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PDFL Overview
Designed specifically for OEMs, ISVs, system integrators, and enterprise IT developers, the Adobe PDF Library (PDFL) SDK contains a powerful set of functions for developing third-party solutions and workflows built upon the Adobe PDF standard. The Adobe PDF Library is based on Acrobat offers complete functionality for generating, manipulating, rendering, and printing Adobe PDF documents.
The PDFL SDK is available by license and provides unparalleled quality and reliability of proven Adobe PDF technology, allowing third-party developers to support the Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) within their own standalone applications. Developers can flexibly implement and develop powerful Adobe PDF solutions in desktop environments as well as a wide range of server platforms. They can also take advantage of full compatibility with the latest PDF specification; full interoperability with Adobe products; consistent, reliable support on a broad range of platforms (see details below); as well as high-performance, scalability, and optimized PDF processing.
The Adobe PDF Library SDK includes the following:
- Core dynamic Libraries
- Header files
- Complete documentation, including an application programming interface (API)
- Reference guide
- Fonts
- 17 completely functional solution samples
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Key benefits
- Unparalleled quality and reliability of proven Adobe PDF technology
- Implementation flexibility for developing powerful Adobe PDF solutions in both desktop and server environments
- Standalone, thread-safe libraries
- Full compatibility with the latest specification of PDF language
- Full interoperability with Adobe products
- Consistent, reliable support on a broad range of platforms
- High-performance, scalable, and optimized PDF processing
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Adobe PDF Library customers
Some of the most recognizable customers of the Adobe PDF Library are prominent Adobe products, including Adobe Acrobat, Reader, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and FrameMaker software; the Adobe PostScript language; and others. However, the Adobe PDF Library SDK was specifically created to support OEMs, systems integrators, independent software vendors, and enterprise IT developers who want to incorporate Adobe PDF functionality into new or existing applications and workflows.
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Broad multi-platform support
Adobe PDF Library is supported across the following platforms:
- Microsoft Windows (64-bit)
- Macintosh (64-bit)
- Linux (64-bit)
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Availability
The Adobe PDF Library SDK is available from Adobe through a license agreement to OEMs, ISV integrators, and enterprise IT developers on a case-by-case basis. The first step in the licensing the Adobe PDF Library is to fill out the information request form. The Adobe PDF Library is also available through our exclusive partner: Datalogics.
Existing Adobe PDF Library customers can contact their Adobe Sales Point of Contact to get access to PDF Library.
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Developer support and maintenance
Major releases of the Adobe PDF Library SDK coincide with releases of the Acrobat software family and Adobe PDF specification. To provide improvements based on developer feedback, interim releases of the Library are made available on a regular basis. In addition, Adobe provides in-
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Support and contacts
The Acrobat Developer Support team supports software development with the Acrobat SDK’s core APIs. Developers can purchase support via the Adobe Creative Cloud Exchange Developer Support program. Supported SDK development activities include those for which the product is designed, tested, and licensed. Acrobat Developer Support does not support use cases that do not involve the Acrobat core API.
Only the last two major SDK versions with interim updates are eligible for support.
Note
For non-programmatic issues, such as questions about installing, using, customizing, or deploying Acrobat, contact Acrobat Technical Support.
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Community forum
To participate in the developer community, see Adobe’s Acrobat SDK forum.
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Documentation
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Related specifications
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PDF Reference
- Latest Adobe support: PDF Reference 1.7.pdf
- PDF Reference 1.6.pdf
- PDF Reference 1.5_v6.pdf
- PDF Reference 1.4.pdf
- PDF Reference 1.3.pdf
- PDF Reference 1.2.pdf
- PDF Reference 1.0.pdf
Note
You may also wish to refer to the latest ISO reference.
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Other formats
Verify the latest versions from the organization’s home page:
- Compact font format: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/typography/opentype/spec/cff
- Open Prepress Interface (OPI): https://www.pdfa.org/norm-refs/5660_OPI_2_0.pdf
- XFA: https://www.pdfa.org/norm-refs/XFA-3_3.pdf
- XFDF: https://www.iso.org/standard/74272.html
- PRC (and U3D): https://www.iso.org/standard/54948.html
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12.x and earlier documentation
Deprecated documentation is not available online. For access to other versions of the developer documentation, contact acrobat-sdk-users@adobe.com.
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