C# PDF Control & Library

Question

I'm looking for a way to display a PDF (similar to a picture box), in a Windows Form. After that I need to be able to create a PDF. What's the best library for the job for creating the PDF (from simple text)? I've taken a look at several and I'm not sure which one is the best. Preferably open source. As for the control, I tried the COM object Adobe provides... I can't seem to get it working. At all. I've tried loading several files, there are no errors. It simply fails to load.

Answer 1

PDF Sharp, Sharp PDF and iTextSharp are excellent. They are all OpenSource.

Answer 2

To answer your question about getting the PDF to render, you could use a WebBrowser Control on your form as long as the client workstation has Adobe Reader installed. The browser will automatically pick up the MIME type and load the in-browser Adobe Reader.

For rendering, I echo Will Marcouiller and SLaks. We have had good success with PDFSharp.