AVIconCreateFromPDF alternative

[Question moved to the Acrobat SDK forum]

@brilliant_care1058 the reason AvIconCreateFromFile isn't working as you might expect, or why it might not even be a method you can find directly in the public SDK, is that the Adobe Acrobat SDK's AVIcon functions are primarily designed to work with icon resources that are either embedded directly within the PDF structure or are generated from PDF content. The AVIcon mechanism itself is geared towards displaying icons within the Acrobat application's UI, which often has specific requirements for how those visual assets are handled, sometimes preferring vector-based (PDF) content for scalability and crispness. While the SDK offers ways to work with various file types in other contexts, directly loading raster image formats like PNG or JPEG as an AVIcon might not be a first-class, direct function call within the AVIcon family, or it might require a specific internal conversion process that isn't exposed through a simple CreateFromFile method for arbitrary image formats.

The most reliable solution for incorporating PNG or JPEG images as icons within your Acrobat plugin's UI, given the SDK's typical design, would involve an intermediate step where you first convert your image files into a PDF representation that Acrobat can then use. You would: Programmatically convert your PNG/JPEG image into a single-page PDF document. Many third-party libraries or even system-level tools (depending on your development environment and language) can achieve this. You'd essentially be creating a temporary PDF where the image is the sole content of a page.

Once you have the image as a PDF, you can then use your existing and reliable AVIconCreateFromPDF function to load this newly created PDF and generate the AVIcon you need. This approach leverages the method you know works (AvIconCreateFromPDF) by providing it with content it understands, effectively bridging the gap between your image files and Acrobat's icon requirements. While it adds a conversion step, it's a common pattern in SDKs where specific internal formats are preferred for UI elements, ensuring compatibility and consistent rendering within the application.