PDF File Versions

ByChaknith Bin

October 31, 2022

Updated June 22, 2025

How do I change the PDF version?

The PDF version tag is set according to the features used when you create a PDF.

For example:

A basic PDF with no advanced features used will likely be 1.4
Adding an advanced feature, such as layers, means the version tag updates to 1.7
Removing layers from the PDF would change the version tag back to 1.4

PDF creation tools will always try to use the lowest PDF version for compatibility reasons.

However, a hack that can be used to change a PDF file version from 1.4 to 1.7 via IronPDF is by using the combination of the PdfDocument.Merge() static method and the PdfDocument.RemovePage() method. The code snippet below demonstrates how this can be done:

using IronPdf;

var renderer = new ChromePdfRenderer();

// Render the initial PDF that needs its version changed.
var pdf1 = renderer.RenderHtmlAsPdf("<h1>Hello, this is the required PDF</h1>");

// Render a mock PDF to use with the Merge() method.
var pdf2 = renderer.RenderHtmlAsPdf("<h1>This is a mock PDF</h1>");

// Merge the two PDFs. This will update the version to 1.7 if new features from pdf2 are used.
var pdf3 = PdfDocument.Merge(pdf1, pdf2);

// Remove the page from the mock PDF, keeping only the original content.
var pdf4 = pdf3.RemovePage(1);

// Save the resulting PDF document. It should have a version updated to 1.7.
pdf4.SaveAs("anothermerged.pdf");

using IronPdf;

var renderer = new ChromePdfRenderer();

// Render the initial PDF that needs its version changed.
var pdf1 = renderer.RenderHtmlAsPdf("<h1>Hello, this is the required PDF</h1>");

// Render a mock PDF to use with the Merge() method.
var pdf2 = renderer.RenderHtmlAsPdf("<h1>This is a mock PDF</h1>");

// Merge the two PDFs. This will update the version to 1.7 if new features from pdf2 are used.
var pdf3 = PdfDocument.Merge(pdf1, pdf2);

// Remove the page from the mock PDF, keeping only the original content.
var pdf4 = pdf3.RemovePage(1);

// Save the resulting PDF document. It should have a version updated to 1.7.
pdf4.SaveAs("anothermerged.pdf");

Imports IronPdf

Private renderer = New ChromePdfRenderer()

' Render the initial PDF that needs its version changed.
Private pdf1 = renderer.RenderHtmlAsPdf("<h1>Hello, this is the required PDF</h1>")

' Render a mock PDF to use with the Merge() method.
Private pdf2 = renderer.RenderHtmlAsPdf("<h1>This is a mock PDF</h1>")

' Merge the two PDFs. This will update the version to 1.7 if new features from pdf2 are used.
Private pdf3 = PdfDocument.Merge(pdf1, pdf2)

' Remove the page from the mock PDF, keeping only the original content.
Private pdf4 = pdf3.RemovePage(1)

' Save the resulting PDF document. It should have a version updated to 1.7.
pdf4.SaveAs("anothermerged.pdf")

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You can check the PDF version of the resulting PDF output.

On the other hand, you can also change the PDF version tag manually in a PDF, say from 1.4 to 2.0, but it is just a tag and won't change the PDF itself in any meaningful way using this method.

Chaknith Bin

Chat with engineering team now

Software Engineer

Chaknith works on IronXL and IronBarcode. He has deep expertise in C# and .NET, helping improve the software and support customers. His insights from user interactions contribute to better products, documentation, and overall experience.