HotPDF Delphi Component for Delphi PDF creation and editing

Why developers choose HotPDF

Full Object Pascal source, royalty-free deployment, and one API that covers the jobs most PDF toolkits split across several products

HotPDF at a glance

Product	HotPDF Delphi Component — native PDF authoring library for Delphi, C++Builder, and Lazarus
Best for	Creating, editing, signing, and validating PDF documents directly from application code
IDE support	RAD Studio XE5 through 13.1 Florence (Delphi and C++Builder; Win32, Win64, Win64x); Free Pascal 3.3.1 or later / Lazarus (Win32, Win64)
Standards	PDF 1.3-2.0; PDF/A-1/2/3 and PDF/A-4/e/f workflows, PDF/UA-1 and PDF/UA-2, PDF/X-1a/3/4 and PDF/X-6/p/n; PAdES B-B through B-LTA with certification and field locks (B-LT and B-LTA require Enterprise)
Deployment	Core Windows authoring and built-in rendering compile into your executable; separate native Linux headless API and C ABI, with dependencies selected by workflow
Source code	Full Object Pascal source with every source-edition license; the DCU edition ships precompiled binaries
Licensing	Royalty-free, one-time $375-$7500 by tier, including the DCU edition; renewal at 50% of list price
Current version	2.1155.14 (2026-10-28)
Evaluation	Free demo package download

Native PDF creation and editing for Delphi, C++Builder, and Lazarus

HotPDF is a source-level Delphi, C++Builder, and Lazarus PDF component for applications that need to create, edit, secure, sign, validate, and assemble PDF documents directly from VCL code. It does not require an external PDF runtime for its core authoring workflow and is designed for Windows desktop software built with RAD Studio.

Use HotPDF when your application needs programmatic page drawing, Unicode text output, font embedding and subsetting, forms, annotations, image import, PDF merge/edit operations, encryption, digital signatures, standards-aware output, and lightweight preflight automation from one native API surface.

HotPDF supports RAD Studio XE5 through RAD Studio 13.1 Florence for Delphi and C++Builder, including Win32, Win64, and Win64x workflows, and builds with Free Pascal 3.3.1 or later and Lazarus for Win32 and Win64.

Main capabilities

• Create new PDFs, add pages, draw text and vector graphics, register reusable Form XObjects, place images, and save to files or caller-owned streams.
• Load existing PDFs, inspect page boxes, search bookmark destinations, copy pages, insert pages, extract pages, reorder pages, delete pages, merge documents, stamp or watermark content, and update document information.
• Add hyperlinks, named destinations, outlines, file attachments, comments, popups, highlight annotations, free-text annotations, redaction annotations, watermark annotations, page thumbnails, layers, page transitions, and viewer preferences.
• Create AcroForm fields, generated appearance streams, signature fields, multi-line and comb text fields, rich-text field values, XFA packet containers, form-field trigger wrappers, and multiple Unicode fonts in the AcroForm resource dictionary where the selected standard profile allows them.
• Inspect, update, rename, remove, or flatten fields in loaded AcroForm documents before saving an edited copy.
• Embed and subset TrueType, Type 1 PFB, OpenType-CFF, and CID-keyed CFF fonts for compact multilingual output, including CJK-heavy documents.
• Generate Unicode text, right-to-left text, vertical text, supplementary-plane characters such as emoji, Arabic / Persian / Urdu shaping, Latin standard ligatures, Devanagari reordering, and OpenType GSUB-based glyph output with matching /CIDToGIDMap, /W, and /ToUnicode integration.
• Import JPEG, bitmap, TIFF, JPEG2000, JBIG2, WMF, and EMF content, with zlib-ng Flate compression and libjpeg-turbo backed JPEG handling.
• Protect documents with passwords, AES-128, AES-256, PDF 2.0 AES-256 R6, public-key recipient encryption, and permission flags.
• Sign PDFs with in-process PFX / PKCS#12 identities or callback, remote, PKCS#11, and Windows CNG key-storage providers; build PAdES B-B through B-LTA signatures with RFC 3161 timestamps and DSS / VRI evidence (Enterprise: PKCS#11, Windows CNG and remote providers, and B-LT / B-LTA with DSS / VRI evidence)
• Create text, JSON, and HTML preflight reports, apply preflight profiles and presets, aggregate batch results, embed report evidence in PDFs, compare reports, and run focused PDF/VT validation. (Enterprise feature)
• Use optional PDF backends for FastReport, QuickReport, ReportBuilder, and DevExpress ExpressPrinting when existing report layouts should emit through HotPDF.
• Process very large PDFs at high speed with the Direct File API, which opens, copies, and rewrites documents directly on disk without loading the whole file into the object model. On a 2 GB benchmark document with 1.67 million objects, AES-256 encryption takes about 14 seconds, decryption about 16 seconds, and a full rewrite about 6 seconds; reading the page count of a 1.25 GB document takes milliseconds. Classic cross-reference tables, cross-reference streams, hybrid-reference files, and incrementally updated documents all stay on the direct path.
• Encrypt and decrypt with AES-256 at hardware speed: with CPU AES-NI, AES-256-CBC reaches about 442 MB/s for encryption and 832 MB/s for decryption (about 3× and 5.7× faster than the portable software path), file-to-file EncryptFile / DecryptFile calls protect or unprotect huge documents without building the object graph, and opening a large password-protected PDF uses far less memory.
• Turn scans and photos into searchable PDFs with built-in OCR or pluggable Tesseract and RapidOCR adapters (DLL, CLI, or in-process ONNX), including scan orientation, skew, shadow, and perspective correction, multilingual model presets, and word-level confidence and geometry.
• Decode Code 128, EAN/UPC, QR, Data Matrix ECC 200, and PDF417 symbols from rendered pages and images, including multiple symbols per raster and perspective-distorted Data Matrix, and compare document or contract revisions with word-level insert, delete, replace, and move records and review artifacts. (Small Business: document and contract comparison)
• Drive headless document jobs through a JSON job schema and a C ABI — capabilities, rendering, Unicode text and form extraction, OCR layers, redaction, PFX signing, comparison, and atomic file publication — and run the portable core as native Linux code without an active desktop. (Enterprise feature)
• Run dynamic XFA forms in process on Windows and Linux: QuickJS JavaScript and compiled FormCalc event scripts, SOM path resolution with wildcards, predicates, and relative occurrences, locale-aware date, time, and numeric picture clauses, a namespace-aware Data DOM with bidirectional bindings, and transactional rollback when a script fails. Native PDF page trees, repeated fields, choice lists, radio groups, checkboxes, push buttons, draws, and images can be created directly from XDP and saved runtime data.
• Fill rich-text form fields with typed Unicode style runs and genuine embedded regular, bold, italic, and bold-italic fonts, choose caller-supplied font families per grapheme, wrap with Unicode 17 line-breaking and grapheme rules, keep bidirectional paragraphs and paired brackets intact, lay appearances out through the native CSS engine with Flex and Grid layout, and import or export styled FDF and XFDF into signed or encrypted documents.
• Apply signing policy end to end: signature seed values and certificate constraints, DocMDP certification with P1, P2, or P3 permissions, FieldMDP locks, legal attestations, named signature appearance profiles, embedded CRL and OCSP revocation evidence, RFC 3161 signature and standalone document timestamps with SHA-256, SHA-384, or SHA-512 imprints, and signatures on AES-encrypted documents that preserve the original revisions. (Enterprise: embedded revocation evidence for long-term signatures)
• Render demanding page content with the built-in renderer: CMYK and ICC transparency groups with every blend mode, function, axial, radial, Coons, tensor, and triangle mesh shadings, colored and uncolored tiling patterns, optional-content visibility, calibrated CalGray, CalRGB, and Lab colors, Separation and DeviceN tints, soft masks, 182 built-in legacy CMaps, CID-keyed CFF, and embedded Type 1 fonts.

Download the HotPDF Delphi Component DEMO package

Current release and recent improvements

Version 2.1155.14 (2026-10-28) lets scripts load an XML fragment onto an attached XFA metadata value, updating the owning attribute with full accounting and rollback, after 2.1155.13 exposed the character runs of mixed Data values as live value units in document order

• XFA scripting and the Data DOM: JavaScript and FormCalc candidate filters drive native data bindings, Data nodes expose attribute-backed metadata with transactional getAttribute and setAttribute access, Template scripts navigate xfa.template and $template, raw JavaScript Template nodes support namespace-aware creation, cloning, saveXML, and loadXML, and accepted Data XML replacements migrate live binding metadata while sessions reuse compiled bytecode across repeated events with configurable journal ceilings
• XFA layout and output: growable rich-text draws continue across content areas and pages with styled source intervals and per-destination reflow, automatic rich-draw dimensions reuse the styled paragraph plan, whitespace-only text values survive loading, saving, and failed transactions, and headless XFA PDF creation shares one embedded font program across repeated text appearances for smaller output
• Color fonts and gradients: deeply transformed COLRv1 gradients, paint graphs, and glyph coverage render and save in finite root space — general radial ColorLines up to 1024 stops, high-cycle axial repeat and reflect fields, and certified oblique and nested-radial periodic fields — while atop and XOR composites keep the untouched backdrop where the source has no coverage
• Image decoding: DCT decoding follows ISO 32000-1 7.4.8 — an Adobe APP14 transform inside the JPEG data takes precedence over DecodeParms, ColorTransform applies to stream and inline images in every path including the crash-isolated codec worker, inline /Decode arrays and abbreviated filter arrays decode instead of failing, and RGB-coded three-component JPEGs no longer decode with red and blue exchanged

Read the HotPDF release notes for version-by-version changes and the feature overview for the full supported scope

Licensing and pricing

Pay with credit/debit cards, PayPal, AliPay, or wire transfer through 2Checkout / FastSpring -- every tier lists both checkouts, choose either. Every new HotPDF source-edition license includes the full Object Pascal source code, one year of updates, and one year of email support.

License choice: Choose Single for one developer, or Small Business for up to 5 developers in the same company. Enterprise covers every developer in one company, with no headcount limit. A DCU edition with precompiled binaries for every supported Delphi and C++Builder version is available for Single, Small Business, and Enterprise at half the source price.

Small Business and Enterprise features: HotPDF Small Business adds e-invoice rule validation and document and contract comparison; Enterprise is the complete edition, with every feature including all Small Business features, and adds long-term PAdES signatures, HSM and cloud signing, bulk signature validation, preflight and standards validation, PDF/A archival conversion, redaction and a server automation API, plus priority email support. See the edition feature lists.

Existing customer renewal: Renew update access at 50% of the current list price within 6 months of expiry; after 6 to 12 months, contact us for a renewal link at 70% of the current list price; after more than 1 year, a new license at the full price is required. Open the HotPDF purchase and renewal page.

Standards, signing, and validation workflows

HotPDF covers archival, accessibility, and print workflows across PDF 1.3 through PDF 2.0. Profile guards, clause-aware diagnostics, and bounded validation help applications detect incompatible output before publication. PDF/A-4 and PDF/UA-2 also have explicit repair workflows for supported issues

PDF/A Level A enables the Tagged PDF foundation required by the archival profile. It does not automatically advertise PDF/UA-1; HotPDF emits the PDF/UA identity only when PDFUACompliance is explicitly enabled.

Preflight APIs can produce text, JSON, and HTML reports, filter output through saved profiles or built-in presets, aggregate batch results, embed report evidence in a review copy, compare reports, and convert reports into a veraPDF-style structure for downstream tooling.

Additional feature coverage

• OpenType GSUB LookupType 1-8 support, script/language feature selection, Latin standard ligatures, Arabic / Persian / Urdu shaping, Devanagari reordering, and PUA synthetic codepoint emission for font-specific glyphs.
• XFA packet container support, AcroForm /AA trigger wrappers, multiple Unicode fonts in AcroForm /DR, and generated CID-font appearance streams.
• Incremental update saving, multi-signature workflows, signature placeholders, in-process CMS SignedData generation, and long-term validation dictionaries. (Enterprise: long-term validation dictionaries)
• Loaded-document helpers for page-box inspection, bookmark destination lookup, AcroForm field inspection, field value updates, field renaming, field removal, and form flattening.
• Preflight profile load/save/validate/merge/diff helpers, batch aggregation, embedded evidence, PDF/A-4 and PDF/UA-2 repair, PDF/X-6 diagnostics, and focused PDF/VT validation (Enterprise feature)
• PDF 1.3 through PDF 2.0 version gates, object and XRef streams, OutputIntents, transparency groups, soft masks, patterns, shadings, and prepress graphics-state controls
• Tagged-first structured HTML, XHTML, XML, and JSON export with reading order, language, navigation, image alternatives, form content, independent work limits, and atomic publication

HotPDF online documentation

Quick Delphi example

program HelloHotPDF;

uses
  System.SysUtils,
  HPDFDoc;

var
  PDF: THotPDF;
begin
  PDF := THotPDF.Create(nil);
  try
    PDF.AutoLaunch := False;
    PDF.FileName := 'HelloHotPDF.pdf';
    PDF.Compression := cmFlateDecode;
    PDF.EnableFontSubsetting := True;
    PDF.BeginDoc;
    PDF.CurrentPage.SetFont('Arial', [], 18);
    PDF.CurrentPage.TextOut(50, 50, 0, 'Hello HotPDF');
    PDF.EndDoc;
  finally
    PDF.Free;
  end;
end.

Download the HotPDF Delphi Component DEMO package
Supports RAD Studio XE5 through RAD Studio 13.1 Florence for Delphi and C++Builder (Win32, Win64, and Win64x workflows) and Free Pascal 3.3.1 or later / Lazarus (Win32, Win64)

When to choose HotPDF

• Choose HotPDF for source-level PDF creation, editing, rendering, signing, and validation, especially when dynamic XFA, rich-text appearances, or HTML/CSS templates are central to your application
• The core Windows renderer, codecs, and font engine compile into your application. Native Linux jobs use a separate headless API; OCR engines, models, Cairo, and signing providers have workflow-specific deployment requirements
• Choose PDFium Delphi Component for its viewer and accessible-reader architecture, progressive document access, and PDFium rendering integration
• Choose PDF Library for Delphi for its existing API, switchable rendering backends, DOCX export, EU trust-list and Arlington tools, or packaged DLL, ActiveX, and Dylib integration

Comparing the whole family? See the PDF developer libraries overview for a side-by-side of PDFium Delphi Component, losLab PDF Library, and HotPDF Delphi Component.

Frequently asked questions

Which Delphi and C++Builder versions does HotPDF support?

HotPDF supports RAD Studio XE5 through RAD Studio 13.1 Florence for both Delphi and C++Builder, covering Win32, Win64, and Win64x application targets. The whole library also builds with Free Pascal 3.3.1 or later and Lazarus for Win32 and Win64, with native Flate compression and AES encryption.

Does HotPDF require Adobe Acrobat or an external PDF runtime?

No. Core Windows authoring and built-in rendering run inside your application without Acrobat or an external PDF engine. Native Linux workflows and optional OCR, Cairo, scripting, and signing providers have their own documented dependencies

Is the full source code included?

Yes. Every source-edition license includes complete Object Pascal source, while the DCU edition ships precompiled binaries. Enterprise-only features ship as separate source units with the Enterprise license; source for internal testing projects is available on request

Is HotPDF royalty-free?

Yes. Licensed applications ship royalty-free with no per-document, per-user, or per-server fees, in unlimited applications.

Can HotPDF produce PDF/A, PDF/UA, and PDF/X compliant documents?

HotPDF provides authoring controls, validation, and diagnostics for PDF/A-1/2/3 and PDF/A-4/e/f, PDF/UA-1 and PDF/UA-2, and PDF/X-1a/3/4 and PDF/X-6/p/n. Selected PDF/A-4 and PDF/UA-2 issues can be repaired transactionally. Your content, fonts, tagging, color profiles, and final validation determine conformance

Can HotPDF edit, merge, and stamp existing PDF files?

Yes. HotPDF loads existing documents for page copy, insert, extract, reorder, delete, merge, watermark and stamp operations, document information updates, and AcroForm field inspection, updates, and flattening.

How does HotPDF handle very large PDF files?

The Direct File API opens, copies, and rewrites documents directly on disk without loading the whole file into memory. On a 2 GB benchmark with 1.67 million objects, AES-256 encryption takes about 14 seconds and a full rewrite about 6 seconds; with CPU AES-NI, AES-256 reaches about 442 MB/s encryption and 832 MB/s decryption. Review the documented Direct File API benchmark context and reproduce the workflow with your own files and hardware.

What does a HotPDF license include, and how does renewal work?

A new license ($750 Single, $2250 Small Business (up to 5 developers), $7500 Enterprise (all developers in one company)) includes full source code, one year of updates, and one year of email support. Existing customers renew update access at 50% of the full price.