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Version: Version 1.9

Pdftools SDK overview

The Pdftools SDK lets you build software that processes PDFs at a large scale. The SDK is delivered as a high-performance native library and works with C, .NET, C#, Java, and Python, letting the developers embed PDF functionality into backend systems, desktop apps, and server-side automation.

The SDK consolidates fundamental PDF processing pipelines, such as PDF/A conversion, optimization, document assembly, and PDF-to-image or image-to-PDF workflows, into one single high-level API that developers integrate directly into their applications.

The Pdftools SDK is made for engineering teams that need:

  • Explicit control over document processing steps
  • Stable interfaces across platforms and languages
  • Custom workflow implementation for archiving, compression, conversion, signature services, and much more
  • Large-scale document processing systems
  • High-performance native libraries with a small memory footprint and predictable runtime behavior

What Pdftools SDK doesn’t include

The Pdftools SDK is focused on fundamental PDF processing pipelines and doesn’t include:

  • Viewer components. Review the PDF Viewer SDK for viewing features.
  • Job orchestration, distribution for scaling, UI or low-code-driven document processing pipelines. Check out the Conversion Service instead.
  • Low-level PDF manipulation, create new PDFs, set metadata, manipulate and edit PDF content. Use the Toolbox add-on instead.
  • Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) and other machine learning document intelligence features.