PDF-SDK 2.4: license keys, online licenses and a document API on every platform
What is new in PDF-SDK 2.4 for iOS, Android, the web, Flutter and React Native — and the one change every app must make when it upgrades.
PDF-SDK 2.4 is out on every platform — iOS, iPadOS, Mac Catalyst, Android, the web, Flutter and React Native share one version number. It is the biggest release since 2.0, and it asks one thing of every app that upgrades.
The one change: a license key
From 2.4 the editor needs a license key issued for your app. Set it once, at launch, before the first editor opens:
| Platform | Call |
|---|---|
| iOS, iPadOS, Mac Catalyst | PDFEditorSDK.setLicenseKey("PE1.…") |
| Android | PdfEditorSdk.setLicenseKey("PE1.…") |
| Web | PDFEditor.create(canvas, { licenseKey }), or PDFEditor.setLicenseKey(key, { wasmUrl }) |
| Flutter, React Native | await PdfEditor.setLicenseKey('PE1.…') |
Without a valid key the editor opens no document, saves nothing and signs nothing — there is no evaluation mode and no watermark. Keys are signed and checked on the device against your bundle identifier, package name or web origin. A trial key works exactly like a purchased one. Everything about keys: License keys.
Edit documents from code
A document API now ships on every platform: PDFDocumentEditor on iOS and the web, PdfDocumentEditor on Android,
and PdfDocument in Flutter and React Native. Read every layer of a page, replace text in any script — keeping its
font, size, colour and position — restyle, move and restack layers, add text, images and shapes, mark text up, fill
and author forms, edit pages and metadata, search, render and save.
Use it with no UI at all, for a templating, translation or form-filling job, or on the document an editor is showing, where each change appears at once and the user can undo it. A walkthrough: How to replace text in an existing PDF from code.
Online licenses
A license can now be issued as an online license. It has no end date; instead it can be suspended and resumed, and the same key works again the moment it is resumed — no new build. The SDK confirms the key at launch and when the app returns to the foreground, and keeps working offline in between, 30 days by default. What it sends, and what the license server keeps, is on the Security page.
A localizable, customizable editor
Every word the editor shows now has a key shared by all platforms. Translate the ones you want, or let the editor use your app's own translations; right-to-left languages mirror the editor.
On iOS, Android, Flutter and React Native, one configuration shapes the editor: which modes and tools appear and in what order, their names and icons, your own buttons, fonts, colour scheme, the selection style, each tool's first-use style and the zoom range. See Custom UI.
Also in 2.4
- Where the e-signature placement picker starts: any corner of the page, or invisible.
- On the web, a
maxZoomoption besideminZoom. - On Android, the editor's icons and the system bars now follow the editor's colour scheme.
Every change, by platform: release notes. Already on 2.4.0? 2.4.1 followed a day later with fixes for licenses that run out while an app stays open.
Try it in your app
A free trial unlocks every feature on every platform, in any app.