Give your products a competitive edge with the Solid Framework .NET developer toolkit. This SDK provides the power to create applications with the ability to create, modify and convert PDF files. Deliver your products to the market faster with the latest technology available from Solid Documents.

Solid Framework Technology is the same technology used by Solid Documents to provide PDF support in applications such as Solid Converter PDF.

"The technology from Solid Documents offered unmatched Word output quality combined with easy integration with our server-based framework.
The business and technical contacts were a pleasure to work with and provided knowledgeable and prompt support for all of our questions. "

- Scott Mackey, Director of Product Management
Adlib Software

Version Comparison Chart


Pricing:	FREE	Tools	Professional
For Internal Use (single Enterprise)	FREE	$250.00 (annual)	$1,500.00 (annual)
For Distribution and Resale	FREE	$500.00 (annual)	$5,000.00 + (depends on application)
Technical Support:
Support with programming issues and custom sample code.
Document Conversion Features:
Convert PDF Files to Word Documents (like PDF Mechanic)
Extract Tables from PDF to Microsoft Excel (like PDF Mechanic)
Convert PDF files to reflowed HTML
Convert PDF Files to PowerPoint
Convert PDF Files to Data (.csv)
Convert PDF to reflowed plain text
Extract Images from PDF Files
PDF/A Features:
PDF/A Validation (with detailed report like PDF Mechanic )
Convert PDF to PDF/A (detailed report)
PDF/A Validation (simple pass or fail)
Create PDF/A compliant PDF files (like PDF Mechanic)
PDF Rendering Features:
Render PDF pages as bitmaps (for thumbnails) Note: Free version includes watermark.
PDF Creation Features:
PDF files from any Windows application using GenericPrintProvider
WordPrintProvider (more...)
ExcelPrintProvider (more...)
PowerPointPrintProvider (more...)
PublisherPrintProvider (more...)
WordPerfectPrintProvider (more...)
Web Page (or URL) to PDF using HtmlPrintProvider
PDF Editing Features:
Browse content and internal structure of PDF files (like PDF Navigator)
Modify Viewer Preferences and PDF document Info (like PDF Navigator)
Secure PDF files: encryption, permissions and passwords (like PDF Navigator)

Platforms and Languages

Operating Systems

Solid Framework requires the .NET CLR and does not support Windows 9x. Solid Framework requires .NET Framework 2.0 or later.

The same SDK can also be used directly via native C++ without .NET

The framework has been tested on:

Windows XP SP2
Windows 2003 Server
Windows Vista
Windows 7

The Solid Framework .dll is built as an “AnyCPU” framework and automatically runs x86 or x64 native, depending on the process that loads it.

Programming Languages

Solid Framework is a CLS Compliant class library. This means that the class library only exposes features that are common across all .NET languages. For example, unsigned types and overloaded methods are not used since these features are not available in all supported languages.

For simplicity, all the samples and documentation are in C#. The other commonly used CLS Compliant languages are:

C#
Visual Basic .NET
J#

For native C++, there is a lightweight wrapper for the core functionality of the SDK. The classes in this wrapper are identical to their C# counterparts so that samples and documentation can be shared by all developers. Contact us if you are interested in this API.

Microsoft® Office

PDF Conversion

Converting PDF to Word can be done without having Microsoft Office installed. Solid Framework SDK creates .docx, .xlsx, and .pptx in modern ZIP-based Open Office XML ISO Standard formats directly. However, there are two features which do require Microsoft Office 2003 or 2007 (Vista):

If Microsoft Office Document Imaging (MODI) is installed, Solid Framework can do OCR on scanned pages (MODI is only in Microsoft Office 2003 and 2007, not in 2010).
Saving to binary .doc requires Microsoft Word (.docx, .rtf and the WordML .doc formats do not require Microsoft Word). Note: .docx is the preferred Word format

PDF Creation

PDF creation is done by printing to the Solid PDF Creator printer driver which can be downloaded from here. The Solid Framework license is valid for Solid PDF Creator too and is automatically applied.

For richer PDF creation, application specific print providers exist like WordPrintProvider. This provides support for features like bookmarks, rich hyperlinks and document property support. Office 2003, Office 2007 (Vista) or Office 2010 must be installed for support of the print providers.

Premium PDF Creation Features

Solid Framework uses custom print providers for specific applications like Word and PowerPoint. Thanks to these print providers, premium PDF creation features such as bookmark creation (outlines), rich hyperlink conversion, document information support and alternate layouts are possible.