PDF library recommendations

[Ennis Ray Lynch Jr]

I have always found that tools that let you design and work outside the limitations of a PDF and then just output PDF to be the best solution, ie. xtraReports or Crystal Reports.

Need custom software developed? I do custom programming based primarily on MS tools with an emphasis on C# development and consulting. A man said to the universe: "Sir I exist!" "However," replied the universe, "The fact has not created in me A sense of obligation." --Stephen Crane

[Christian Graus]

We are starting with an existing PDF and looking to add a logo, and perhaps do basic edits.

Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista. Read my blog to find out how I've worked around bugs in Microsoft tools and frameworks.

[Lost User]

Do you need WYSIWYG editing, or would programmatic do?

___________________________________________ .\\axxx (That's an 'M')

[Christian Graus]

The editing aspect is sufficiently up in the air that I'm willing to hear any options. programmatic is all that I MUST have.

Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista. Read my blog to find out how I've worked around bugs in Microsoft tools and frameworks.

[Lost User]

I had thought PDFSharp[^]gave you this ability - but it doesn't have the ability to render PDF - so I'm not certain if it will let you load an existing PDF and modify it. I have it installed on another PC I don't have access to at the moment, or I'd check it out. iTextSharp[^] has a similar ability, and does (apparently) have the ability to load a PDF, to which you can then make changes (programmatically) and save as PDF - but again, it doesn't render.

___________________________________________ .\\axxx (That's an 'M')

[Lost User]

I also believe Quick PDF Library allows you to do exactly what you want (rendering and all)[^] - but that's because I found it while searching for the home page of itextSharp - not through personal experience. It sounds like $250 well invested... I found this example...

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using QuickPDFAX0714;

namespace WindowsFormsApplication1
{
public partial class Form1 : Form
{
private string LicenseKey = " your key here ";
private string OriginalFileName = "D:\\QuickPDFLibrary\\hello1.pdf";
private string NewFileName = "D:\\QuickPDFLibrary\\hello2.pdf";

    public Form1()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
    }

    private void Form1\_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        ShowPDF(OriginalFileName);
    }

    private void ShowPDF(string fileName)
    {
        PDFLibrary qp = new PDFLibrary();
        qp.UnlockKey(LicenseKey);
        qp.LoadFromFile(fileName);

        // Fit width of PDF to width of picture box
        int dpi = Convert.ToInt32((pictureBox1.Width \* 72) / qp.PageWidth());
        byte\[\] bmpData = (byte\[\])qp.RenderPageToVariant(dpi, 1, 0);

        MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream(bmpData);
        Bitmap bmp = new Bitmap(ms);
        pictureBox1.Image = bmp;

        ms.Dispose();
    }

    private void pictureBox1\_MouseClick(object sender, MouseEventArgs e)
    {
        PDFLibrary qp = new PDFLibrary();
        qp.UnlockKey(LicenseKey);
        qp.LoadFromFile(OriginalFileName);

        // Calculate co-ordinates, width of PDF fitted to width of PictureBox
        double xpos = ((double)e.X / (double)pictureBox1.Width) \* qp.PageWidth();
        double ypos = qp.PageHeight() - ((double)e.Y / (double)pictureBox1.Width) \* qp.PageWidth();

        qp.SetTextSize(24);
        qp.SetTextColor(1, 0, 0);
        qp.DrawText(xpos, ypos, "A");

        qp.SaveToFile(NewFileName);
        ShowPDF(NewFileName);
    }

}

}

___________________________________________ .\\axxx (That's an 'M')

[Abhinav S]

Thats the first time I've seen so much code in the lounge :) .

There's nothing left in my right brain and nothing right in my left brain.

[FEQ]

You may find you need to combine two products to get the functionality you require - rendering and editing of PDF are chalk and cheese (and lots of work). If you are using Java, JPedal[^]has excellent rendering and extraction functionality, and if you combine this with iText you get editing abilities. Both have LGPL versions

[FilipVW]

iText is indeed a very complete tool if you want to do stuff like adding stamps, or splitting/merging files... Did you concider using a browser control to do the PDF rendering (use UNC path to reference your PDF) ?

[reshi999]

Regarding point 1, I generally embed a web page viewer. Most other points can be addressed using PDFSharp, this is an open source library which allows you to merge, edit, split, create, etc PDF's in .NET ... Highly recommended! You would need to build a front end round it for editing though.

[reshi999]

Just to let you know, PDFSharp will let you open an existing PDF and then you can add text\images easily - tis fast to :)

[pdf wizard]

You can try PDFView4NET[^], per developer licensing with royalty free distribution. Sorin

[Uwe Keim]

Aspose.Pdf [^] and Aspose.Pdf.Kit[^]

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[Gee 0]

I would recommend Aspose.Pdf from first-hand experience. Their support forums are very useful and Aspose normally respond pretty quickly.

Gee

[Jorgen Sigvardsson]

_Maxxx_ wrote:

It sounds like $250 well invested...

Or it might be $100000 in marketing well invested...

-- Kein Mitleid Für Die Mehrheit

[Michael A Cochran]

I use Aspose, too. It is great for creating/changing PDFs and has rendering capabilities too. Rendering is always a little buggy particularly when you do conversions from other doctypes; e.g., MS-Word. But, in general, I couldn't find anything better - especially since I needed an OEM license.

[MiddleTommy]

GDPicture.Net is what I have been using for viewing(pdf and images) and it is pretty good. I am still looking for a good editing suite and will look into some of the recomendations here

[LenaBr]

We use PDFSharp to generate pdfs programatically because our printer insisted on getting pdfs and only by going through the printer are we allowed to mail anything. I don't allow the "client" to edit them because they need to reflect exactly what is in the data base for HR reasons. They can edit the templates before they generate the pdfs if they are really frantic - that way the image of the pdf in the data files is the same as the sent one.

[scosta_FST]

I use iTextSharp to add logos or to merge different pdfs. It works well and fast. For the pdf viewer (in Windows Form) I use the standard WebBrowser control, but the Adobe Plugin must be installed, and I search something better. I'm investigating on a PDF rasterizer like: http://www.tallcomponents.com/products.aspx http://www.softwaresigloxxi.com/SuperPdf2ImageConverter.html Exists also an article in CodeProject: PDF Viewer Control Without Acrobat Reader Installed but it has a lot of dependencies.

[RC Roeder]

I personally like ASPPDF from Persits Software for generation the stream it out to something like flash paper.