TerraPDF — Free C# PDF Library for .NET

A free, open-source (MIT) C# PDF library for creating PDF documents in .NET — generate invoices, reports, receipts, statements, labels, and certificates from C# code with a fluent API. 100% managed C#, zero dependencies, and free for personal and commercial use: no watermarks, no page limits, no paid tiers.

📚 To know more about it and documentation and sample codes. Please visit its website https://terrapdf.com/

New in 2.0.0: Custom font embedding — FontFamily.Register(...) loads a TrueType font (brand typefaces, or scripts beyond WinAnsiEncoding like Cyrillic and Greek) and uses it via the same TextStyle.FontFamily(...) API as the built-in families — including automatic, pure-C# Devanagari-aware rendering (conjunct ligatures, reph, and below-base 'ra' forms, no native shaping engine). See Custom Fonts.

Also: Code128 barcodes and QR codes (ISO/IEC 18004, versions 1-40, all four error correction levels) via container.Barcode(...) and container.QrCode(...) — rendered as vector-filled rectangles, no raster image pipeline, placeable anywhere a Column, Row, or Table cell can go. TerraPDF also multi-targets .NET 10 (LTS) alongside .NET 8 and 9.

TerraPDF is a lightweight, zero-dependency, pure C# library for generating professional PDF 1.7 documents programmatically. It provides a fluent, composable API that covers the full document-authoring lifecycle — from page layout and rich text to tables, images, hyperlinks, and multi-page pagination — with no native binaries, no third-party runtime packages, and no licensing restrictions.

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Why TerraPDF?

• Truly free — MIT licensed, free for commercial use. No royalties, no watermarks, no page limits, no "community edition" restrictions, no revenue caps.
• Pure C#, zero dependencies — no native binaries (no libgdiplus, no Chromium, no wkhtmltopdf), no third-party NuGet packages. The entire PDF writer is managed code.
• Cross-platform — runs anywhere .NET runs: Windows, Linux, macOS, Docker containers, Azure Functions, AWS Lambda, ASP.NET Core web apps, console apps, and background services.
• Modern .NET — targets .NET 8 (LTS), .NET 9, and .NET 10 (LTS).
• Code-first, not HTML-to-PDF — documents are composed from typed C# layout primitives (Column, Row, Table), so output is deterministic and fast — no browser engine to install or babysit.
• Batteries included — text styling, tables, images, hyperlinks, bookmarks, table of contents, headers/footers, page numbers, vector graphics, Code128 barcodes, QR codes, custom embedded fonts, and AES-256 encryption.

Common use cases

• Generate invoice PDFs in C# / ASP.NET Core
• Export reports and statements to PDF from .NET applications
• Create receipts, delivery notes, and order confirmations
• Print shipping labels with Code128 barcodes and QR codes
• Produce certificates, letters, and contracts from templates
• Server-side PDF generation in Docker, Azure, and AWS — no native dependencies to install

Features

• No native dependencies, no third-party packages
• Targets .NET 8, .NET 9 and .NET 10
• Text styling — bold, italic, bold-italic, strikethrough, underline, font size, colour
• Three built-in font families — Helvetica, Times, Courier — via FontFamily(), no embedding needed
• Configurable line-height multiplier per text block
• Per-span formatting inside mixed-style text blocks
• Margin and padding decorators with full unit support
• Background fills and borders (full, rounded, and per-edge)
• Rounded-corner borders and filled rounded boxes
• Per-edge borders — BorderTop, BorderBottom, BorderLeft, BorderRight
• Horizontal and vertical alignment
• Column, Row, and Table layouts
• PNG and JPEG image embedding
• Horizontal and vertical rule lines
• Explicit page breaks via PageBreak()
• Clickable hyperlink (URI) annotations via Hyperlink()
• Internal document links (GoTo) via InternalLink()
• Automatic Table of Contents generation from H1–H6 headings
• PDF bookmarks / outlines with hierarchical nesting
• Document metadata (Title, Author, Subject, Keywords, Creator)
• Conditional rendering via ShowIf
• Reusable components via IComponent
• Headers, footers, and page numbers
• AES-256 PDF encryption by default — user password, owner password, and fine-grained permission flags (PdfPermissions) via container.Encrypt(); AES-128 remains available for compatibility
• Images from bytes and streams — Image(byte[]) / Image(Stream) with transparency and deduplication
• Anchor-based bookmarks — bookmark content directly to rendered elements and keep destinations accurate
• Full WinAnsiEncoding character coverage
• Vector graphics canvas — lines, rectangles, rounded rectangles, circles, ellipses, arbitrary Bézier paths, polygons, and grid helpers via container.Canvas()
• Code128 barcodes — container.Barcode(...), with optional human-readable caption, custom colours, and quiet zone
• QR codes — container.QrCode(...), full ISO/IEC 18004 generator (versions 1-40, error correction levels L/M/Q/H), rendered as vector rectangles
• Custom font embedding — FontFamily.Register(...) embeds a TrueType font (brand typefaces, Cyrillic, Greek, and beyond WinAnsiEncoding) used via the same FontFamily() API as the built-in families
• Fluent, composable API

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Installation

dotnet add package TerraPDF

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Quick Start

using TerraPDF.Core;
using TerraPDF.Helpers;

Document.Create(container =>
{
    container.Page(page =>
    {
        page.Size(PageSize.A4);
        page.Margin(2, Unit.Centimetre);
        page.PageColor(Color.White);
        page.DefaultTextStyle(s => s.FontSize(11));

        page.Header()
            .Text("My Report")
            .Bold()
            .FontSize(24)
            .FontColor(Color.Blue.Darken2);

        page.Content()
            .Column(col =>
            {
                col.Spacing(8);
                col.Item().Text("Hello, TerraPDF!");
                col.Item().Text("This paragraph is italic.").Italic();
                col.Item()
                   .Margin(6).Background(Color.Grey.Lighten4).Padding(10)
                   .Text("Indented callout box").Bold();
            });

        page.Footer()
            .AlignCenter()
            .Text(t =>
            {
                t.Span("Page ");
                t.CurrentPageNumber().FontSize(9);
                t.Span(" / ");
                t.TotalPages().FontSize(9);
            });
    });
})
.PublishPdf("output.pdf");

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Full Documentation

For complete API reference and detailed guides, visit the docs directory:

• Getting Started — Installation, Quick Start, and basic usage
• Text & Spans — Single-span and multi-span text, styling, page numbers
• Layout — Column, Row, and Table layouts with alignment and spacing
• Row and Column Layout — Detailed Row and Column layout examples
• Decorators — Padding, margin, backgrounds, borders, and styling
• Images — PNG and JPEG embedding with sizing and alignment
• Page Sizes & Units — Built-in page sizes and unit conversions
• Colors — Material Design color palette with shades
• Encryption & Security — AES-256 by default, with AES-128 compatibility mode and permission flags
• Custom Fonts — embed TrueType fonts for brand typefaces and full Unicode (Cyrillic, Greek, and beyond)
• Vector Graphics — Canvas API, shapes, paths, grids, and charts
• Table of Contents — Automatic TOC generation from headings
• Bookmarks — PDF bookmarks and outlines
• Components & Templates — Reusable components and document templates
• Metadata — Document metadata (Title, Author, Subject, Keywords, Creator)
• Unicode & Character Encoding — WinAnsiEncoding and character coverage
• Samples — Complete working examples demonstrating all features

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FAQ

Is TerraPDF really free for commercial use? Yes. TerraPDF is released under the MIT license — you can use it in closed-source and commercial products at no cost, with no revenue caps, royalties, watermarks, or feature-limited tiers.

How does TerraPDF compare to iTextSharp, QuestPDF, or PDFsharp? iText (iTextSharp) is AGPL-licensed, which requires a commercial license for most closed-source use. QuestPDF's Community license is free only below a company-revenue threshold. PDFsharp is MIT like TerraPDF, but uses an imperative drawing model. TerraPDF offers a fluent, composable, code-first API under a plain MIT license with zero runtime dependencies.

Does TerraPDF convert HTML to PDF? No. TerraPDF is a code-first PDF generator: you compose documents from C# layout primitives (Column, Row, Table, Text, Image). That means no headless browser, deterministic output, and much faster rendering — but if your source content is HTML, an HTML-to-PDF converter is a better fit.

Does it run on Linux, macOS, and in Docker? Yes. TerraPDF is 100% managed C# with no native binaries, so it runs on any platform supported by .NET 8/9/10 — including Alpine-based Docker images, Azure Functions, and AWS Lambda — with nothing extra to install.

Can it create password-protected PDFs? Yes. Documents can be encrypted with AES-256 (default) or AES-128, with user/owner passwords and fine-grained permission flags (printing, copying, editing, etc.).

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Building from Source

git clone https://github.com/sahebansari/TerraPDF.git
cd TerraPDF
dotnet build
dotnet test

Requires the .NET 10 SDK (builds all targets), plus the .NET 8 and .NET 9 runtimes to execute the full multi-framework test suite.

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Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please read CONTRIBUTING.md for coding standards, project structure, how to run tests, and the pull-request process.

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Changelog

All notable changes are documented in CHANGELOG.md, following the Keep a Changelog format.

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Security

To report a vulnerability, please follow the responsible-disclosure process described in SECURITY.md. Do not open a public issue for security problems.

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License

MIT — see LICENSE for details.