How to Migrate from DinkToPdf to IronPDF in C#

Prerequisites

Ensure your environment meets these requirements:

• .NET Framework 4.6.2+ or .NET Core 3.1 / .NET 5-9
• Visual Studio 2019+ or VS Code with C# extension
• NuGet Package Manager access
• IronPDF license key (free trial available at ironpdf.com)

Audit DinkToPdf Usage

Run these commands in your solution directory to identify all DinkToPdf references:

# Find all DinkToPdf usages in your codebase
grep -r "using DinkToPdf" --include="*.cs" .
grep -r "SynchronizedConverter\|HtmlToPdfDocument\|ObjectSettings" --include="*.cs" .

# Find NuGet package references
grep -r "DinkToPdf" --include="*.csproj" .

# Find wkhtmltopdf binaries
find . -name "libwkhtmltox*"

# Find all DinkToPdf usages in your codebase
grep -r "using DinkToPdf" --include="*.cs" .
grep -r "SynchronizedConverter\|HtmlToPdfDocument\|ObjectSettings" --include="*.cs" .

# Find NuGet package references
grep -r "DinkToPdf" --include="*.csproj" .

# Find wkhtmltopdf binaries
find . -name "libwkhtmltox*"

Breaking Changes to Anticipate

Step 1: Update NuGet Packages

Remove DinkToPdf and install IronPDF:

# Remove DinkToPdf
dotnet remove package DinkToPdf

# Install IronPDF
dotnet add package IronPdf

# Remove DinkToPdf
dotnet remove package DinkToPdf

# Install IronPDF
dotnet add package IronPdf

Step 2: Remove Native Binaries

Delete these platform-specific files from your project:

• libwkhtmltox.dll (Windows)
• libwkhtmltox.so (Linux)
• libwkhtmltox.dylib (macOS)

IronPDF has no native dependencies—everything is managed code.

Step 3: Update Namespace References

Replace DinkToPdf namespaces with IronPDF:

// Remove these
using DinkToPdf;
using DinkToPdf.Contracts;

// Add this
using IronPdf;

// Remove these
using DinkToPdf;
using DinkToPdf.Contracts;

// Add this
using IronPdf;

Step 4: Configure License

// Add at application startup (Program.cs or Global.asax)
IronPdf.License.LicenseKey = "YOUR-LICENSE-KEY";

// Add at application startup (Program.cs or Global.asax)
IronPdf.License.LicenseKey = "YOUR-LICENSE-KEY";

Core Class Mapping

GlobalSettings Mapping

MarginSettings Mapping

Basic HTML to PDF

The fundamental conversion demonstrates the dramatic simplification from DinkToPdf's verbose configuration to IronPDF's streamlined API.

DinkToPdf Implementation:

// NuGet: Install-Package DinkToPdf
using DinkToPdf;
using DinkToPdf.Contracts;
using System.IO;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        var converter = new SynchronizedConverter(new PdfTools());
        var doc = new HtmlToPdfDocument()
        {
            GlobalSettings = {
                ColorMode = ColorMode.Color,
                Orientation = Orientation.Portrait,
                PaperSize = PaperKind.A4,
            },
            Objects = {
                new ObjectSettings() {
                    HtmlContent = "<h1>Hello World</h1><p>This is a PDF from HTML.</p>",
                    WebSettings = { DefaultEncoding = "utf-8" }
                }
            }
        };
        byte[] pdf = converter.Convert(doc);
        File.WriteAllBytes("output.pdf", pdf);
    }
}

// NuGet: Install-Package DinkToPdf
using DinkToPdf;
using DinkToPdf.Contracts;
using System.IO;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        var converter = new SynchronizedConverter(new PdfTools());
        var doc = new HtmlToPdfDocument()
        {
            GlobalSettings = {
                ColorMode = ColorMode.Color,
                Orientation = Orientation.Portrait,
                PaperSize = PaperKind.A4,
            },
            Objects = {
                new ObjectSettings() {
                    HtmlContent = "<h1>Hello World</h1><p>This is a PDF from HTML.</p>",
                    WebSettings = { DefaultEncoding = "utf-8" }
                }
            }
        };
        byte[] pdf = converter.Convert(doc);
        File.WriteAllBytes("output.pdf", pdf);
    }
}

IronPDF Implementation:

// NuGet: Install-Package IronPdf
using IronPdf;
using System;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        var renderer = new ChromePdfRenderer();
        var pdf = renderer.RenderHtmlAsPdf("<h1>Hello World</h1><p>This is a PDF from HTML.</p>");
        pdf.SaveAs("output.pdf");
    }
}

// NuGet: Install-Package IronPdf
using IronPdf;
using System;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        var renderer = new ChromePdfRenderer();
        var pdf = renderer.RenderHtmlAsPdf("<h1>Hello World</h1><p>This is a PDF from HTML.</p>");
        pdf.SaveAs("output.pdf");
    }
}

IronPDF reduces a 20-line DinkToPdf configuration to 4 lines. No SynchronizedConverter, no PdfTools, no HtmlToPdfDocument, no ObjectSettings—just render and save. For more options, see the HTML to PDF documentation.

URL to PDF Conversion

DinkToPdf Implementation:

// NuGet: Install-Package DinkToPdf
using DinkToPdf;
using DinkToPdf.Contracts;
using System.IO;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        var converter = new SynchronizedConverter(new PdfTools());
        var doc = new HtmlToPdfDocument()
        {
            GlobalSettings = {
                ColorMode = ColorMode.Color,
                Orientation = Orientation.Portrait,
                PaperSize = PaperKind.A4,
            },
            Objects = {
                new ObjectSettings() {
                    Page = "https://www.example.com",
                }
            }
        };
        byte[] pdf = converter.Convert(doc);
        File.WriteAllBytes("webpage.pdf", pdf);
    }
}

// NuGet: Install-Package DinkToPdf
using DinkToPdf;
using DinkToPdf.Contracts;
using System.IO;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        var converter = new SynchronizedConverter(new PdfTools());
        var doc = new HtmlToPdfDocument()
        {
            GlobalSettings = {
                ColorMode = ColorMode.Color,
                Orientation = Orientation.Portrait,
                PaperSize = PaperKind.A4,
            },
            Objects = {
                new ObjectSettings() {
                    Page = "https://www.example.com",
                }
            }
        };
        byte[] pdf = converter.Convert(doc);
        File.WriteAllBytes("webpage.pdf", pdf);
    }
}

IronPDF Implementation:

// NuGet: Install-Package IronPdf
using IronPdf;
using System;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        var renderer = new ChromePdfRenderer();
        var pdf = renderer.RenderUrlAsPdf("https://www.example.com");
        pdf.SaveAs("webpage.pdf");
    }
}

// NuGet: Install-Package IronPdf
using IronPdf;
using System;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        var renderer = new ChromePdfRenderer();
        var pdf = renderer.RenderUrlAsPdf("https://www.example.com");
        pdf.SaveAs("webpage.pdf");
    }
}

IronPDF's RenderUrlAsPdf replaces the nested ObjectSettings.Page configuration with a direct method call. For more options, see the URL to PDF documentation.

Custom Settings with Landscape and Margins

DinkToPdf Implementation:

// NuGet: Install-Package DinkToPdf
using DinkToPdf;
using DinkToPdf.Contracts;
using System.IO;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        var converter = new SynchronizedConverter(new PdfTools());
        var doc = new HtmlToPdfDocument()
        {
            GlobalSettings = {
                ColorMode = ColorMode.Color,
                Orientation = Orientation.Landscape,
                PaperSize = PaperKind.A4,
                Margins = new MarginSettings { Top = 10, Bottom = 10, Left = 15, Right = 15 }
            },
            Objects = {
                new ObjectSettings() {
                    HtmlContent = "<h1>Custom PDF</h1><p>Landscape orientation with custom margins.</p>",
                    WebSettings = { DefaultEncoding = "utf-8" }
                }
            }
        };
        byte[] pdf = converter.Convert(doc);
        File.WriteAllBytes("custom.pdf", pdf);
    }
}

// NuGet: Install-Package DinkToPdf
using DinkToPdf;
using DinkToPdf.Contracts;
using System.IO;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        var converter = new SynchronizedConverter(new PdfTools());
        var doc = new HtmlToPdfDocument()
        {
            GlobalSettings = {
                ColorMode = ColorMode.Color,
                Orientation = Orientation.Landscape,
                PaperSize = PaperKind.A4,
                Margins = new MarginSettings { Top = 10, Bottom = 10, Left = 15, Right = 15 }
            },
            Objects = {
                new ObjectSettings() {
                    HtmlContent = "<h1>Custom PDF</h1><p>Landscape orientation with custom margins.</p>",
                    WebSettings = { DefaultEncoding = "utf-8" }
                }
            }
        };
        byte[] pdf = converter.Convert(doc);
        File.WriteAllBytes("custom.pdf", pdf);
    }
}

IronPDF Implementation:

// NuGet: Install-Package IronPdf
using IronPdf;
using IronPdf.Rendering;
using System;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        var renderer = new ChromePdfRenderer();
        renderer.RenderingOptions.PaperOrientation = PdfPaperOrientation.Landscape;
        renderer.RenderingOptions.MarginTop = 10;
        renderer.RenderingOptions.MarginBottom = 10;
        renderer.RenderingOptions.MarginLeft = 15;
        renderer.RenderingOptions.MarginRight = 15;

        var pdf = renderer.RenderHtmlAsPdf("<h1>Custom PDF</h1><p>Landscape orientation with custom margins.</p>");
        pdf.SaveAs("custom.pdf");
    }
}

// NuGet: Install-Package IronPdf
using IronPdf;
using IronPdf.Rendering;
using System;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        var renderer = new ChromePdfRenderer();
        renderer.RenderingOptions.PaperOrientation = PdfPaperOrientation.Landscape;
        renderer.RenderingOptions.MarginTop = 10;
        renderer.RenderingOptions.MarginBottom = 10;
        renderer.RenderingOptions.MarginLeft = 15;
        renderer.RenderingOptions.MarginRight = 15;

        var pdf = renderer.RenderHtmlAsPdf("<h1>Custom PDF</h1><p>Landscape orientation with custom margins.</p>");
        pdf.SaveAs("custom.pdf");
    }
}

IronPDF's RenderingOptions replaces both GlobalSettings and MarginSettings with a unified, fluent API. For more configuration options, see the rendering options documentation.

Remove Native Binaries

The most important cleanup step is removing wkhtmltopdf native binaries. IronPDF has no native dependencies:

# Delete native binaries
rm libwkhtmltox.* 2>/dev/null

# Delete native binaries
rm libwkhtmltox.* 2>/dev/null

No Singleton Required

DinkToPdf's SynchronizedConverter had to be registered as a singleton to avoid crashes. IronPDF's ChromePdfRenderer is thread-safe with any DI lifetime:

// DinkToPdf - MUST be singleton
services.AddSingleton(typeof(IConverter), new SynchronizedConverter(new PdfTools()));

// IronPDF - any lifetime works
services.AddScoped<ChromePdfRenderer>();
// Or just create inline:
var renderer = new ChromePdfRenderer();

// DinkToPdf - MUST be singleton
services.AddSingleton(typeof(IConverter), new SynchronizedConverter(new PdfTools()));

// IronPDF - any lifetime works
services.AddScoped<ChromePdfRenderer>();
// Or just create inline:
var renderer = new ChromePdfRenderer();

Richer Return Type

DinkToPdf returns byte[]. IronPDF returns PdfDocument with manipulation capabilities:

// DinkToPdf returns byte[]
byte[] pdf = converter.Convert(doc);
File.WriteAllBytes("output.pdf", pdf);
return File(pdf, "application/pdf");

// IronPDF returns PdfDocument
var pdf = renderer.RenderHtmlAsPdf(html);
pdf.SaveAs("output.pdf");
return File(pdf.BinaryData, "application/pdf");

// DinkToPdf returns byte[]
byte[] pdf = converter.Convert(doc);
File.WriteAllBytes("output.pdf", pdf);
return File(pdf, "application/pdf");

// IronPDF returns PdfDocument
var pdf = renderer.RenderHtmlAsPdf(html);
pdf.SaveAs("output.pdf");
return File(pdf.BinaryData, "application/pdf");

Full CSS3 Support

Modern layouts that fail in DinkToPdf work perfectly in IronPDF:

// DinkToPdf - doesn't work (wkhtmltopdf uses 2015 WebKit)
var html = "<div style='display: flex;'>...</div>";  // Broken!

// IronPDF - full support (modern Chromium)
var html = @"
    <div style='display: flex; justify-content: space-between;'>
        <div>Left</div>
        <div>Right</div>
    </div>";
var pdf = renderer.RenderHtmlAsPdf(html);  // Works!

// DinkToPdf - doesn't work (wkhtmltopdf uses 2015 WebKit)
var html = "<div style='display: flex;'>...</div>";  // Broken!

// IronPDF - full support (modern Chromium)
var html = @"
    <div style='display: flex; justify-content: space-between;'>
        <div>Left</div>
        <div>Right</div>
    </div>";
var pdf = renderer.RenderHtmlAsPdf(html);  // Works!