1. IronPDF
2. IronPDF Blog
3. Using IronPDF
4. PDFium C#

Published January 30, 2023

PDFium in C# Alternatives Using IronPDF

PDFium library is an open-source rendering engine example developed by Google specifically for working with Portable Document Format (PDF) files with/without images including PNG etc. However, IronPDF doesn't just use the PDFium rendering interface engine as its source code setup; it also builds on top of it to provide additional functionality, making it easier to write/test project source code without any errors or bugs. IronPDF adds access support for converting HTML documents to PDF documents--something that PDFium .NET SDK does not support out of the box.

IronPDF uses the power of the open-source technology provided by PDFium to provide customers with a comprehensive set of tools needed for developing interactive Microsoft.NET Windows applications that work with Portable Document Format (PDF) files in some way. This includes converting HTML files into PDF file, splitting or merging PDF pages within existing pages, extracting text from PDF document within a path, adding signatures or watermarks to a PDF file, filling out PDF forms, printing PDFs, etc.

IronPDF Creates Better PDF Files than PDFium Does

IronPDF has made significant improvements over PDFium in the area of creating PDFs. While PDFium can create and load basic PDFs, it lacks many features that users expect from a modern PDF document library. IronPDF addresses this shortcoming with an easy-to-use API for creating complex PDFs with headers, footers, page count, page numbers, bookmarks, watermarks, and much more.

IronPDF allows users to use custom paper sizes for PDF rendering. Let's have a look at the following Git/source tree code example:

//create ChromePdfRenderer object
var Renderer = new IronPDF.ChromePdfRenderer();
Renderer.RenderingOptions.PaperSize = IronPdf.Rendering.PdfPaperSize.Custom;
int height = 5;
//assign width as 5
int width = 5;
Renderer.RenderingOptions.SetCustomPaperSizeInInches(height,width);

//create ChromePdfRenderer object
var Renderer = new IronPDF.ChromePdfRenderer();
Renderer.RenderingOptions.PaperSize = IronPdf.Rendering.PdfPaperSize.Custom;
int height = 5;
//assign width as 5
int width = 5;
Renderer.RenderingOptions.SetCustomPaperSizeInInches(height,width);

'create ChromePdfRenderer object
Dim Renderer = New IronPDF.ChromePdfRenderer()
Renderer.RenderingOptions.PaperSize = IronPdf.Rendering.PdfPaperSize.Custom
Dim height As Integer = 5
'assign width as 5
Dim width As Integer = 5
Renderer.RenderingOptions.SetCustomPaperSizeInInches(height,width)

IronPDF Generates High-Quality Documents Quickly

When it comes to document generation, speed and memory matters as much as quality does. With IronPDF, you don’t have to sacrifice one for the other. You can generate high-quality documents quickly from HTML files within an access directory.

Additional Environment Configurations

Building PDFium projects is not easy task. We've to add different modules and data for embedding PDFium.

Unlike PDFium, IronPDF does not require any additional environment configuration or external dependencies. Instead, IronPDF includes all the necessary components as part of its core API. All related tools are installed automatically during IronPDF's installation.

Security Enhancements

IronPDF also made many enhancements to the security features in the library. IronPDF added support for encrypting and decrypting PDF documents. It also added several options for controlling what users can do with a document in a directory once it's been opened, such as printing, copying, and annotating.

Better Support and Documentation

IronPDF offers better support and documentation than PDFium has. If you run into any issues while using IronPDF, our team is always happy to help out. And our comprehensive documentation with images makes it easy to start using IronPDF in your .NET applications.

How IronPDF is the best solution for customers' needs**

IronPDF is the best solution for customers' needs because:

• It integrates easily with any .NET Web application.
• It can create PDF files from HTML page, CSS, and JavaScript files.
• IronPDF library is also useful for customers who need to extract data from a PDF document or make changes to an existing document and source code.
• IronPDF offers excellent customer support and comprehensive documentation to help customers get started quickly.
• A free trial is also available so customers can try out the library before making a purchase.

Know more about using IronPDF in .NET applications using the following link.

How easy it is to use IronPDF

Consider the following demonstration to see just how easy it is to use IronPDF. Suppose you have a URL path that you need to convert to a PDF. Using IronPDF, the conversion process is straightforward. The class library abstracts all the details of using the underlying IronPDF library. Just add a reference to the IronPDF library or install it using the NuGet Package Manager and call the RenderUrlAsPdf method, passing in the path to the URL and the path where you want the PDF file to be saved in the SaveAs function. You can easily convert any URL to PDF doc in just two lines of code.

//create ChromePdfRenderer and store it in variable of type var
var renderer = new ChromePdfRenderer();
var page= renderer.RenderUrlAsPdf("https://dotnet.microsoft.com/");
page.SaveAs("website.pdf");

//create ChromePdfRenderer and store it in variable of type var
var renderer = new ChromePdfRenderer();
var page= renderer.RenderUrlAsPdf("https://dotnet.microsoft.com/");
page.SaveAs("website.pdf");

'create ChromePdfRenderer and store it in variable of type var
Dim renderer = New ChromePdfRenderer()
Dim page= renderer.RenderUrlAsPdf("https://dotnet.microsoft.com/")
page.SaveAs("website.pdf")

IronPDF Output

Conclusion

Building on top of the PDFium project has provided customers/developers with a reliable, up-to-date, and feature-rich PDF library. Our customers can be sure that their documents will look great, no matter what device or platform they are being viewed on. They can also take advantage of the powerful features that IronPDF code offers, making it easy for them to create, write and share PDFs quickly and securely.

IronPDF interface offers a free trial period, so you can test out the software before making a purchase. Pricing starts at just $749, very affordable compared to other similar PDF rendering software. If you need to purchase multiple licenses, the company offers significant discounts. You can buy four product licenses for the price of just of them by purchasing the Iron Suite.