Acrobat Developer Resources

Acrobat products provide several ways developers can interact with Acrobat products. From the tried and true Acrobat and PDFL SDKs that have served enterprise for decades, to the new Document Services APIs that provide web-based opportunities for PDF manipulation, all SDKs provide docs, code samples, and downloads that offer maximum flexibility and speed to get you up and running.

  • Document Services SDK: Build engaging digital document experiences with Adobe’s cloud-based APIs.

    • PDF Services API: A service-based tools set for PDF manipulation. It provides ready-to-use SDKs in Java, .NET or Node.js to simplify digital document workflows and improve user experiences. The API will easily create, convert, and combine PDFs with high fidelity as well as apply OCR on scanned documents to create editable PDFs.

    • PDF Embed API: A web-based PDF viewer with support for multiple tools that gives content owners an industry leading PDF viewing experience using only a few lines of JavaScript. The API offers several options to customize reading, annotating and downloading PDFs. The API will also provide insights on how PDFs are consumed with out-of-the-box integration with Adobe Analytics.

  • Adobe Sign SDKs: The Adobe Sign developer tools include several SDKs (JS, JAVA, C++, etc.) and a mature REST API, developer guide and other resources. These tool can help you build signing workflows and app on the Adobe Sign platform.

  • Acrobat SDK: The Acrobat SDK is a set of tools that help you develop software that interacts with Acrobat technology. The SDK contains header files, type libraries, simple utilities, sample code, and documentation.

  • PDF Library SDK: The PDFL SDK contains a powerful set of functions for developing third-party solutions and workflows built upon the Adobe PDF standard. The Adobe PDF Library is based on Acrobat offers complete functionality for generating, manipulating, rendering, and printing Adobe PDF documents.

Support and contacts

Developers can purchase support via the Adobe Creative Cloud Exchange Developer Support program. Supported SDK development activities include those for which the product is designed, tested, and licensed. Acrobat Developer Support does not support use cases that do not involve the Acrobat core API.

Only the last two major SDK versions with interim updates are eligible for support.

Note

For non-programmatic issues, such as questions about installing, using, customizing, or deploying Acrobat, contact Acrobat Technical Support.

Community forum

To participate in the developer community, see Adobe’s Acrobat SDK forum.

Feature comparison across SDKs

Feature

DC

PDFL

Acrobat

Cloud-based API

Yes

On-premise only

Yes

Yes

Microsoft Power Automate integration

Yes

Embed PDF manipulation within your application without Acrobat

Yes

Yes

Create server-based applications

Yes

Yes

Create, manipulate, and assemble PDF documents

Yes

Yes

Yes

Convert static and dynamic HTML to PDF

Yes

Convert PDF to MS Office and other formats

Yes

Yes

High volume and variable data printing

Yes

Yes

Embed and subset fonts

Yes

Yes

View PDF

Yes

Yes

Render PDF

Yes

Yes

Yes

Add comments to displayed PDF

Yes

Yes

Adobe Analytics integration for displayed PDFs

Yes

Linearize and optimize PDF for the Web

Yes

Yes

Yes

Compress documents

Yes

Yes

Yes

Provide password security

Yes

Yes

Yes

Make text searchable (OCR)

Yes

Yes

Extract structured content from any PDF

Yes

Extract ordered content from structured PDF

Yes

Yes

Create and manipulate forms

Yes

Yes

Selective content viewing via layers and grouping

No

Yes

Provide searching

Yes

No

Yes

Encrypt documents

Yes

Yes

Yes

Add comments to documents

Yes

Yes

Yes

Access Acrobat plugins

Yes

Yes

Apply digital signatures

No

Yes

Yes

Accessibility support (e.g. screen readers, etc.)

Yes

Access third party plug ins

Yes