PDF Viewer for WinForms
- 3 minutes to read
The DevExpress PDF Viewer displays PDF files directly in your WinForms application, without the need to install an external PDF Viewer on your machine.
If you are new to the PDF Viewer, we recommend that you first review the following introductory documents:
Access and Edit Document Content
The PDF Viewer allows users to perform the following actions with PDF documents:
- Work with fillable forms. You can edit form fields, import and export form field data to FDF, XFDF, XML, and TXT formats.
- Copy document content. Copy selected text or images with a shortcut or from a context menu.
- Print PDF documents. The built-in Print dialog allows you to specify the number of copies, select the page range to print, and set the page size and orientation.
- Search for a text string. You can use the Find panel to search the PDF content (options include case-sensitive and whole word searches).
Additional Content
The PDF Viewer allows you to work with additional document elements:
- Bookmarks
- Bookmarks (or outlines) help users quickly navigate to a page in the document or to an external URI.
- Hyperlinks
- A hyperlink is a reference to data that you can directly follow by clicking a document page. Hyperlinks can point to a page, an external document, or to a URI.
- File Attachments
- A document can contain multiple file attachments in any format (images, text files, PDF files, etc.).
- Annotations
- The PDF Viewer allows you to create, edit, or remove text annotations (sticky notes) and text markup annotations (text highlights). You can also add comments and reviews associated with annotations.
- Layers
- Allows you to control the visibility of layers in a document.
PDF Viewer UI
The PDF Viewer for WinForms ships with a comprehensive User Interface. Use it to adjust the document view: rotate a document clockwise and counterclockwise, zoom page content, and switch between recently used page display styles.
The PDF Viewer supports a number of interaction modes for the keyboard and mouse cursor: hand tool, marque zoom tool, among others. Change the cursor mode in the context menu or select the tool in the Command UI.
The PDF Viewer supports reading documents with screen readers. This makes it easier for visually impaired users to navigate and access content. The reader can now read the document line-by-line, word-by-word, letter-by-letter and read an alt text of the image inside the PDF document.
The Navigation Pane allows you to jump to bookmarked pages, use a thumbnail image to go to a specific page, and organize attachments and annotations.
For more information about the UI elements mentioned above, refer to the following help topics:
DevExpress PDF Document API
The PDF Document API library offers several unique features you may find useful for your PDF Viewer app:
- Export and import interactive form data in code
- Password-protect a document and specify a signature
- Edit form field properties
- Manage annotations
- Clear page content
PDF Document API is available as part of the Office File API Subscription or Universal Subscription. For pricing information, refer to the following page: Subscription Comparison.