Vanilla.PDF – The Ultimate C++ PDF Toolkit

Distribution	CI & Quality	Security

Vanilla.PDF is a modern, high-performance, open-source C++17 SDK for creating, editing, signing, and analyzing PDF documents. With no external runtime dependencies and full cross-platform support, it's ideal for embedding into desktop, server, or automation workflows.

• 📄 Create & modify PDF documents — pages, text, images, vector graphics
• 🔏 Sign & verify digital signatures (CMS/PKCS#7) with certificate chain validation
• 🔒 Encrypt & decrypt with AES or RC4 using passwords or certificates
• ⚙️ ABI-stable C API — opaque handles callable from any language with a C FFI
• 🧵 Thread-safe — no global state; synchronization is handled internally

Install

vcpkg (Recommended)

vcpkg install vanillapdf

CMake FetchContent

include(FetchContent)
FetchContent_Declare(vanillapdf
    GIT_REPOSITORY https://github.com/vanillapdf/vanillapdf.git
    GIT_TAG        main)
FetchContent_MakeAvailable(vanillapdf)
target_link_libraries(myapp PRIVATE vanillapdf::vanillapdf)

Other methods

• NuGet (.NET interop) — dotnet add package vanillapdf.net
• Conan 🚧 — coming soon (not yet published to Conan Center)
• Homebrew (macOS) 🚧 — coming soon (formula not yet live in Homebrew core)
• Build from source — clone with submodules, then configure with a CMake preset

See the installation guide and building from source on Read the Docs for full instructions.

Quick Example

Create a PDF with a blank page:

#include <vanillapdf/c_vanillapdf_api.h>

int main(void) {
    DocumentHandle* doc = NULL;
    CatalogHandle* cat = NULL;
    PageTreeHandle* pages = NULL;
    PageObjectHandle* page = NULL;

    Document_Create("hello.pdf", &doc);
    Document_GetCatalog(doc, &cat);
    Catalog_GetPages(cat, &pages);
    PageObject_CreateFromDocument(doc, &page);
    PageTree_AppendPage(pages, page);
    Document_Save(doc, "hello.pdf");

    PageObject_Release(page);
    PageTree_Release(pages);
    Catalog_Release(cat);
    Document_Release(doc);
    return 0;
}

Platforms

Platform	Compilers	Architectures
Windows	Visual Studio 2022, 2026	x86, x64, ARM64
Linux	GCC 8.1+, Clang 10+	x64, ARM64, ARM
macOS	AppleClang 15+ (Xcode 15)	x64, ARM64
Android	NDK toolchain	arm64, armv7, x86, x86_64

Features

Feature	C API	Description
Create documents	Document_Create	Pages, text, images, vector paths
Digital signatures	Document_Sign	OpenSSL CMS — RSA, ECDSA (P-256/P-384/P-521), Ed25519, Ed448 via PKCS#12 keys or custom callbacks
Signature verification	DigitalSignatureExtensions_Verify	Chain validation, weak-algorithm detection, signing-time checks
File structure validation	FileStructureValidator_*	Walk xref/trailers/streams and report malformed files
Interactive forms	FormField_GetValue / _SetValue	Read/write AcroForm field values
Encryption	Document_AddEncryption / _RemoveEncryption	AES and RC4, owner/user passwords, certificate-based decryption (FIPS-compatible)
Content streams	ContentStream_*	Parse and encode PostScript-style page content
Low-level parsing	File_Open	XRef tables, indirect objects, cross-reference streams

A vanillapdf-tools command-line utility is built from source (not yet distributed as a standalone app) and exposes sign, verify, merge, extract, encrypt/decrypt, and more — see CLI Tools on Read the Docs.

Architecture

The library is organized into three layers:

• Syntax — PDF object types, tokenizer, parser, XRef tables, compression filters
• Semantics — Documents, pages, catalogs, annotations, digital signatures, forms
• Contents — Content stream parsing, PostScript instruction processing

The C++ core is hidden behind an ABI-stable ANSI C interface using opaque handles (DocumentHandle*, FileHandle*, PageObjectHandle*, etc.) and cdecl calling conventions, so any language with a C FFI can use this library. Handles are reference-counted; callers acquire and release references explicitly. This design guarantees binary compatibility across compiler versions and minor/patch releases.

Thread Safety

Vanilla.PDF provides fine-grained thread safety: the same object can be accessed concurrently from multiple threads — including objects that initialize lazily on first access — without any caller-side locking. This is a stronger guarantee than merely running separate documents on separate threads; synchronization within a shared object is handled internally.

See the Architecture Guide for the memory and locking model.

Non-Goals

Vanilla.PDF is a document structure library, not a rendering engine. It does not rasterize pages, lay out text with font shaping, or display PDFs on screen. If you need to view a PDF, use a dedicated renderer and this library for the structural operations around it.

Current known limitations:

• No PDF rendering or rasterization
• No CRL/OCSP revocation checking (#157)
• No PAdES compliance levels (BES, T, LTV)
• No RFC 3161 timestamp validation

Versioning

Vanilla.PDF follows Semantic Versioning. The C API is stable within a major version: minor releases add functionality without breaking existing callers, patch releases contain only fixes. Query the version at runtime with LibraryInfo_GetVersionMajor, LibraryInfo_GetVersionMinor, LibraryInfo_GetVersionPatch.

Documentation

Full documentation is hosted on Read the Docs.

Guide	Description
Overview	Design philosophy, scope, and project goals
Quickstart	Create your first PDF document step by step
Installation	vcpkg, FetchContent, Conan, Homebrew, NuGet
C API Guide	Handles, memory management, error handling
Architecture	Three-layer design, object model, memory model, thread safety
CLI Tools	sign, verify, merge, extract, encrypt, decrypt
Signature Verification	Trust stores, chain validation, weak-algorithm detection
Building	Build from source with CMake presets
Examples	Code samples for signing, merging, encryption
PDF Format	PDF syntax, objects, and document structure

See the Changelog for release notes.

Contributing

We welcome pull requests, feature proposals, and bug reports.

• Contributing Guidelines
• Code of Conduct

All changes require a branch and pull request. The main and release/* branches are protected.

License

Vanilla.PDF is licensed under the Apache 2.0 License.

Contact & Support

Channel	Link
Email	info@vanillapdf.com
Website	vanillapdf.com
Issues	GitHub Issues
Sponsor	GitHub Sponsors