Getting started

Requirements#

.NET 10 SDK
A .NET console, desktop, web, or service project
Windows, Linux, or macOS for the engine itself

The library is UI-free. Your application chooses its own renderer, interface, storage, and deployment model.

Install from NuGet#

Run this in your project directory:

dotnet add package KillerPdf.Engine

Or add the package reference directly:

<PackageReference Include="KillerPdf.Engine" Version="1.8.2" />

When working from a KillerPDF repository checkout, use a project reference instead:

<ProjectReference Include="path\to\KillerPDF\engine\KillerPdf.Engine\KillerPdf.Engine.csproj" />

Create your first document#

using KillerPdf.Engine.Authoring;
 
byte[] pdf = new PdfDocumentBuilder()
    .SetMetadata(new PdfDocumentMetadata
    {
        Title = "Hello from The KillerPDF.Engine",
        Author = "Example application",
        Language = "en-US"
    })
    .AddBlankPage(612, 792)
    .Build();
 
File.WriteAllBytes("hello.pdf", pdf);

Page dimensions use PDF points. A US Letter page is 612 by 792 points.

Open and inspect it#

using KillerPdf.Engine.Documents;
 
byte[] source = File.ReadAllBytes("hello.pdf");
PdfDocument document = PdfDocument.Open(source);
PdfDocumentInformation information = PdfDocumentInformation.Read(document);
 
Console.WriteLine(information.Title);
Console.WriteLine($"{information.PageCount} page(s)");
Console.WriteLine($"PDF {information.Version}");

Rewrite it deterministically#

using KillerPdf.Engine.Writing;
 
byte[] rewritten = PdfDocumentWriter.Write(document);
File.WriteAllBytes("hello-rewritten.pdf", rewritten);

Use a deterministic rewrite when reproducible output and a normalized object graph matter. Use the incremental editors when preserving the original byte prefix matters.

Choose the next guide#

Reading PDFs covers metadata, pages, links, bookmarks, and forms.
Creating PDFs covers pages, content streams, metadata, and modern standards.
Editing PDFs covers byte-preserving changes to existing files.
Validation covers structural inspection and independent validators.

Updated Aug 31, 2026