Installation

This page covers how to add Vanilla.PDF to your project as a pre-built dependency. To build from source instead, see Building from Source.

vcpkg (Recommended)

Install with vcpkg:

vcpkg install vanillapdf

Then point CMake at your vcpkg toolchain:

cmake -S . -B build \
  -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=<vcpkg-root>/scripts/buildsystems/vcpkg.cmake
cmake --build build

vcpkg supports feature selection to control optional dependencies:

vcpkg install vanillapdf[openssl,zlib,spdlog]

Available features:

Feature	Description
`openssl`	Enable encryption and decryption of secure PDF documents
`libjpeg-turbo`	Decode JPEG images into bitmaps
`openjpeg`	Support JPEG-2000 images through the OpenJPEG codec
`zlib`	Decompress PDF objects compressed with zlib
`spdlog`	High-performance logging for diagnostics and debugging
`nlohmann-json`	Parse application configuration from JSON files
`tests`	Enable unit and integration tests (includes GTest)
`benchmarks`	Enable performance benchmarking tools (includes Google Benchmark)

CMake FetchContent

Self-contained approach without external package managers:

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.20)
project(MyApp)

include(FetchContent)
FetchContent_Declare(
    vanillapdf
    GIT_REPOSITORY https://github.com/vanillapdf/vanillapdf.git
    GIT_TAG        main  # or "v2.1.0" for a specific release
)
FetchContent_MakeAvailable(vanillapdf)

add_executable(myapp main.c)
target_link_libraries(myapp PRIVATE vanillapdf::vanillapdf)

Note

When using FetchContent, you are responsible for managing Vanilla.PDF’s dependencies. Install them via system package managers before configuring:

Linux:

sudo apt-get install libssl-dev libjpeg-turbo8-dev zlib1g-dev libopenjp2-7-dev

macOS:

brew install openssl@3 jpeg-turbo zlib openjpeg

A complete working example with cross-platform CI validation is available in examples/fetchcontent-integration/.

Run it:

cd examples/fetchcontent-integration
cmake --preset windows-x64-debug  # or linux-x64-debug, macos-arm64-debug
cmake --build --preset windows-x64-debug
ctest --preset windows-x64-debug --output-on-failure

Conan

Note

Coming soon. The vanillapdf package is not yet published to Conan Center. The instructions below will apply once it is available.

Install via Conan:

pip install conan
conan install --requires="vanillapdf/2.3.0" --build=missing

Or add a conanfile.py to your project:

from conan import ConanFile
from conan.tools.cmake import cmake_layout

class MyApp(ConanFile):
    settings = "os", "compiler", "build_type", "arch"
    generators = "CMakeDeps", "CMakeToolchain"

    def requirements(self):
        self.requires("vanillapdf/2.3.0")

    def layout(self):
        cmake_layout(self)

A working Conan integration example is available in examples/conan-integration/.

Homebrew (macOS)

Note

Coming soon. The Homebrew formula is not yet live in Homebrew core. The instructions below will apply once it is available.

Install via Homebrew:

brew install vanillapdf

The formula installs the shared library, headers, and CLI tools. Dependencies (OpenSSL, jpeg-turbo, openjpeg, spdlog, nlohmann-json) are pulled automatically.

NuGet (.NET interop)

For .NET projects, install the NuGet package:

dotnet add package vanillapdf.net

The correct native runtime is included automatically based on your target platform and RID. No manual DLL management is required.

Linking with CMake

Regardless of installation method, use find_package in your CMakeLists.txt:

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.20)
project(MyApp C)

find_package(vanillapdf CONFIG REQUIRED)

add_executable(myapp main.c)
target_link_libraries(myapp PRIVATE vanillapdf::vanillapdf)

Verify it works with a minimal main.c:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <vanillapdf/c_vanillapdf_api.h>

int main(void) {
    DocumentHandle* doc = NULL;
    error_type rc = Document_Create("test.pdf", &doc);
    if (rc != VANILLAPDF_ERROR_SUCCESS || doc == NULL) {
        printf("Failed to create document\n");
        return 1;
    }
    Document_Release(doc);
    printf("vanillapdf is working.\n");
    return 0;
}

Build and run:

cmake -S . -B build
cmake --build build
./build/myapp

For building the library from source (cloning, presets, CMake options, tests, and troubleshooting), see Building from Source.