Acrobat SDK vs. PDF Library SDK (especially for AcroForms)

[zweitausendzehn]

Dear all,

i'd like to develop an application for formatting an AcroForm and reading and setting the value within the AcroForm. Therefor I'd like to use some methods from an existing API. I've got a couple of questions:

1) What are the differences of Acrobat SDK and PDF Library SDK? (see Acrobat DC SDK Documentation)

Among others: Does Acrobat SDK and PDF Library SDK use the same PDF Library API? Just another subset of it? How is the licensing and the pricing? Is my suggested application above a so called "PDF Library Application"? How about the Acrobat Forms API - it is part of the Extended API for Plug-in but it isn't part of the PDF Library API?

2) What approaches do I have for formatting and setting/reading the value of an AcroForm?

Can I use both SDKs for it? (it seems so, see Adobe PDF Library SDK | Adobe Developer Connection) What are advantages/disadvantages? From which API the methods come from? (Acrobat Forms API?)

Thanks for every information regarding theses points

[lrosenth · Accepted solution]

The PDFLibrary SDK is a subset of the Acrobat SDK that can be used w/o the need for Acrobat. One of the things that is not present in the PDFLibrary SDK is the Acrobat Forms APIs that you mention.

[zweitausendzehn]

Thanks for your answer,

Am I able with the Acrobat SDK to

- Access / save a PDF/A documents,

- Process xmp metadata (read, write),

- Process AcroForms fields (read, write and format them)?

[lrosenth]

Yes to all three.

[zweitausendzehn]

To summarize my understanding

* PDF Library SDK is a subset of the Acrobat SDK but PDFLibrary SDK is also available separately (Adobe PDF Library SDK | Adobe Developer Connection)

* Acrobat SDK requires Acrobat, it is free but costs cause based on Acrobat (e. g. Plans and pricing | Adobe Acrobat DC)

* PDF Library SDK does not require Acrobat, it is free but products that use the library need to be licensed, cost depends on the use case (What is the licence price for Adobe PDF Library SDK and Adobe Reader Mobile 9 SDK? - Quora)

Do the methods in the Acrobat SDK for processing PDF/A, XMP and AcroForms come from the PDF Library SDK subset? -> Is the use of the PDF Library SDK standalone sufficient for these pdf manipulations? (So I dont need Acrobat SDK?)

Please let me know if I'm wrong at some points, thank you very much for your fast help!!

[Test Screen Name]

The library is not free nor freely available, though the documentation is.

[lrosenth]

XMP processing is in the PDFLibrary. PDF/A conversion (but NOT validation) is available as a (free) add-on to the PDFLibrary. The AcroForm APIs are only available with Acrobat (though you could write your own equivalents with PDFLibrary)

[Test Screen Name]

One big point is that the Acrobat SDK needs and uses Acrobat. This means it is subject to the technical and licensing considerations of Acrobat. And you can expect to need to deal with pop up warnings and reminders. Not dark room, service or sever use.