Xceed PDF Library 2.0 — 41 new features

This major update introduces 41 new features, 14 breaking changes, and 10 bug fixes. The result is a significantly more powerful and flexible API for .NET document processing.

Digital signatures and certification

PDF Library 2.0 now supports digitally signing, certifying, and validating PDF documents. Furthermore, new validation APIs let developers verify both document-level signatures and form field signatures directly. As a result, workflows that previously required third-party PDF tools can now run entirely within .NET.

Advanced bookmark support

Working with bookmarks is now significantly more capable. Specifically, developers can add bookmarks to a document, create hierarchical structures, and manage them through the new BookmarkCollection. Additionally, bookmarks now support styling properties — bold, italic, custom title color, and expanded state — giving you full control over navigation trees.

Flexible document splitting and merging

PDF manipulation capabilities have expanded considerably. Developers can now split documents by bookmarks, individual pages, or page ranges using new configuration classes: SplitByBookmarkOptions, SplitByPageOptions, and MergeOptions. Consequently, you get precise control over how to process and recombine documents.

Page management improvements

Page handling is now more flexible because developers can insert pages at any position in the PageCollection, reorder existing pages, and retrieve page indexes. This makes document restructuring far easier than before.

Image insertion improvements

Developers can now create images directly from file paths or streams. As a result, this simplifies workflows involving dynamic content or externally generated images — no intermediate conversions needed.

Document cleanup and object removal

It’s now possible to remove or clear bookmarks, attachments, signatures, form fields, hyperlinks, watermarks, and pages from existing documents. These additions give developers far greater control when modifying PDFs, whether for redaction, cleanup, or template preparation.

Improved form field editing

Developers can now modify properties for many form field types after creation — including ComboBoxFormField, DateTimeFormField, ListBoxFormField, NumberFormField, TextBoxFormField, PushButtonFormField, RadioButtonFormField, and RadioButtonGroupFormField. What’s more, you can also edit document metadata through DocumentInformations.

Font embedding control

A new FontEmbeddingMode enumeration lets developers control how the library embeds TrueType fonts in generated PDFs. This provides more flexibility when optimizing file size or ensuring document portability across systems.

Important API changes in PDF Library 2.0

PDF Library 2.0 includes several breaking changes designed to modernize the API. While these require migration effort, they ultimately result in a cleaner, more consistent developer experience.

Removal of Xceed.Drawing dependency

Xceed.PdfLibrary no longer depends on Xceed.Drawing.NET.dll. Instead, reference color types directly from the Xceed.PdfLibrary namespace.

Brush and Pen replace Color properties

In the TextStyle class, Brush replaces FillColor and Pen replaces StrokeColor. The team updated several methods accordingly, so check the migration guide if you’re upgrading from 1.x.

Pen class renaming

To improve naming consistency, the team renamed StrokeColor to Color, StrokeWidth to Thickness, and updated the corresponding setter methods as well. Overall, these changes modernize the API and provide greater flexibility when working with text styling and drawing operations.

Xceed Words for .NET 5.2

This service release introduces 2 new features and 8 bug fixes for Xceed Words para .NET.

Developers can now hide comments by marking them as resolved — a frequently requested feature for document review workflows. Additionally, you can now split table cells into multiple rows and columns, which gives more control over complex table layouts.

The team also improved the HTML parser and PDF conversion engine, specifically enhancing layout handling, base64 image support, and table rendering.

Xceed Toolkit Plus for WPF 5.1

This update includes 1 new feature and 5 bug fixes for Toolkit Plus for WPF.

DateTimePicker now includes a new AutoCloseCalendarOnTodayButton property. This determines whether the calendar popup automatically closes when the user clicks the Today button — a small but useful UX improvement for date-heavy applications.

Xceed DataGrid for WPF 7.3

This service release for DataGrid para WPF resolves two issues:

• A NullReferenceException when opening the print preview window under certain printer configurations
• A NullReferenceException in HeaderFooterItem.PrepareContainer during grid initialization

Suite updates

Xceed Business Suite has been updated with the latest improvements across all included components. Xceed Ultimate Suite now includes PDF Library 2.0.

Get the update

All updates are available now. For the complete list of changes and migration details, consult the full release notes. You can also start a free trial or update your existing packages through NuGet.