devexpress/agent-skills/devexpress-office-file-api-pdf

DevExpress PDF Document API

The PDF Document API is a non-visual .NET library for creating, loading, editing, merging, splitting, signing, and extracting content from PDF documents — without requiring Adobe Acrobat. It supports both new document generation via a graphics API and processing of existing PDFs through PdfDocumentProcessor. Features include interactive AcroForm fields, digital signatures (PKCS#7, PAdES), password protection, annotations, bookmarks, hyperlinks, content extraction, and XMP metadata management.

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when you need to:

• Create new PDF files from scratch using a graphics drawing API
• Load and modify existing PDF files (rotate pages, add content, change properties)
• Merge multiple PDF files into one or split pages out of a document
• Add or reorder pages, copy pages between documents
• Draw text, images, rectangles, lines, ellipses, and paths on PDF pages
• Create interactive AcroForms (text boxes, check boxes, combo boxes, radio groups, signature fields)
• Read and write AcroForm field values, or flatten forms
• Apply digital signatures (PKCS#7, PAdES) using PFX files or custom signers (Azure Key Vault)
• Validate existing digital signatures in PDFs
• Protect PDFs with user/owner passwords and restrict permissions (printing, editing, copying)
• Add annotations (highlight, underline, sticky notes, redaction) to pages
• Add bookmarks, hyperlinks, and file attachments
• Extract text (with word coordinates), search text, or extract images from PDF pages
• Convert PDFs to PDF/A-1b, PDF/A-2b, PDF/A-3b compliance
• Read and write XMP metadata packets
• Print PDFs with custom printer settings

Prerequisites & Installation

NuGet Packages

.NET (8/9/10+)

dotnet add package DevExpress.Document.Processor
dotnet add package DevExpress.Pdf.SkiaRenderer  # For rendering/export on .NET 8+

.NET Framework (4.6.2+)

Install-Package DevExpress.Document.Processor

On .NET Framework, GDI+ is used for rendering — DevExpress.Pdf.SkiaRenderer is not required. See references/getting-started-dotnet-fw.md for assembly references.

Important: All DevExpress packages in a project must share the same version number. A valid DevExpress license is required.

Non-Windows Development (Linux, macOS, Docker, Cloud)

The library uses a platform-specific drawing engine: GDI+ on Windows, SkiaSharp elsewhere. The SkiaSharp-based engine (via DevExpress.Pdf.SkiaRenderer and DevExpress.Drawing.Skia) is enabled automatically on non-Windows platforms. Enable Settings.DrawingEngine at app startup only to force Skia on Windows (e.g., to work around the 10K GDI-handle limit).

See references/getting-started.md for the full non-Windows setup and troubleshooting guide.

Before You Start — Ask the Developer

If the host agent has a structured question-asking tool available, use it to ask these questions one at a time with clear options — for example, Claude Code's AskUserQuestion tool or GitHub Copilot's askQuestions tool. If no such tool is available, ask the questions directly in the chat response before generating code.

Before generating code, ask these questions to avoid rework:

General Questions

1. Target framework: Are you using .NET 8+ or .NET Framework 4.x?
2. New or existing project?: Creating new or adding to existing?
3. Hosting model: Console app, ASP.NET Core, Blazor, MAUI, WinForms, WPF, or something else?

PDF-Specific Questions

1. Operation type: Generate new PDF from scratch / read-extract from existing / merge-split / sign / protect / add interactive forms / add annotations?
2. Starting point: Create from scratch with graphics API / convert from another format / process an existing PDF?
3. Output needed: Modified PDF / extracted text or images / image render of pages / validated signature?

Rule: If the developer's answer is ambiguous or missing, ask before generating code. Do not guess.

Component Overview

The PDF Document API provides:

• Document processing (PdfDocumentProcessor): Open, save, merge, organize pages, rotate, resize, extract content, print
• Graphics drawing (PdfGraphics): Draw text, images, shapes, and links on new or existing pages
• Interactive forms (PdfAcroFormField, PdfDocumentFacade): Create, read, write, and flatten AcroForm fields
• Document security (PdfEncryptionOptions, PdfDocumentSigner, Pkcs7Signer): Password protection, digital signatures, signature validation
• Annotations (PdfPageFacade, PdfMarkupAnnotationFacade): Add, edit, and remove markup and redaction annotations
• Content extraction: Extract text with coordinates, search text, extract embedded images
• XMP metadata (XmpDocument): Read and write XMP metadata packets

Core Entry Points

using DevExpress.Pdf;
 
// --- Process an existing PDF ---
using (PdfDocumentProcessor processor = new PdfDocumentProcessor())
{
    processor.LoadDocument("input.pdf");
    // modify pages, extract content, sign, etc.
    processor.SaveDocument("output.pdf");
}
 
// --- Create a new PDF from scratch ---
using (PdfDocumentProcessor processor = new PdfDocumentProcessor())
{
    processor.CreateEmptyDocument("output.pdf");
    using (PdfGraphics graph = processor.CreateGraphicsPageSystem())
    {
        // draw content here
        processor.RenderNewPage(PdfPaperSize.Letter, graph);
    }
}

Documentation & Navigation Guide

Getting Started

Refer to references/getting-started.md

When you need to:

• Set up the PDF Document API for the first time (.NET 8+)
• Install NuGet packages and configure your project
• Create your first PDF document
• Load, modify, and save an existing PDF

Getting Started (.NET Framework)

Refer to references/getting-started-dotnet-fw.md

When you need to:

• Set up the PDF Document API in a .NET Framework 4.6.2+ project
• Reference the correct assemblies (GDI+ rendering path)
• Understand .NET Framework-specific limitations

Document Generation

Refer to references/document-generation.md

When you need to:

• Create a new PDF file from scratch
• Draw text, images, and shapes on pages
• Render pages from graphics content
• Set PDF/A compatibility mode
• Control font embedding

PDF Graphics API

Refer to references/pdf-graphics.md

When you need to:

• Draw text (DrawString), measure text (MeasureString)
• Draw images, rectangles, ellipses, lines, polygons, Bezier curves, paths
• Add hyperlinks to a page
• Apply transforms (scale, rotate, translate)
• Save and restore the graphics state
• Add graphics to an existing page foreground or background

Document Manipulation

Refer to references/document-manipulation.md

When you need to:

• Merge multiple PDFs into one
• Add, insert, copy, or delete pages
• Rotate or resize pages
• Scale, rotate, or offset page content
• Convert to PDF/A-2b or PDF/A-3b
• Optimize file size with object streams

Interactive Forms

Refer to references/interactive-forms.md

When you need to:

• Create text boxes, check boxes, combo boxes, list boxes, radio groups, or signature fields
• Read or write field values in an existing form
• Change form field appearance properties
• Flatten a form (bake fields into page content)
• Import/export AcroForm data

Document Security

Refer to references/document-security.md

When you need to:

• Protect a PDF with a user password (restrict opening)
• Protect a PDF with an owner password and restrict permissions (printing, copying, editing)
• Apply a PKCS#7 or PAdES digital signature using a PFX certificate
• Apply signatures with timestamps (TSA)
• Validate or verify existing signatures
• Use deferred or external signing (Azure Key Vault, hardware tokens)

Content Extraction

Refer to references/content-extraction.md

When you need to:

• Extract all text from a PDF page
• Search for a text string and get word/character coordinates
• Extract embedded images from pages
• Get word bounding boxes in page coordinates

Annotations

Refer to references/annotations.md

When you need to:

• Add markup annotations (highlight, underline, strikeout, squiggly)
• Add sticky notes or other markup annotation types
• Add redaction annotations and apply them
• Edit, flatten, or remove annotations
• Add comments or reviews to annotations

New PDF Document API (CTP — v26.1+)

CTP Warning: The new DevExpress.Docs.Pdf namespace is a Community Technology Preview. Do not use in mission-critical production applications.

A separate, object-oriented PDF API (PdfDocument, Page, fragment-based content model) is available as a CTP alongside this legacy API. Both can coexist in one project. Use the devexpress-pdf-new skill for the new API.

Quick Start Example

A complete example — create a PDF with a title, body text, and a colored rectangle:

using DevExpress.Drawing;
using DevExpress.Pdf;
using System.Drawing;
 
using (PdfDocumentProcessor processor = new PdfDocumentProcessor())
{
    // Create an empty document
    processor.CreateEmptyDocument("QuickStart.pdf");
 
    // Create a graphics context using the page coordinate system
    using (PdfGraphics graph = processor.CreateGraphicsPageSystem())
    {
        // Draw a filled rectangle (banner)
        graph.FillRectangle(new DXSolidBrush(Color.FromArgb(68, 114, 196)),
            new RectangleF(30, 30, 540, 60));
 
        // Draw title text in white
        using (DXFont titleFont = new DXFont("Arial", 24, DXFontStyle.Bold))
        {
            graph.DrawString("DevExpress PDF Report", titleFont,
                new DXSolidBrush(Color.White), 40, 45);
        }
 
        // Draw body text in black
        using (DXFont bodyFont = new DXFont("Arial", 11))
        {
            graph.DrawString(
                "This document was generated programmatically with the DevExpress PDF Document API.",
                bodyFont, new DXSolidBrush(Color.Black), 30, 120);
        }
 
        // Render the page (Letter size = 612 x 792 points)
        processor.RenderNewPage(PdfPaperSize.Letter, graph);
    }
}

What This Does

Creates a single-page Letter-size PDF with a blue banner, white title text, and a body paragraph. The file QuickStart.pdf is saved to the working directory. See examples/quickstart.cs for the full compilable console app version.

Key Properties & API Surface

PdfDocumentProcessor