SelectPdf 26.5 Adds Remote Engine and Enhanced Security Features
News related to:SelectPdf · 3 min read
SelectPdf, a provider of HTML to PDF conversion and PDF manipulation tools, has released version 26.5, introducing several new features that expand the capabilities of its cross-platform .NET library. This update brings SelectPdf to Alpine Linux and other musl-based systems, making it more accessible to developers working in these environments.
The new version, SelectPdf 26.5, introduces a remote engine that allows conversions to run in containers, clusters, and Alpine Linux. This feature is particularly useful for developers who need to run SelectPdf on a machine separate from their application. The remote engine is available in the ghcr.io/selectpdf/engine container, supporting both linux/amd64 and linux/arm64 architectures. SelectPdf has also provided Helm charts and tested setups for Docker Compose, Azure Container Apps, Amazon ECS, Google Cloud Run, and Kubernetes, making it easier for developers to integrate the library into their workflows.
Another significant addition is the automatic TableOfContents option, which can generate a table of contents during HTML to PDF conversion. This feature supports right-to-left and non-Latin pages, as well as headers and footers, ensuring that content is organized and easily navigable. Developers can choose to add leaders and page numbers to an existing table of contents, write one from headings, or insert separate table of contents pages at the start, after the first page, or at the end.
SelectPdf 26.5 also enhances the handling of HTML forms, converting them into fillable PDF forms. The CreateFormFields option allows text inputs, check boxes, radio buttons, drop-down lists, and text areas to be converted into PDF form fields, preserving their values, labels, and options. This feature is particularly useful for creating interactive documents that can be filled out and submitted.
In terms of security, SelectPdf 26.5 now supports signing PDF documents with keys held in Hardware Security Modules (HSMs), smart cards, or USB tokens through PKCS#11. The library can also sign documents using certificates from the Windows, macOS, or Linux certificate store, or through a remote signing service. Signatures can be SHA-256, SHA-384, or SHA-512, and the visible signature can carry the company's logo. Long-term validation (PAdES B-LT) is embedded, ensuring that signatures can still be validated after the certificates expire.
SelectPdf 26.5 also includes improvements in file size and text handling. The ImagesMaxResolution option resamples oversized images, making documents with large photos much smaller. The FitWideContent option scales content wider than the page to fit, preventing it from being cut off. Text search now finds terms in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Hindi, Thai, and Arabic, and text elements are shaped for complex scripts like Indic.
To help developers transition away from the outdated wkhtmltopdf engine, SelectPdf 26.5 introduces four new compatibility packages: SelectPdf.Compat.DinkToPdf and SelectPdf.Compat.WkHtmlToPdfDotNet, along with their .Licensed versions. These packages maintain the API of the DinkToPdf and Haukcode.WkHtmlToPdfDotNet wrappers, ensuring that existing converter code can be used without modification. The new packages use Chromium instead of wkhtmltopdf's Qt WebKit, preserving layouts, headers, and footers.
SelectPdf 26.5 also simplifies installation. Both the commercial library and the free SelectPdf Community Edition can now be installed with a single package per platform: Windows, Linux x64, Linux ARM64, or macOS on Apple Silicon. The Community Edition is free for commercial use for documents up to five pages, with a perpetual license available for a single developer starting at $499. The commercial library targets .NET 8, .NET 10, and .NET Standard 2.0, ensuring compatibility with a wide range of platforms from .NET Framework 4.6.1 to the current releases.
SelectPdf has been downloaded more than 23 million times from NuGet, making it a popular choice for developers looking to convert HTML to PDF and manipulate PDF documents. The new version continues to expand its capabilities, providing developers with a robust and versatile toolset for their projects.