl.java:333)
        at org.apache.xerces.parsers.StandardParserConfiguration.parse
(StandardParserConfiguration.java:529)
        at org.apache.xerces.parsers.StandardParserConfiguration.parse
(StandardParserConfiguration.java:585)
        at org.apache.xerces.parsers.XMLParser.parse(XMLParser.java:147)
        at org.apache.xerces.parsers.AbstractSAXParser.parse
(AbstractSAXParser.java:1148)
        at org.apache.fop.apps.Driver.render(Unknown Source)
        at org.apache.fop.apps.Driver.run(Unknown Source)
        at nl.tarq.xml.XML2PDF.transform(XML2PDF.java:149)
        at nl.tarq.xml.XML2PDF.main(XML2PDF.java:34)