Use IronPDF with in-Engine Mode

Difference between Native & Engine

IronPDF has some performance-intensive functions that you may choose to run remotely. While IronPDF does not require IronPdfEngine to run, setting up IronPdfEngine as a remote service is an optional way to avoid platform-specific Chrome compatibility issues on older operating systems and mobile environments.

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How using Engine changes the way you code with IronPDF

When using the Engine configuration, we recommend installing IronPdf.Slim instead of the full IronPdf package from NuGet, as the Engine manages all the extra bulk included in the Native package.

Install-Package IronPdf.Slim

After installing IronPdf.Slim, configure the connection settings by pointing IronPDF to your IronPdfEngine instance. Add the following code at the startup of your application (or before calling any IronPDF method):

// Establish a connection with the remote IronPdfEngine
// Remember to replace the IP address and port with your actual server details
Installation.ConnectToIronPdfHost(
    IronPdf.GrpcLayer.IronPdfConnectionConfiguration.RemoteServer("123.456.7.8:33350")
);

// Additional code for your application

// Establish a connection with the remote IronPdfEngine
// Remember to replace the IP address and port with your actual server details
Installation.ConnectToIronPdfHost(
    IronPdf.GrpcLayer.IronPdfConnectionConfiguration.RemoteServer("123.456.7.8:33350")
);

// Additional code for your application

' Establish a connection with the remote IronPdfEngine
' Remember to replace the IP address and port with your actual server details
Installation.ConnectToIronPdfHost(IronPdf.GrpcLayer.IronPdfConnectionConfiguration.RemoteServer("123.456.7.8:33350"))

' Additional code for your application

How does IronPdfEngine Work?

IronPdfEngine is a containerized server designed to manage various IronPDF operations, including creating, writing, editing, and reading PDFs, all using the gRPC protocol. Built as a self-contained C# .NET application, IronPdfEngine operates independently, eliminating the need for the .NET runtime during execution. We handle the gRPC connection for you so you can focus on the coding!

For a quick start tutorial regarding running IronPDF as its own container, please refer to this tutorial.

Other clarifications for IronPdfEngine

IronPdf .NET does not require IronPdfEngine to run. IronPdfEngine is just an optional way to use IronPdf. By default, IronPdf for .NET will not use IronPdfEngine.

Install-Package IronPdf.Slim

// Connect to the remote IronPdfEngine
Installation.ConnectToIronPdfHost(
    IronPdf.GrpcLayer.IronPdfConnectionConfiguration.RemoteServer("123.456.7.8:33350")
);

// Connect to the remote IronPdfEngine
Installation.ConnectToIronPdfHost(
    IronPdf.GrpcLayer.IronPdfConnectionConfiguration.RemoteServer("123.456.7.8:33350")
);

' Connect to the remote IronPdfEngine
Installation.ConnectToIronPdfHost(IronPdf.GrpcLayer.IronPdfConnectionConfiguration.RemoteServer("123.456.7.8:33350"))

IronPdfEngine Limitations

• Currently, IronPdfEngine does not support horizontal scaling yet (load balancing with multiple instances) because we store the processing PDF file binaries inside the server memory and use PdfDocumentId for communicating between server and client. This also minimizes bandwidth usage and increases the processing speed.
• To run IronPdfEngine Docker remotely, you need to ensure that the IronPdfEngine port is reachable.
• IronPdfEngine Docker running on Linux x64 (Debian) using official ubuntu:22.04 based images may produce PDF output that is slightly different from what you would get running IronPdf locally due to different OS behavior.
• Since IronPdfEngine Docker is Linux-based, it requires Linux Containers daemon (select Switch to Linux Containers if you are using Windows).
• IronPdfEngine binaries are not cross-platform, so we build them for each platform specifically.
• Cross-version support is not available.