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PDF-XChange Core API SDK

Windows SDK for creating and manipulating PDFs, now sold only to approved developers on application.

Jobs Edit Convert Merge Compress Sign Extract

Operated by PDF-XChange Co Ltd

Visit PDF-XChange Core API SDK

Opens the vendor's own site.

Jobs covered

Open a task to see exactly what the vendor documentation supports.

Edit Browse all edit tools

editing PDFs programmatically with the PDF-XChange Core API SDK, where the SDK comparison chart's Core API column marks support for creating new PDF pages placing objects, drawings, images and text, annotations, AcroForm creation, AcroForm field-data extraction, adding and editing and re-ordering bookmarks, adding new pages, re-ordering pages, deleting pages and cropping pages, and the Core Layer manual says the interfaces provide access to high-level document objects such as document, pages, annotations and form fields and support creating new documents and modifying existing ones; the scope records page, object, annotation, form, bookmark and page-structure editing, makes no existing-body-text rewrite claim, and keeps the capability inside the SDK rather than attributing it to the Editor application

Convert Browse all convert tools

converting documents with the PDF-XChange Core API SDK, where the SDK comparison chart's Core API column marks support for converting external document and image formats to PDF only for raster image formats plus EMF/WMF/AMF and .txt, and marks export/render of pages or files to raster image formats; the scope records the documented raster-image, EMF/WMF/AMF and text-to-PDF directions and raster export, makes no native Office or HTML conversion claim because the chart limits Core API external conversion to those formats, and makes no fidelity guarantee

Merge Browse all merge tools

merging and arranging PDFs with the PDF-XChange Core API SDK, where the SDK comparison chart's Core API column marks support for merging PDF files, adding new pages, re-ordering pages, deleting pages and cropping pages, and the Core Layer manual documents creation and modification of documents and pages; the scope records the documented merge, page insertion, re-order, delete and crop operations and makes no claim about preserving signatures, forms, links or annotations across a merge

Compress Browse all compress tools

compressing and optimising PDFs with the PDF-XChange Core API SDK, where the SDK comparison chart's Core API column lists compression/optimisation options of Zip, JPEG, JPEG2000, Run Length, LZW, JBIG2 and CCITT Group 3/4; the scope records the documented compression and optimisation options and makes no lossless, fidelity or specific size-reduction guarantee

Sign Browse all sign tools

signing PDFs with the PDF-XChange Core API SDK, where the SDK comparison chart's Core API column marks digital signature support, and the SDK help manual documents signing interfaces including deferred digital signing and PFX/PFX2 signing and signature-field methods on IPXC_Document; the scope records the documented digital-signature and signature-field support, makes no certificate-authority issuance, trust-validation, timestamping or independent legal-validity guarantee, and does not attribute the Editor application's signature UI to this SDK

Extract Browse all extract tools

extracting content with the PDF-XChange Core API SDK, where the SDK comparison chart's Core API column marks extract/export text, extract image content to raster image format and AcroForm field-data extraction, and the Core Layer manual documents page-text interfaces and form-field access; the scope records the documented text, image and form-field extraction and makes no OCR claim because OCR is not documented for the Core API SDK

Where your files are processed

No server involved

A compiled library embedded in the application you build, licensed by licence strings compiled in at release time. There is no vendor service in the path and no account: Tracker Software operates no processing endpoint in that path. That is a property of the library itself: what an application built with it does with your file depends on that application, not on this.

A compiled library that runs inside the application you build, on machines you control. There is no vendor service in the path and no account to sign in to: licensing works by licence strings compiled into the application, which the demo limitations page describes as what removes the watermark.

That is a structural fact about an embeddable SDK rather than a measurement, and the same reasoning the index applies to the other embedded libraries.

What it does

The PDF-XChange Core API SDK is the foundation library in PDF-XChange Co Ltd's developer range: a Windows API and DLL for creating and manipulating PDF files, from the company whose Tracker Software Products subsidiary also sells PDF-XChange Editor. The current version is 11.1.0.0 and the supported operating systems are Windows 10 and later.

The documented Core API feature set includes page insertion, deletion, re-ordering and cropping, merging, overlaying pages as stationery, watermarks, bookmarks, compression and optimisation with Zip, JPEG, JPEG2000, Run Length, LZW, JBIG2 and CCITT G3/4 options, AcroForm creation and field-data extraction, text and image extraction, raster rendering, encryption, digital signatures and conversion of raster images, EMF/WMF/AMF and text files to PDF.

The vendor has stopped almost all sales of its developer kits and now offers the SDK only to approved developers on application, with licensing by distribution volume and no published price.

Best for

Teams with an existing licence and a Windows deployment who need a PDF library they can embed without a server dependency, and who value the same engine as the editor their users already know. For anyone starting fresh the practical question is not which SDK is better but whether this one can be bought at all, which is why the sales notice is the first thing to read.

Worth knowing

The product page carries a notice that PDF-XChange has stopped almost all sales of its developer kits and now offers them to approved developers on application: the practical effect is case-by-case sales approval rather than a closed door or a published price. No price is published for the distribution-volume tiers of 25,000, 50,000, 100,000, 250,000 or 1 million client desktop installs.

Evaluation builds are fully functional but place a demo watermark on every page of any PDF created or modified, removed only by licence strings, and Tracker Software says it does not offer refunds after licensing information is issued; this is not a free production tier. Core API, Editor SDK and Viewer SDK are separate products, and the comparison chart's Core API column is the evidence used here rather than features from the Editor SDK or the Editor application; the chart shows the Core API supports compression, merge, page operations, forms, annotations, digital signatures, encryption, text and image extraction and raster export, while its external-to-PDF conversion is limited to raster images, EMF/WMF/AMF and .txt rather than Office or HTML.

The system-requirements page still labels the product V8 and lists Windows 10 and later, while the product page and version history give the current version as 11.1.0.0, so the version-specific page is the one to use and the V8 wording is a stale label rather than a second current version. The SDK is an in-process Windows DLL/COM library with no hosted processing endpoint; documents stay in the application that embeds it.

A rendering capability does not amount to a packaged viewer.

Details, and where each comes from

Vendor statements, our own reading of their pages, and the things nobody has established yet, each answered separately. Where we have not confirmed something it says so rather than guessing, and a row nobody has established is greyed out.

Versions covered
Windows
Website
pdf-xchange.com
Requires an account
Not applicable
Free tier
Not verified
Watermark on the free tier
Yes
Maximum file size
Not verified
Batch processing
Yes
Data residency
Not verified
Open source
No
Self-hostable
Yes
Licence
Commercial, proprietary.

Commercial, proprietary. The site identifies PDF-XChange Co Ltd as the company, with Tracker Software Products described as a wholly owned subsidiary registered in England under number 11091579.

The Core API SDK is licensed by distribution volume, with client desktop install tiers of 25,000, 50,000, 100,000, 250,000 and 1 million published as available, and no public price is given for any tier. PDF-XChange says it has stopped almost all sales of software developer kits and makes them available to approved developers on application, so this is a case-by-case sales approval rather than a published price.

Evaluation builds are fully functional but place a demo watermark on every page of PDFs created or modified, removed by licence strings; that is an evaluation limitation, not a free production tier. Each SDK has its own EULA, and the version history and product page give the current version as 11.1.0.0.

Redaction
No redaction feature
Programmatic access
Embeddable library
Last availability check
Responded in 169 ms 21 October 2026

Checked automatically by our own runner, not reported by the vendor. 100% of our last 30 checks got a response.

What the redaction verdict rests on

From the vendor's own documentation, read 22 September 2026. Not tested by us.

What that does not establish

Recorded as `none` on absence, and the absence is unusually well documented: the vendor's own feature matrix for the whole developer range lists 40-odd capabilities - page operations, merging, overlaying, watermarks, compression, AcroForm creation and extraction, text and image extraction, raster rendering, encryption, digital signatures and comment support - and **no row in it mentions redaction at any point**, for any of the six SDKs.

What it does not establish: the matrix's per-SDK tick columns did not render as text, so this rests on the feature list rather than on reading the Core API SDK's own column, and the separate PDF-XChange Editor record has its own verdict on its own evidence. Also absent from that trace: whether content removal exists under another name the matrix does not use.

https://www.tracker-software.com/pdf-creation-and-manipulation-sdks-comparison-chart

What the vendor says

Claims are labelled rather than repeated as fact. Where we have checked something ourselves, it says so and shows when. Checked means we read the vendor's own page and it says what we recorded - not that we tested the behaviour, unless the note says we did.

  • “Please note that PDF-XChange has now stopped almost all sales of software developer kits. Available to approved developers on application - please contact sales@pdf-xchange.com for further information.”

    Checked by us - the source says this Read 22 September 2026

    Present verbatim on the product page, immediately beneath the sentence describing what the SDK is, which is the most prominent position on the page. Recorded because it is the single fact that determines whether this record is actionable: the SDK is versioned, documented and demoable - current version 11.0.1.0 - while being closed to ordinary purchase.

    The page does not give a reason, a date, or a list of what "almost all" excludes, and none of those is inferred here. discontinued is left false because the product has not been discontinued: that field is for products that are gone, and the difference between "withdrawn from sale" and "discontinued" is exactly the kind of distinction this index exists to keep.

    Standing: Re-read and matched byte for byte

    Check it yourself: the source, the SHA-256, and how we checked
    Read
    https://www.tracker-software.com/product/pdf-xchange-core-api-sdk
    From
    the text a browser renders
    SHA-256
    5da0ee7bd1139043ba58a3610623d12c29a39230d19f45e4156b003f1548efd7

    How we checked

    https://www.tracker-software.com/product/pdf-xchange-core-api-sdk rendered in headless Chrome with scripts/render-page.mjs on 2026-09-22 (visible text 2202 bytes) and the notice read from that rendered text. sourceHash is the SHA-256 of that text.

    What this hash proves, and what it does not

  • “Evaluation versions of our SDK software are fully functional, allowing the testing and full utilization of all SDK features, Developers need to be aware that any test documents will have a demo watermark placed on every page of any PDF created or modified with the evaluation versions”

    Checked by us - the source says this Read 22 September 2026

    Confirmed verbatim, and it is a more interesting limitation than a page cap. Nothing about the evaluation is reduced: every feature works, which means an evaluation can pass every functional test and still be unusable in production, because the watermark is applied to any PDF the build creates or modifies.

    The same page adds that the vendor "does not offer refunds subsequent to issuing licensing information", so the documented remedy is to test extensively before purchase and to recompile with a licence string afterwards - a build step that has to be planned for, not a setting. It sits in watchOutFor with the licence-string detail because a reader who discovers this after shipping has already shipped.

    Standing: Re-read and matched byte for byte

    Check it yourself: the source, the SHA-256, and how we checked
    Read
    https://www.tracker-software.com/product/pdf-xchange-core-api-sdk/demo-limitations
    From
    the text a browser renders
    SHA-256
    aae533cb902b1b4804483d0c27ac68c896950948eae224706dc91ad57d69a4bc

    How we checked

    https://www.tracker-software.com/product/pdf-xchange-core-api-sdk/demo-limitations rendered in headless Chrome with scripts/render-page.mjs on 2026-09-22 (visible text 2567 bytes); the claim was checked against that text, including the sentence about refunds that follows it. sourceHash is the SHA-256 of that text.

    What this hash proves, and what it does not

  • “PDF-XChange CORE API SDK V8 supports all Windows (32/64 bit) operating systems from Windows 10 and later”

    Checked by us - the source says this Read 22 September 2026

    Confirmed verbatim as the system requirements statement, and platforms is set to windows on its authority. The same session found the chart disagreeing with it: the chart's Windows Version Compatibility row reads "All 32/64 bit - XP & Later", which is a wider claim than Windows 10 and later and cannot be true of V8 as specified.

    One of the two is stale, and the version-specific page is the better authority for a current release, so the record follows it and records the contradiction rather than picking silently. The system requirements page also names versions V5 through V8 as Terminal Server compatible and V5, V6 and V7 as supporting XP and Vista, which is the version history behind the chart's older wording.

    Standing: Re-read and matched byte for byte

    Check it yourself: the source, the SHA-256, and how we checked
    Read
    https://www.tracker-software.com/product/pdf-xchange-core-api-sdk/system-requirements
    From
    the text a browser renders
    SHA-256
    08cf18afdf42168a1d7a4a1734cf9c6eea9fc02925a6e3d6acadf1c07efc1146

    How we checked

    https://www.tracker-software.com/product/pdf-xchange-core-api-sdk/system-requirements rendered in headless Chrome with scripts/render-page.mjs on 2026-09-22 (visible text 2898 bytes) and cross-checked against the vendor's own comparison chart at https://www.tracker-software.com/pdf-creation-and-manipulation-sdks-comparison-chart (visible text 3882 bytes) in the same session. sourceHash is the SHA-256 of the system requirements text.

    What this hash proves, and what it does not

Each claim is quoted from the vendor's own pages. This section describes what we have and have not checked - it is not a judgement about anyone.

Sponsorship is distribution, not an endorsement or a promise of search rankings, AI citations, traffic, or sales. This listing is a free entry, compiled from published sources.

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Related reading

How this record was put together

Editorial review.
No editor has signed this record off. That is not the same as nothing having been checked, and the lines below say what has.
Source reading.
3 claims taken from the vendor's own pages, read between 22 September 2026 and 22 September 2026.
Website availability.
The vendor's site was last checked on 21 October 2026.
Behaviour testing.
We ran this ourselves. The file handling was watched directly.

Sources: URL canonicalization checked 2026-10-18: the old https://www.tracker-software.com/product/pdf-xchange-core-api-sdk path returns 200 and redirects to https://www.pdf-xchange.com/product/pdf-xchange-core-api-sdk, now recorded as websiteUrl. tracker-software.com, read 2026-09-22 with headless Chrome: the PDF-XChange Core API SDK product page (visible text 2202 bytes), its system requirements page (2898 bytes), its demo limitations page (2567 bytes) and the PDF-creation and manipulation SDKs comparison chart (3882 bytes). Vendor documentation, not independently tested; no SDK was downloaded, no licence was requested and no document was produced.