ABCpdf .NET 8

The information on this page relates to an old version of ABCpdf.

Click here for information about the latest version of ABCpdf .NET.

If you want a quick overview you may be interested in the ABCpdf PDF Comparison Chart...

HTML import has been rewired to support different HTML engines. In addition to the MSHTML engine shipped with Windows, we have brewed up a modified version of Mozilla Firefox's Gecko engine and hooked it into ABCpdf. This means greater consistency across different machines and more compliant CSS syntax support. As added bonuses the Gecko layout engine supports repeated table headers (THEAD) and footers (TFOOT) and it allows different types of media such as screen and print to be specified via CSS. And the best thing of all... it's only one line of code to switch between engines!

We now support export to Word (docx) and HTML formats. Our native export module is designed to represent the structure of an exported PDF document in as complete and accurate a way as possible. In addition it can represent embedded document graphics in a variety of forms including VML, HTML Canvas and bitmapped image.

Tighter integration with MS Office applications such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint now means that you can produce PDF documents faster and more reliably than ever before.

ABCpdf now supports 256-bit AES encryption for the highest level of security. Read and write both AESV2 (128 bit) and AESV3 (256 bit) encoded PDF documents.

PDF rendering has been enhanced and optimized. Our across the board optimizations have dramatically increased speed for common rendering operations especially those involving large images. Plus we now support new export formats such as GIF with adaptive palette and true grayscale PNG.

Stream objects now support a wide range of compression options including ASCII 85, ASCII Hex, Flate, and Run Length. Added to our image DCT/JPEG, JPX/JPEG 2000 and JBIG2 compression formats, this means that ABCpdf now supports every compression method in the PDF specification bar, for legal reasons, LZW.

We've completely revamped our signature code for better and more Acrobat-like support. The new release includes validation of signatures using the same rule set as Acrobat. It supports signing and incremental signing of documents and allows you to use a time stamping service (TSS) to add an authoritative, time-of-signature stamp.

ABCpdf now divides x86 and x64 functionality into different DLLs with different names. This means it is much easier to deploy joint x86/x64 installations via the bin directory or installer. Plus there are new registration methods for easier installation of license keys under different deployment scenarios.

There are lots of updates to the example projects. For example the ContentExtract table has now been adapted to allow real-time, low-level editing and display of PDF documents. The new HtmlTables example extends the AddText function to allow tables and images to be inserted. It provides a simpler interface than previous table code and has proven easier for many people to understand.

It's been a long standing aim of ours to support clients using older versions of .NET. ABCpdf links dynamically into .NET 3.0 and later enabling features like WPF import and XPS export. However if you only have .NET 2.0 ABCpdf will still work fine with these features disabled.

ABCpdf is now supported with PDF 1.7 Extension Level 5 and Acrobat X. Plus it reads and fixes corrupt and non-standard formats of PDF generated by new updates of popular software.

What's New in Other Versions