PDF-XChange Driver's API SDK - V4

Not sure which of our PDF Toolkits you need ? See this handy feature reference 

whats new in V4 - see here.

Create PDF files using our print drivers and then View and Modify (via the PDF-XChange Viewer) PDF files - all embedded within your own application windows - no 3rd party products such as Adobe Acrobat Reader or GhostScript are used or required ! 


Provides Developers with a comprehensive set of Virtual Drivers to generate Adobe PDF Compatible files from their software applications using our best selling PDF-XChange print drivers for Windows 2000 & Later (32/64 bit) - developers needing to support earlier versions of Windows (Win9x/ME/NT) may also use our Version 3 products if required, though please note Version 3 products are no longer updated .

When using these drivers you can be sure that the files you generate offer the most highly compressed/optimised PDF files available from any general PDF virtual driver - smaller size files generated quickly and efficiently.

Virtually all the functionality of our 'End User' versions of PDF-XChange are controllable by the developer - for more information on what you can do please download the SDK evaluation - Clarion Developers should download the Clarion Evaluation - Currently Version 4 is still in preparation for Clarion.

We also provide a complete 'slimmed' down Client installers (both 32 & 64 bit Drivers included) for you to provide to your clients - or wrap within your own desired installation process (silent installation supported) - you must use this installer as it contains a mechanism to ensure that unlicensed use is not possible in 'open' mode without generating evaluation PDF's, it also ensures safe and correct installation (silently if required) for Windows 2000 and later,  TS and Citrix Metaframe supported.

Briefly, the licensing of the API SDK allows you to generate PDF files from your own application reports etc and even to convert output from 3rd party applications such as MS Word, Excel AutoCAD etc to PDF - but - there are limits on this latter category please see the detailed explanation further down this page.

Digital Signature creation is supported within the drivers - but requires the purchase of a license for the complete PDF-XChange PRO SDK.

What you may not do is to create an application within which a primary and significant feature is the conversion of PDF files accessing a 3rd party application. i.e. - an application not created or published by you) such as Microsoft Office and its files to other formats such as PDF. Whether this is singly or in batch mode.

However if you are creating a structured document management & archival system or your intended application serves a vertical market and the per seat license cost when compared with our own 'End User' products are significantly higher - then we see no conflict of interest and would not object. If you contact us and briefly describe your product and the intended sales costs - we would be happy to confirm this prior to your purchase.

We have invested much time, effort and money in the development of our products and a significant proportion of our own revenue is generated from this application type. For the few hundred $'s API SDK cost, you are not purchasing the rights create such applications and compete directly with us in this market segment. If you are in any doubt as to whether your intended use is not in keeping with the standard licensing of the SDK - please submit your question at the Support Forum.

If you wish to create a product of this nature - then we would be pleased to discuss the licensing of the 'FULL' unrestricted, general PDF-XChange Drivers set on an OEM basis, at advantageous terms.

Finally all developers should be aware that to function in non evaluation mode - the drivers require that a License and DEVCODE 'unlock' string be passed to the drivers as part of each print job - thus ensuring that any direct attempt to print from a 3rd party application by your end users (i.e. from MS Word) will generate output with an evaluation watermark and not be useable by the end user for commercial purposes - you would need to code the opening of the Word file and print from your application to PDF-XChange - then the PDF would be generated 'DEMO' watermark free as described above.

The API SDK comes with many examples for many software tools (MFC/C++/VB/C# etc) including MS Word to PDF conversion as a demonstration of how this process can be achieved.

Some FAQ's you may find useful from our Support Forums:

* Allows Royalty FREE distribution of our print drivers for up to 100,000 end user application licenses (when distributed with your software application) - above this limit you will require additional/alternative licensing for a modest additional fee.

The PDF-XChange Viewer Base SDK is provided free - but with a limited distribution of 2,500 CDLP's (Client desktop license packs) included - see here for more info. 

Important Note: If you supply a demo version and the driver prints our evaluation watermark on each page - such installations do not count against your total and all full release upgrades (i.e. 4.0) set the counter back to zero on your total license distribution.

Please contact our sales department to discuss your more detailed needs.