1. IronPDF
2. How-Tos
3. Save & Export PDF Documents

C# Export to PDF [Code Example Tutorial]

IronPDF is a C# PDF Library that allows you to use C# to save your HTML as a PDF. It also allows C# / VB developers to edit PDF documents programmatically.

Install with NuGet

Install-Package IronPdf

nuget.org/packages/IronPdf/

or

Download DLL

Download DLL

Manually install into your project

Options for Saving PDFs

How to Save PDF to Disk

Use the PdfDocument.SaveAs method to save your PDF to disk.

You will find that this method supports adding password protection. Check out the following articles to learn more about digitally signing exported PDFs: 'Digitally Sign a PDF Document.'

How to Save a PDF File to MemorySteam in C# (System.IO.MemoryStream)

The IronPdf.PdfDocument.Stream property saves the PDF to memory using a System.IO.MemoryStream

How to Save to Binary Data

The IronPdf.PdfDocument.BinaryData property exports the PDF document as binary data in memory.

This outputs the PDF as a ByteArray, which is expressed in C# as byte [].

How to Serve from a Web Server to Browser

To serve a PDF to the web, we need to send it as binary data rather than HTML.

MVC PDF Export

// Send MyPdfDocument.Stream to this method
return new FileStreamResult(stream, "application/pdf")
{
    FileDownloadName = "file.pdf"
};

// Send MyPdfDocument.Stream to this method
return new FileStreamResult(stream, "application/pdf")
{
    FileDownloadName = "file.pdf"
};

' Send MyPdfDocument.Stream to this method
Return New FileStreamResult(stream, "application/pdf") With {.FileDownloadName = "file.pdf"}

ASP.NET PDF Export

byte [] Binary = MyPdfDocument.BinaryData;
Response.Clear();
Response.ContentType = "application/octet-stream";
Context.Response.OutputStream.Write(Binary, 0, Binary.Length);
Response.Flush();      

byte [] Binary = MyPdfDocument.BinaryData;
Response.Clear();
Response.ContentType = "application/octet-stream";
Context.Response.OutputStream.Write(Binary, 0, Binary.Length);
Response.Flush();      

Dim Binary() As Byte = MyPdfDocument.BinaryData
Response.Clear()
Response.ContentType = "application/octet-stream"
Context.Response.OutputStream.Write(Binary, 0, Binary.Length)
Response.Flush()