Add PDF support in .NET Standard Completed

We are going to be porting a project to .NET Standard as well and PDF output is a requirement.

I was hoping to see this feature as well. Is there a roadmap planning for this?

Hi, GemBox.Document's rendering engine, which is used when saving the document to PDF, XPS, or image format and when printing, has a dependency on WPF, which as you probably know, is only available in .NET Framework. We do intend to remove this dependency, but unfortunately, this will require a major refactoring and time investment. Currently, we don't have any immediate plans, it's not in our current road-map so I cannot give you any time-frame for its implementation, release. Regards, Mario

That's a big disappointment. I'm quite sorry we updated to your last version a few months ago, wanting to use it in our new net core applications.

Good to know this just before we acquired a license. Too bad though.

Is there support for an alternative to a pdf(like XPS) that can easily be converted to a pdf by other libraries ?

Hi, Both conversions (PDF and XPS) have the same requirement (paginating and rendering the content), so I'm afraid not. Note that our current goal is to implement, replicate, the full capability of our rendering engine in the GemBox.Pdf component, of course without the WPF dependencies. After this, we will integrate it into GemBox.Spreadsheet, GemBox.Document and GemBox.Presentation. This is a longer-term commitment; this replacement is not a small task and will require quite some time investment. Regards, Mario

Hi, As previously mentioned, our rendering engine has a dependency on WPF. However, Microsoft is planning to release .NET Core 3.0 with support for WPF. This will enable users that use .NET Core 3 on Windows to utilize our existing rendering engine. Nevertheless, note that we are still working on the rendering engine that will support all platforms (Windows, Linux, macOS, etc.), but again this is a complex task and it's hard to give a deadline. Last as a side note I should point out that support for printing is very closely dependent on the platform, so printing support will most likely be supported only on Windows. Regards, Mario

Has anyone tried a PDF save using .NET Core 3? I loaded the current Core 3 preview, along with VS 2019 preview as of 6/22/19 and still get the GemBox message that PDF extension is not supported in .NET Standard. Tried in on a Windows 10 workstation. The save to DOCX works fine. I won't need this feature for about 6 months, but do need to know if it will be available for use with Razor Pages in .NET core.

Hi, We plan to release a new DLL version for .NET Core 3, soon after it's officially released. We have done some tests with an older preview version of .NET Core 3 and confirmed that GemBox.Document's rendering engine does work on .NET Core 3 with Windows Compatibility Pack. Regards, Mario

We are currently porting a solution to .Net Core 3.0 (preview 8) that also needs support for PDF (and html conversion). It is great news to hear that this will be supported once .Net ore 3.0 has been officially released. However, it would be very, very helpful if we could already use a beta version for testing/development. The alternative of mixing platforms causes several issues. Therefore ... would it be possible to release a beta version?

Hi, We're currently working on a new release for GemBox.Pdf. After that, we'll start working on this. I hope that works for you Regards, Mario

Any updates on this?

Hi, Not yet. Regards, Mario

So to be clear, when you say "confirmed that GemBox.Document's rendering engine does work on .NET Core 3 with Windows Compatibility Pack", it means it will run on .NET Core, but only on Windows machines. Does this mean that .NET Core 3 does not come with the required functionality for supporting cross-platform XPS/PDF rendering?

Hi, Yes exactly, WPF has support for .NET Core 3.0 only on Windows. Please check the release post for .NET Core 3.0: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/announcing-net-core-3-0/ Regards, Mario

Hi Mario, Now that .NET Core 3.0 has dropped ... are you going to release a version as per discussed above. Any idea of a release schedule (weeks, months, quarters?) Thanks Sam

Hi, Yes, we are currently working on this, on the DLL version for .NET Core 3.0. It should be available within a week or two. Regards, Mario

Hi, To save a Word file as PDF in ASP.NET Core 3.0 application using GemBox.Document for .NET Core 3.0, you'll need to add framework reference for "Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App". For example: netcoreapp3.0 [FrameworkReference Include="Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App" /] Regards, Mario

Hi, Support for PDF in .NET Core on Windows has been implemented and is available in the latest versions of GemBox.Document for .NET 3.0. Because most of these requests were for .NET Core, we'll mark this request as "Completed". For cross-platform PDF support, please vote for the following feature request: https://support.gemboxsoftware.com/community/view/cross-platform-support-for-saving-to-pdf-linux-macos-2 Regards, Mario

Hi, Also, a related feature request (cross-platform support for saving to PDF) has been implemented as well and is available in the latest versions of GemBox.Document. Regards, Mario