Table of Contents

Getting started

Install

dotnet add package NetPdfKit

The package targets net8.0, net9.0, and net10.0 and works on Windows, macOS, and Linux. Fonts are resolved from the operating system's font directories on all platforms — on minimal Linux containers, install a font package such as fonts-liberation or fonts-dejavu-core.

Create your first PDF

The coordinate-based builder gives you precise control. Coordinates are PDF points (1/72 inch) measured from the top-left corner, and page indexes are 0-based everywhere.

using NetPdf;

PdfFile.Create()
    .WithMetadata(m => m.Title("Report").Author("Me"))
    .AddPage(page => page
        .AddText("Hello, world", x: 50, y: 50, o => o.FontSize(24).Bold())
        .AddText("Wrapped body text…", x: 50, y: 100, o => o.Wrap(400))
        .AddImage("logo.png", x: 50, y: 200, width: 150)
        .AddRectangle(50, 400, 200, 80, fill: System.Drawing.Color.LightGray)
        .AddEllipse(300, 400, 100, 60, fill: System.Drawing.Color.LightBlue)
        .AddRoundedRectangle(50, 500, 200, 60, cornerRadius: 8)
        .AddWebLink(50, 50, 200, 24, "https://example.com/"))
    .WithOutline(o => o
        .AddBookmark("Introduction", 0))
    .Save("report.pdf");

Text supports styling and layout options: Bold(), Italic(), Underline(), Strikethrough(), Align(TextAlignment.Center), Wrap(width), and LineSpacing(1.5).

Two ways to author documents

NetPdf has two authoring models — pick the one that fits:

  1. Coordinate drawing (PdfFile.Create(), shown above) — you place every element at explicit x/y positions. Best for stamps, forms, and pixel-precise output.
  2. Fluent layout (Document.Create(...)) — content is measured and paginated automatically, with repeating headers/footers and page numbers. Best for reports and flowing documents. See Fluent layout.

Next steps

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