Viewing PDFs in MAUI for C# .NET

In this section, we will learn how to create a PDF Viewer page, integrate IronPDF Viewer, and create a tab for it in a MAUI application. We will demonstrate how to do this with both a XAML and C# ContentPage.

Steps

1. Add a new page to your project by right-clicking on your project, then navigate to Add > New Item...

2. Navigate to the .NET MAUI section. To create a XAML page, select .NET MAUI ContentPage (XAML). For a C# file, select .NET MAUI ContentPage (C#). Give your file the name PdfViewerPage, then click Add.

3. In the XAML file, add the following code and save:

:path=/static-assets/pdf/tutorials/pdf-viewing/pdf-viewing-xaml-1.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<ContentPage ...
    xmlns:ipv="clr-namespace:IronPdf.Viewer.Maui;assembly=IronPdf.Viewer.Maui"
    ...>
    <ipv:IronPdfView x:Name="pdfView"/>
</ContentPage>

If you created a C# ContentPage instead, add the following code instead and save:

:path=/static-assets/pdf/content-code-examples/tutorials/pdf-viewing-3.cs

using IronPdf.Viewer.Maui;

public class MainPage : ContentPage
{
    private readonly IronPdfView pdfView;

    public MainPage()
    {
        InitializeComponent();

        this.pdfView = new IronPdfView { Options = IronPdfViewOptions.All };

        Content = this.pdfView;
    }
}

Imports IronPdf.Viewer.Maui

Public Class MainPage
	Inherits ContentPage

	Private ReadOnly pdfView As IronPdfView

	Public Sub New()
		InitializeComponent()

		Me.pdfView = New IronPdfView With {.Options = IronPdfViewOptions.All}

		Content = Me.pdfView
	End Sub
End Class

4. In your AppShell.xaml file, add the following:

:path=/static-assets/pdf/tutorials/pdf-viewing/pdf-viewing-xaml-2.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<Shell ...
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/dotnet/2021/maui"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2009/xaml"
    ...>
  <TabBar x:Name="AppTabBar">
      <Tab Title="Home">
        <ShellContent ContentTemplate="{DataTemplate local:MainPage}" Route="MainPage"/>
      </Tab>
      <Tab Title="PDF Viewer">
        <ShellContent ContentTemplate="{DataTemplate local:PdfViewerPage}" Route="PDFViewer"/>
    </Tab>
  </TabBar>
</Shell>

5. Save your project, then build and run. You should see tabs in the top-left corner as shown below, and clicking on the "PDF Viewer" tab should open the IronPDF Viewer.

On the start-up of the application, IronPDF Viewer will prompt the user to open a PDF by default. It is possible for it to open a PDF automatically on start-up, as well. There are three ways in which you can load a PDF on start-up: by a filename, through a byte array, and through a stream.

Load by Filename

To load a PDF by filename, you could specify the source of the PDF file in the IronPdfView tag in the XAML file. An example of this is shown below:

:path=/static-assets/pdf/tutorials/pdf-viewing/pdf-viewing-xaml-3.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<ContentPage ...
    xmlns:ipv="clr-namespace:IronPdf.Viewer.Maui;assembly=IronPdf.Viewer.Maui"
    ...>
    <ipv:IronPdfView Source="C:/path/to/my/example.pdf" />
</ContentPage>

Alternatively, you can load the PDF by filename by using the IronPdfViewSource.FromFile method in a C# ContentPage:

:path=/static-assets/pdf/content-code-examples/tutorials/pdf-viewing-4.cs

// We assume an IronPdfView instance is created previously called pdfView
pdfView.Source = IronPdfViewSource.FromFile("C:/path/to/my/example.pdf");

' We assume an IronPdfView instance is created previously called pdfView
pdfView.Source = IronPdfViewSource.FromFile("C:/path/to/my/example.pdf")

Load Through Byte Array

For some use cases, it may be desirable to load a byte array of a PDF. This is not possible from XAML, but is possible in C#. You can achieve this by simply using the IronPdfViewSource.FromBytes method. An example of how to use this method is shown below:

:path=/static-assets/pdf/content-code-examples/tutorials/pdf-viewing-5.cs

pdfView.Source = IronPdfViewSource.FromBytes(File.ReadAllBytes("~/Downloads/example.pdf"));

pdfView.Source = IronPdfViewSource.FromBytes(File.ReadAllBytes("~/Downloads/example.pdf"))

Load Through Stream

Similarly, it may be more desirable for PDFs to be loaded through a stream in some use cases. This is not possible from XAML, but is possible in C#. You can achieve this by simply using the IronPdfViewSource.FromStream method. An example of how to use this method is shown below:

:path=/static-assets/pdf/content-code-examples/tutorials/pdf-viewing-6.cs

pdfView.Source = IronPdfViewSource.FromStream(File.OpenRead("~/Downloads/example.pdf"));

pdfView.Source = IronPdfViewSource.FromStream(File.OpenRead("~/Downloads/example.pdf"))