Build a .NET Framework PDF library app with Apryse Server SDK

1. Download and unzip the PDFNetDotNet4.zip file.
2. Copy the extracted /PDFNetDotNet4/Lib folder.
3. Go to your project's folder. By default, the path is similar to:

1C:\Users\<your_name>\source\repos\<project_name>\<project_name>

4. Paste the /PDFNetDotNet4/Lib folder you copied into the project folder that contains your .csproj or .vbproj file. The resulting structure looks similar to:

1C:\Users\<your_name>\source\repos\
2└── apryse-console-app\
3    └── apryse-console-app\
4        ├── bin\
5        ├── obj\
6        ├── Properties\
7        ├── Lib\
8        │   ├── PDFNetLoader.dll
9        │   └── PDFNet\
10        │       ├── x64\
11        │       │   └── PDFNet.dll
12        │       └── x86\
13        │           └── PDFNet.dll
14        ├── App.config
15        ├── apryse-console-app.csproj
16        └── Program.cs

1C:\Users\<your_name>\source\repos\
2└── apryse-console-app\
3    └── apryse-console-app\
4        ├── bin\
5        ├── My Project\
6        ├── obj\
7        ├── Lib\
8        │   ├── PDFNetLoader.dll
9        │   └── PDFNet\
10        │       ├── x64\
11        │       │   └── PDFNet.dll
12        │       └── x86\
13        │           └── PDFNet.dll
14        ├── App.config
15        ├── apryse-console-app.vbproj
16        └── Module1.vb

5. In the Solution Explorer in Visual Studio, right-click References > Add Reference.

6. In the Reference Manager modal, click Browse.

7. Add the copied Lib\PDFNetLoader.dll folder from the following location to the references, and click OK:

1C:\Users\<your_name>\source\repos\apryse-console-app\apryse-console-app\Lib\PDFNetLoader.dll

8. Add the following x86 version of PDFNet.dll as a reference, then click OK:

1C:\Users\<your_name>\source\repos\apryse-console-app\apryse-console-app\Lib\PDFNet\x86\PDFNet.dll

9. In the Solution Explorer, select References > PDFNet, and set its Copy Local property to False.

10. Click to open the App.config file from the Solution Explorer, add the following loadFromRemoteSources property, and save:

1<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
2<configuration>
3    ...
4    <runtime>
5        <loadFromRemoteSources enabled="true" />
6    </runtime>
7    ...
8</configuration>

11. Right-click your project and select Properties.

1xcopy "$(ProjectDir)Lib\PDFNet" "$(TargetDir)PDFNet" /S /I /Y

1xcopy "$(ProjectDir)Lib\PDFNet" "$(TargetDir)PDFNet" /S /I /Y

12. In Solution Explorer, open the source file for your project (Program.cs for C# or Module1.vb for VB). Replace the file contents with the following code, update your license key, and save:

1using System;
2// Most commonly used namespaces for Apryse SDK.
3using pdftron;
4using pdftron.Common;
5using pdftron.PDF;
6using pdftron.SDF;
7namespace myApp
8{
9    class Program
10    {
11       // Load appropriate PDFNet libraries at runtime
12        // Automatically load 32-bit or 64-bit binary for app's architecture
13        private static pdftron.PDFNetLoader pdfNetLoader = pdftron.PDFNetLoader.Instance();
14        static void Main(string[] args)
15        {
16            // Initialize PDFNet before using any Apryse related
17            // classes and methods (some exceptions can be found in API)
18            PDFNet.Initialize("YOUR_LICENSE_KEY");
19            // Using PDFNet related classes and methods, must
20            // catch or throw PDFNetException
21            try
22            {
23                using (PDFDoc doc = new PDFDoc())
24                {
25                    doc.InitSecurityHandler();
26                    // An example of creating a new page and adding it to
27                    // doc's sequence of pages
28                    Page newPg = doc.PageCreate();
29                    doc.PagePushBack(newPg);
30                    // Save as a linearized file which is most popular
31                    // and effective format for quick PDF Viewing.
32                    doc.Save("output.pdf", SDFDoc.SaveOptions.e_linearized);
33                    System.Console.WriteLine("Done. Results saved in output.pdf");
34                }
35            }
36            catch (PDFNetException e)
37            {
38                System.Console.WriteLine(e.Message);
39            }
40            PDFNet.Terminate();
41        }
42    }
43}

1'Default namespace
2Imports System
3
4'Majority of Apryse SDK can be used with these namespaces
5Imports pdftron
6Imports pdftron.Common
7Imports pdftron.SDF
8Imports pdftron.PDF
9
10Module Module1
11
12    ' Required for AnyCPU implementation
13    ' Load appropriate PDFNet libraries at runtime
14    ' Automatically load 32-bit or 64-bit binary for app's architecture
15    Dim pdfNetLoader As PDFNetLoader
16    Sub New()
17    pdfNetLoader = pdftron.PDFNetLoader.Instance()
18    End Sub
19
20    Sub Main()
21        ' Initialize PDFNet before using any Apryse related
22        ' classes and methods (some exceptions can be found in API)
23        PDFNet.Initialize("YOUR_LICENSE_KEY")
24
25        ' Using PDFNet related classes and methods,
26        ' must catch or throw PDFNetException
27        Try
28
29            Using doc As PDFDoc = New PDFDoc
30
31                ' An example of creating a new page and adding it to
32                ' doc's sequence of pages
33                Dim newPg As Page = doc.PageCreate()
34                doc.PagePushBack(newPg)
35
36                ' Save as a linearized file which is most popular
37                ' and effective format for quick PDF Viewing.
38                doc.Save("output.pdf", SDFDoc.SaveOptions.e_linearized)
39                Console.WriteLine("Done. Results saved in output.pdf")
40            End Using
41
42        Catch e As PDFNetException
43            Console.WriteLine(e)
44        End Try
45    End Sub
46
47End Module

With this code, you can:

• Import the required Apryse SDK namespaces.
• Load the correct PDFNet native libraries based on the application's architecture.
• Initialize the Apryse SDK with a license key.
• Create a new PDF document, add a blank page, and save it as a linearized PDF.
• Handle SDK exceptions and automatically release resources.
• Terminate the Apryse SDK when processing is complete.

About PDFNetLoader

The steps in this section use PDFNetLoader to support both 32-bit and 64-bit processes from a single build. This approach deploys both the x86 and x64 versions of PDFNet.dll and automatically loads the appropriate version at runtime based on the application's architecture.

For most applications, this level of flexibility is not required. If your application targets a specific architecture, such as x64 or x86, reference the corresponding version of PDFNet.dll directly, set Copy Local to True, update the project's Platform target in Visual Studio, and remove both PDFNetLoader.dll and the PDFNetLoader initialization code.

If your application must support both 32-bit and 64-bit environments, you can continue using PDFNetLoader. Another option is to deploy only the appropriate version of PDFNet.dll based on the target system. For example, a 64-bit installation can deploy the x64 version of PDFNet.dll, while a 32-bit installation can deploy the x86 version. Since only one version is installed, PDFNetLoader is not required.

In summary, PDFNetLoader is primarily intended for Any CPU applications that need to support both 32-bit and 64-bit processes from the same build. Applications that target a specific architecture can usually reference the appropriate version of PDFNet.dll directly.

For more, see our blog post about PDFNetLoader.