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 |