The Adobe PDF Library (APDFL) is an Application Programming Interface (API) designed to allow programmers to work with the Adobe PDF file format.  The APDFL Software Development Kit (SDK) provides a method for software developers and vendors to build their own third-party systems that allow them to create, change, process, review, and otherwise work with PDF files.  The tools in the library are based on the Adobe Acrobat software but will run independently, so that a copy of Adobe Acrobat does not need to be installed.

Datalogics has also provided a set of interfaces to the Adobe PDF Library, one for Java programming, one for the .NET framework, and one for .NET Core. These interfaces offer a set of modules for the APDFL that allow programmers working in Java or C#, or other languages supported by Microsoft .NET, to take advantage of tools and resources provided with the Adobe PDF Library. The three interfaces offered, for Java, .NET, and .NET Core, encapsulate the original Adobe PDF Library; for each you can work with the original library functions directly, and seamlessly, in Java or .NET.

Some scenarios for building programs in Java and .NET

You are a programmer, working for a firm that needs to create, manage, and work with PDF files.  You need to add code to one of your internal applications or to a product that you plan to resell that will generate a set of PDF output files, or that draws data from a set of PDF files.

We offer in this section some scenarios that describe ways to use the Java, .NET, and .NET Core programming interfaces to the Adobe PDF Library.