HotPDF Component for Delphi PDF creation and editing

HotPDF at a glance

Product	HotPDF Component — native VCL PDF authoring library for Delphi and C++Builder
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)
Standards	PDF 1.3-1.7 with selected PDF 2.0 encryption; PDF/A-1/2/3, PDF/UA-1, PDF/X-1a/3/4; PAdES B-B through B-LTA signing
Deployment	Compiles into your executable; no external PDF runtime for core authoring
Source code	Full Object Pascal source included with every license
Licensing	Royalty-free, one-time $499-$3999 by team size; renewal at 40% of list price
Current version	2.256.0 (2026-07-01)
Evaluation	Free demo package download

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

HotPDF is a source-level Delphi and C++Builder 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.

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 support and PAdES B-B, B-T, B-LT, and B-LTA workflows including RFC 3161 timestamps and DSS / VRI dictionaries.
• 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.
• 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.

Download the HotPDF Component DEMO package

2026-07-01 Version 2.256.0: HotPDF changelog. Recent releases complete XFDF annotation coverage across all 18 ISO 19444-1 annotation elements, add a self-contained base64 codec for the XFDF layer, and wire embedded-file streams into XFDF import and export.

Licensing and pricing

Pay with credit/debit cards, PayPal, AliPay, or wire transfer through FastSpring. Every new HotPDF license includes the full Object Pascal source code, one year of updates, and one year of email support.

License	Developers	Price (one-time)	Order
Single	1 developer	$499	Buy HotPDF Single
Team/SME	Up to 5 developers	$999	Buy HotPDF Team/SME
Enterprise	Unlimited developers	$1999	Buy HotPDF Enterprise
Corporate	Unlimited developers, worldwide subsidiaries	$3999	Buy HotPDF Corporate

License choice: Choose Team/SME when no more than 5 developers will use this library. Choose Enterprise if the team may grow beyond 5 developers or needs the Enterprise-only source package.

Enterprise-only source extras: HotPDF Enterprise includes complete source code for dedicated tool-grade examples, currently PDF Preflight Pro and XFA & AcroForms Flattener Pro, plus full source code for the complete test suites normally used only for internal validation.

Existing customer renewal: 40% of the full price, cancellable at any time. Open the HotPDF purchase and renewal page.

Standards, signing, and validation workflows

HotPDF supports standards-aware PDF generation workflows for PDF/A-1, PDF/A-2, PDF/A-3, PDF/X-1a, PDF/X-3, PDF/X-4, and PDF/UA-1. It also includes preflight and focused PDF/VT validation helpers for review and automation workflows. The component exposes profile-specific switches and guards so calls that would break the selected profile can fail early instead of silently writing a non-conformant PDF.

Workflow	HotPDF support	Author responsibility
PDF/A-1, PDF/A-2, PDF/A-3	PDFACompliance, XMP pdfaid metadata, OutputIntent support, font-embedding enforcement, JavaScript/encryption/annotation/profile guards, and PDF/A-2A / PDF/A-3A smoke outputs validated with veraPDF.	Choose the target level, provide real ICC OutputIntent data, set title/language, embed appropriate fonts, and avoid content outside the selected archival profile.
PDF/UA-1	PDFUACompliance, Tagged PDF root, pdfuaid metadata, /Lang, DisplayDocTitle, structure elements, marked content, role mapping, ParentTree wiring, alternate text and ActualText helpers.	Build meaningful document structure, reading order, heading hierarchy, list/table semantics, and alternative descriptions for real content.
PDF/X-1a, PDF/X-3, PDF/X-4	PDFXCompliance, OutputIntent support, prepress profile guards, and restrictions for interactive or non-print-safe features.	Provide print-appropriate color management, page boxes, and production settings for the chosen prepress workflow.
PDF/VT validation	ValidatePDFVT checks XMP PDF/VT identification, metadata namespace, modification-date consistency, PDF/X base markers, OutputIntent, catalog DPartRoot structure, loadable pages, and page-level DPart coverage.	Use it to audit incoming or produced files; authoring the full variable-data production intent remains the caller's responsibility.

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.
• 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 report validation, XMP report embedding, focused PDF/VT validation, and conservative repair from preflight reports.
• PDF 1.3 through PDF 1.7 feature gates, selected PDF 2.0 encryption support, object streams, XRef streams, OutputIntents, transparency groups, soft masks, patterns, shadings, and prepress ExtGState controls.

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 Component DEMO package
Supports RAD Studio XE5 through RAD Studio 13.1 Florence for Delphi and C++Builder (Win32, Win64, and Win64x workflows)

When to choose HotPDF

• Choose HotPDF when your application creates or edits PDF documents and you want a Delphi/C++Builder source-code component rather than a separate PDF service.
• Choose PDFium Component when your primary requirement is PDF rendering, viewing, page rasterization, text extraction, and interactive viewer UI integration.
• Choose losLab PDF Library when the project is already built around the PDFlibPas API surface, or when you need DLL, ActiveX, or Dylib integration options alongside the Delphi/C++Builder source library.

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

Does HotPDF require Adobe Acrobat or an external PDF runtime?

No. HotPDF compiles into your application and creates, edits, signs, and validates PDF documents in process; the core authoring workflow does not deploy or call an external PDF runtime.

Is the full source code included?

Yes. Every license includes the complete Object Pascal source code. The Enterprise license adds source code for the tool-grade examples PDF Preflight Pro and XFA & AcroForms Flattener Pro plus the internal test suites.

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?

Yes. HotPDF supports standards-aware output for PDF/A-1, PDF/A-2, PDF/A-3, PDF/UA-1, PDF/X-1a, PDF/X-3, and PDF/X-4, with profile guards that fail early instead of silently writing a non-conformant file, plus text, JSON, and HTML preflight reports.

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.

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

A new license ($499 Single, $999 Team/SME for up to 5 developers, $1999 Enterprise for unlimited developers, $3999 Corporate for worldwide subsidiaries) includes full source code, one year of updates, and one year of email support. Existing customers renew update access at 40% of the full price.