HotPDF Component for Delphi PDF creation and editing

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.

Download the HotPDF Component DEMO package (25.6 MB)

2026-05-26 Version 2.137.3: HotPDF changelog

HotPDF Delphi PDF Component with source codes
Pay with credit/debit cards, PayPal, AliPay or Wire Transfer through FastSpring:
New customer full price for first time purchase:
HotPDF Single License ($499)
HotPDF Team/SME License ($999)
HotPDF Enterprise License ($1999)

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 (25.6 MB)
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 the broader Delphi PDF Library package when you need a different API surface for legacy PDFlibPas-style workflows.