Docotic.Pdf Library

The royalty-free PDF component to use if you need to create, read or manipulate PDF documents in your application or web service.

Docotic.Pdf Library is for .NET 2.0 and later frameworks. The library has no additional dependencies.

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Library features

We put many hours of hard work into the library so you don't have to be a PDF guru to accomplish your PDF-related task.

Please take a look at what Docotic.Pdf can do for you. And please contact us if you need something else. We are open to your suggestions.

Create PDF and PDF/A files
Modify, optimize and linearize PDFs
Extract text and images from a PDF
Draw and print PDF documents
Add or remove PDF passwords and security options
Use PDF forms (AcroForms)
Add bookmarks, annotations and scripts to PDFs
Compare PDF documents, check and setup PDF properties
Split and combine PDF documents
Add and optimize images in PDFs
Add vector shapes, colors, patterns, transparency and XObjects to PDFs
Use font and language you need to draw text in PDF documents

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Latest Docotic.Pdf version is 3.7.4912

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Create PDF and PDF/A

Standards-compliant PDF files

Docotic.Pdf can create standards-compliant PDF files from scratch.

Simple yet powerful API of the library can be used to create PDF documents with beautiful graphics and text.

PDF/A for long-term archiving

Creating PDF/A compatible documents is extremely easy with Docotic.Pdf.

Add just one line of code and library will produce a PDF/A-1b compliant document for you.

You can also check if PDF document is a PDF/A compliant one.

Modify existing PDF files

Modify PDFs

Docotic.Pdf library can open PDF files of any version (up to the latest published standard).

You can add new content to existing PDFs, add text and images to existing pages, fill in forms and otherwise update your files.

Optimize new and existing files

With the library you can optimize your PDFs created in other applications or by other libraries.

The library can remove unused objects, recompress images or pack low-level PDF objects into object streams for you.

You can greatly reduce size of the PDFs output by the library using various save options.

Linearize PDF files

Produce PDF files optimized for fast web view with help of the library.

You can linearize files with any contents and they will open faster over the network or Internet connection.

Extract text and images from PDF files

Extract text from PDFs

You can extract text from PDF files using Docotic.Pdf library.

Text can be extracted from a page in a time or from whole document at once.

The library supports extraction of plain and formatted text. Additionally, you can extract separate words, chars or text chunks with their coordinates.

In case you need to perform a sophisticated analysis there is also the ability to extract text and image objects in one collection.

Extract images

The library can be used to extract images from PDF files as is or as painted.

Extracted images can be saved as TIFF and JPEG images.

Library does not recompress images while extracting them. You will get images with the same quality as in PDF.

You can get information about where on a page images are actually drawn.

Draw, print and rasterize PDF files

Draw and print PDFs

Docotic.Pdf can draw and print documents for you.

You can draw documents on any Graphics surface.

The library respects any existing transformations of output surface so you can setup any offset, scaling and rotation you need before drawing and printing.

Save PDFs as raster format images

The library can be used to save PDF pages as images.

You can save full size or thumbnail images in PNG, TIFF and JPEG formats.

You can setup required zoom level and background color (including transparent) using helper methods of PdfDrawOptions class.

PDF passwords and security options

Check if PDF is password-protected

The library contains group of methods that you can use to check if file, stream or byte buffer contain a password-protected PDF.

You can use these methods to check whether you need to provide a password before opening the file.

Password protection

Docotic.Pdf library can open and create documents encrypted with standard encryption algorithms.

You can remove encryption from your PDF documents. And of course you can protect produced PDF files using RC4 40-bit, RC4 128-bit and AES 128-bit encryption algorithms.

PDF permissions

You can setup what permissions you want to grant to users of you PDF files.

All permissions defined by the latest PDF standard are supported.

Take a look at short sample that shows how to setup user access permissions for a PDF document.

PDF forms (AcroForms)

Add forms to your PDFs

You can add rich interactive forms to your PDFs.

The library can be used to add forms with buttons, checkboxes, drop-down lists, radio buttons and text fields to new or existing PDF documents.

Read data from PDF forms

Docotic.Pdf library will help you to fill existing PDF forms.

You can read values of any form elements.

The library provides convenient method you can use to access form elements by their names.

Forms Data Format

You can import and export PDF forms data using Docotic.Pdf.

Forms data can be efficiently archived if you export FDF from existing files first.

You can always populate documents with existing data (say, fetched from a database) using import FDF feature of the library.

Add bookmarks, annotations and scripts to PDFs

Add outline (bookmarks) to your PDFs

You can easily add bookmarks to PDF files opened or created by the library.

Different colors and text styles can be specified for each bookmark item.

Link to PDF pages and external URLs

You can create links to document pages and external URLs with help of the Docotic.Pdf.

Links can have solid and dashed borders of any color (or no border at all).

Automate tasks with JavaScript

With help of the library you can add JavaScript code to actions and controls.

For example, you can make PDF viewer application execute your code when document is opened or when a button in PDF is clicked.

Annotate PDF documents

Docotic.Pdf library can be used to add text annotations (sticky notes) to documents.

Seven predefined icon can be used for text annotations. Any sticky note can contain Unicode text. You can specify any color for annotations text and background.

Add actions to PDFs

You can create different types of actions and attach them to document pages and controls.

There is enough to choose from: hide, reset and submit form, import data, go to, URI and JavaScript actions are supported.

Compare PDF documents, check and setup PDF properties

Compare PDF files

Docotic.Pdf library can compare PDF documents for you.

You can compare different versions of a document using one of the DocumentsAreEqual methods.

These methods compare all PDF objects ignoring some properties like trailer IDs and creator info.

Read and modify metadata

The library can be used to read and change standard PDF document properties and XMP metadata properties.

All standard properties (author, creator, keywords, producer, subject and title) can be read and changed.

Any XMP schema can be read and changed. Use Metadata property to access custom metadata properties, well-known schemas like XMP Core / XMP Basic and Dublin Core, and other schemas.

Setup how PDF should be displayed

With help of the library you can easily setup how your PDFs should be displayed by a PDF viewer application

You can specify what page should be displayed when document is opened, which UI elements of a viewer application should be shown or hidden, how pages of your PDFs should be laid out on screen, and what else should be displayed along with pages.

Add labels to PDF pages

The library can read and create PDF page labels.

Using methods and properties of Docotic.Pdf you can add different kinds of labels to pages of your PDFs. You can mark pages with roman numerals or uppercase letters, for example.

Setup page size and properties

You can specify any size in pixels for any page in your documents. Or you can use one of predefined page sizes like A4, Legal or Folio.

Additional properties like orientation of a page (portrait or landscape) and rotation can also be easily set.

Please take a look at the sample that shows how you can setup various PDF page properties.

Split and combine PDF documents

Split and combine PDFs

Docotic.Pdf library can be used to split and merge PDF documents.

You can append one PDF document to another whenever you need to combine documents. And, of course, the library can extract or copy PDF pages from existing document to a new one.

Add, remove or reorder PDF pages

You can add new pages to PDF documents or remove existing ones with help of the library.

Take a look at samples that show how to add new pages and insert or remove existing PDF pages.

You can also change order of pages in your PDF documents.

Add and optimize images in PDFs

Add images to PDF files

You can add images in GIF / TIFF / PNG / BMP and JPEG formats to PDF documents.

The library will try to preserve format and color space of an image, if possible.

Multipage images are fully supported too. You can add just one page from a multipage image to a PDF document

The library supports transparent images. Transparency can be added to opaque images by using mask images or specifying color masks.

Optimize images in PDFs

Docotic.Pdf library can be used to optimize images in PDF documents.

You can recompress existing images and any images you want to add to a PDF document.

Images can be recompressed using JPEG, CCITT Group 3 and 4 (fax) and zip/deflate compression algorithms or completely uncompressed.

Existing images can also be resized or scaled to reduce PDF size even more.

Use legacy and non-standard images

The library supports images produced by legacy hardware like scanners and faxes.

In most cases you'll be able to use non-standard images that cannot be properly opened by image-related methods and classes in .NET framework.

Docotic.Pdf can even use partially broken images in some cases.

Vector shapes, colors, patterns, transparency and XObjects

Draw vector shapes

Docotic.Pdf library can be used to add vector lines and curves and shapes to PDF documents

You can construct graphics paths to be filled or stroked later, use any path for clipping purposes and also save and restore graphics state.

Add colors and patterns

You can use Gray, RGB and CMYK colors and tiling patterns to fill or stroke shapes and paths in your PDF documents.

The library can use color profiles to create calibrated colors.

Use transparency and XObjects

Semi-transparent colors and PDF form XObjects can be used to achieve nice visual effects.

You can specify how semi-transparent objects will blend on a canvas using set of predefined blend modes.

You can use XObjects to create watermarks, backgrounds or repeatable items for pages in your documents

Each XObject has its own canvas, so you can create XObjects as complex as regular PDF pages.

Use font and language you need

Draw beautiful looking text

The library can add text to documents that looks exactly as you want it to.

You can position your text with high precision.

Advanced properties like character and word spacing, text scaling, rise and rendering mode can also be used to fine tune how text in your PDF documents will look like.

Use a font and language you need

Docotic.Pdf library can draw Unicode text using Type1, TrueType and OpenType fonts.

You can use any font installed on your system, 14 built-in Type1 fonts or load a required font from a file.

The library can embed fonts into produced PDF documents.