Cspdf is a powerful, feature-rich PDF library for .NET that provides comprehensive PDF creation, manipulation, and processing capabilities. It aims to be a complete alternative to commercial PDF libraries like iText 7.
- PDF Creation: Create PDF documents from scratch
- PDF Reading: Open and parse existing PDF documents
- PDF Manipulation: Merge, split, rotate, and modify PDFs
- Text Rendering: Draw text with custom fonts, colors, and styles
- Image Support: Add images to PDF documents
- Graphics Drawing: Draw shapes, lines, polygons, and paths
- Tables: Create and render tables with customizable styling
- Forms: Create interactive PDF forms (text fields, checkboxes, radio buttons, comboboxes)
- Watermarks: Add text or image watermarks to pages
- Digital Signatures: Sign PDF documents with certificates
- Security: Password protection and permission settings
- Bookmarks: Create document outlines and navigation
- Annotations: Add text annotations, highlights, links, and free text
- HTML to PDF: Convert HTML content to PDF
- Barcode Generation: Generate various barcode types (Code128, Code39, QR Code, etc.)
- Metadata: Set document metadata (title, author, subject, keywords, etc.)
- Text Extraction: Extract text content from PDF documents
- OCR Support: Interface for OCR (Optical Character Recognition) integration
- PDF/A Compliance: Create and validate PDF/A compliant documents
- Tagged PDF (PDF/UA): Create accessible PDFs with structure tags
- Stamping: Overlay content on existing PDF documents
- XFA Forms: Support for XFA (XML Forms Architecture) forms
- Redaction: Remove sensitive information from PDFs
- PDF Optimization: Optimize PDF file size and performance
- Page Numbering: Add page numbers with customizable formatting
- Data Extraction: Extract structured data from PDFs (pdf2Data equivalent)
dotnet add package CspdfOr via NuGet Package Manager:
Install-Package Cspdf
using Cspdf;
using System.Drawing;
// Create a new PDF document
using var document = new PdfDocument();
// Add a page
var page = document.AddPage(PageSize.A4, PageOrientation.Portrait);
var graphics = page.Graphics;
// Draw text
using var font = new Font("Arial", 16, FontStyle.Bold);
using var brush = new SolidBrush(Color.Black);
graphics.DrawString("Hello, Cspdf!", font, brush, 50, 50);
// Save the document
document.Save("output.pdf");using var document = new PdfDocument();
var page = document.AddPage();
// Create a table
var table = new PdfTable();
table.ColumnWidths = new float[] { 100, 200, 150 };
// Add header
var headerRow = table.AddHeaderRow();
headerRow.AddCell("Name");
headerRow.AddCell("Email");
headerRow.AddCell("Phone");
// Add data rows
table.AddRow("John Doe", "john@example.com", "123-456-7890");
table.AddRow("Jane Smith", "jane@example.com", "098-765-4321");
// Draw the table
table.Draw(page.Graphics, 50, 50, 450);
document.Save("table.pdf");using var document = new PdfDocument();
var page = document.AddPage();
// Create watermark
var watermark = new Watermark
{
Text = "CONFIDENTIAL",
Font = new Font("Arial", 48, FontStyle.Bold),
Color = Color.FromArgb(128, 128, 128, 128),
Rotation = -45f,
Opacity = 0.3f
};
// Apply to all pages
document.ApplyWatermark(watermark);
document.Save("watermarked.pdf");var html = @"
<html>
<body>
<h1>Hello from HTML!</h1>
<p>This is converted from HTML to PDF.</p>
</body>
</html>";
var document = HtmlToPdf.Convert(html);
document.Save("html-output.pdf");var doc1 = PdfDocument.Open("file1.pdf");
var doc2 = PdfDocument.Open("file2.pdf");
var doc3 = PdfDocument.Open("file3.pdf");
var merged = PdfDocument.Merge(doc1, doc2, doc3);
merged.Save("merged.pdf");using var document = new PdfDocument();
var page = document.AddPage();
// Create text field
var textField = new PdfTextField
{
Name = "name",
Bounds = new RectangleF(50, 50, 200, 30),
Value = "Enter your name"
};
// Create checkbox
var checkbox = new PdfCheckBox
{
Name = "agree",
Bounds = new RectangleF(50, 100, 20, 20),
Checked = true
};
// Add to document
document.AddFormField(textField);
document.AddFormField(checkbox);
// Draw form fields
foreach (var field in document.FormFields)
{
field.Draw(page.Graphics);
}
document.Save("form.pdf");using var document = new PdfDocument();
var page = document.AddPage();
// Generate barcode
var barcode = BarcodeGenerator.GenerateBarcode(
"1234567890",
BarcodeGenerator.BarcodeType.Code128,
width: 200,
height: 100
);
// Draw barcode
page.Graphics.DrawImage(barcode, 50, 50);
document.Save("barcode.pdf");using var document = new PdfDocument();
// ... add content ...
var signature = new DigitalSignature
{
Certificate = new X509Certificate2("certificate.pfx", "password"),
Reason = "Document approval",
Location = "Office",
ContactInfo = "contact@example.com"
};
using var outputStream = new FileStream("signed.pdf", FileMode.Create);
signature.Sign(document, outputStream);using var document = PdfDocument.Open("document.pdf");
// Extract all text
var text = document.ExtractText();
Console.WriteLine(text);
// Extract with positions
var chunks = TextExtractor.ExtractTextWithPositions(document);
foreach (var chunk in chunks)
{
Console.WriteLine($"Page {chunk.PageIndex}: {chunk.Text} at ({chunk.X}, {chunk.Y})");
}using var document = new PdfDocument();
// ... add content ...
// Convert to PDF/A-2b
var pdfA = PdfACompliance.ConvertToPdfA(document, PdfAConformanceLevel.A2b);
pdfA.Save("pdfa-document.pdf");
// Validate PDF/A compliance
var result = PdfACompliance.Validate(document, PdfAConformanceLevel.A2b);
if (result.IsCompliant)
{
Console.WriteLine("Document is PDF/A compliant!");
}
else
{
Console.WriteLine($"Errors: {string.Join(", ", result.Errors)}");
}using var document = PdfDocument.Open("existing.pdf");
var stamper = document.CreateStamper();
// Stamp text on first page
stamper.StampText(0, "APPROVED", 50, 50,
new Font("Arial", 24, FontStyle.Bold),
new SolidBrush(Color.Green));
// Stamp image on all pages
var logo = Image.FromFile("logo.png");
for (int i = 0; i < document.Pages.Count; i++)
{
stamper.StampImage(i, logo, 500, 50);
}
document.Save("stamped.pdf");using var document = PdfDocument.Open("document.pdf");
var redactor = document.CreateRedactor();
// Redact a region on page 0
redactor.AddRedaction(0, new RectangleF(100, 200, 300, 50), Color.Black);
// Apply redactions
var redacted = redactor.Apply();
redacted.Save("redacted.pdf");using var document = PdfDocument.Open("large.pdf");
var options = new PdfOptimizer.OptimizationOptions
{
CompressImages = true,
ImageQuality = 85,
RemoveUnusedObjects = true,
Linearize = true
};
var optimized = PdfOptimizer.Optimize(document, options);
optimized.Save("optimized.pdf");
// Get statistics
var stats = PdfOptimizer.GetStatistics(document);
Console.WriteLine($"Pages: {stats.PageCount}, Has Forms: {stats.HasForms}");using var document = new PdfDocument();
// ... add pages ...
var options = new PageNumberOptions
{
Position = PageNumberPosition.BottomCenter,
Format = "Page {page} of {total}",
Font = new Font("Arial", 10),
Color = Color.Gray
};
document.AddPageNumbers(options);
document.Save("numbered.pdf");using var document = PdfDocument.Open("invoice.pdf");
var template = new ExtractionTemplate();
template.AddField("InvoiceNumber", FieldType.Text)
.Label = "Invoice #:";
template.AddField("Amount", FieldType.Currency)
.Pattern = @"\$[\d,]+\.\d{2}";
template.AddField("Date", FieldType.Date)
.Label = "Date:";
var data = DataExtractor.ExtractData(document, template);
var json = DataExtractor.ExtractDataAsJson(document, template);
Console.WriteLine(json);var document = new PdfDocument();
// ... add pages ...
var bookmark1 = document.AddBookmark("Introduction", 0);
var bookmark2 = document.AddBookmark("Chapter 1", 1);
bookmark1.AddChild("Section 1.1", 2);var page = document.AddPage();
var annotation = new TextAnnotation
{
Bounds = new RectangleF(100, 100, 200, 50),
Title = "Note",
Contents = "This is an important note",
Icon = "Note"
};
page.Annotations.Add(annotation);document.Security = new DocumentSecurity
{
UserPassword = "user123",
OwnerPassword = "owner123",
AllowPrinting = true,
AllowCopy = false,
AllowModifyContents = false
};PdfDocument: Main document classPdfPage: Represents a page in the documentIGraphics: Interface for drawing operationsPdfTable: Table creation and renderingWatermark: Watermark functionalityDigitalSignature: Digital signature supportHtmlToPdf: HTML to PDF conversionBarcodeGenerator: Barcode generation
PageSize: A0, A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, A6, Letter, Legal, etc.PageOrientation: Portrait, Landscape
- .NET 8.0 or later
- System.Drawing.Common
Note: Currently, System.Drawing.Common is primarily supported on Windows. For cross-platform support, we recommend using Windows or Windows Server environments. Cross-platform graphics support is planned for future releases.
MIT License
Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.
- Stamping: Overlay content on existing PDFs
- Redaction: Remove sensitive information
- PDF Optimization: Compress and optimize PDFs
- Page Numbering: Automatic page numbering
- Data Extraction: Extract structured data from PDFs
- Enhanced PDF parsing with full content stream support
- Complete XFA form flattening
- Full PDF/A validation and compliance
- OCR engine integration (Tesseract, etc.)
- Advanced typography (pdfCalligraph equivalent)
- Better HTML/CSS rendering with full CSS support
- Font embedding and subsetting
- Advanced encryption algorithms
For issues, questions, or contributions, please open an issue on GitHub.