.NET 8 WPF News

Visualize Spreadsheet Data in Three Dimensions

May 2, 2025
Spread.NET v18.1 adds new WPF surface chart that transforms complex spreadsheet data into interactive 3D surfaces.

Spread.NET by MESCIUS is a powerful tool for building Excel-like applications in your .NET projects. It lets you create interactive spreadsheets, grids, dashboards, and even forms within WinForms, ASP.NET, and WPF applications. With its rich feature set, including a robust calculation engine, formula support, and Excel compatibility, Spread.NET empowers developers to build data analysis tools, budgeting apps, scientific dashboards, and more, all within the familiar .NET environment.

The Spread.NET v18.1 update introduces a new surface chart feature for WPF, providing developers with the capability to render spreadsheet data on a three-dimensional plane. By offering this advanced charting functionality, developers can create more sophisticated data visualization solutions within their WPF applications, allowing end-users to gain deeper insights into complex data and identify key correlations that may not be evident in two-dimensional representations. This feature expands the analytical tools available within Spread.NET, allowing for more nuanced and comprehensive data exploration.

To see a full list of what's new in v18.1, see our release notes.

Spread.NET is licensed per developer and is available as a Perpetual License with a 12 month support and maintenance subscription. We can supply any Spread.NET license including new licenses, maintenance renewals, and upgrade licenses. See our Spread.NET licensing page for full details.

For more information, visit our Spread.NET product page.

Gain Instant Feedback with Tailored Rating Controls

May 2, 2025
Rating controls offer enhanced user engagement and precise data capture for customer satisfaction through customizable designs.

Rating controls in data editors provide a visually intuitive and standardized method for capturing subjective assessments. Users can interact with visual scales like stars, sliders, or thumbs to express opinions or evaluations on a predefined spectrum. These controls can also be precisely tailored with options like half-star ratings or continuous sliders, allowing for nuanced feedback beyond basic scales and providing a clearer understanding of sentiment that leads to more insightful analysis and better decision-making.

Several .NET WPF data editor collections provide rating controls including:

  • Actipro Editors for WPF offers customizable rating controls, enabling intuitive subjective data capture with flexible scales for detailed user feedback analysis.  
  • ComponentOne WPF Input and Editors (part of ComponentOne Studio WPF by MESCIUS) provides versatile rating controls, facilitating consistent collection of nuanced opinions.
  • Telerik UI for WPF Data Editors (part of Telerik UI for WPF) lets you capture user sentiment with an intuitive, customizable rating control supporting stars, shapes, and precision.
  • DevExpress WPF Data Editors (part of DevExpress WPF) features interactive rating controls, allowing subjective data collection with adaptable scales for enhanced clarity.

For an in-depth analysis of features and price, visit our .NET WPF Data Editors comparison.

Compare .NET WPF Data Editors Components

Render Complex Scripts in PDFs

April 30, 2025
XFINIUM.PDF enhances multilingual document rendering with support for Arabic, Devanagari, Thai and other complex scripts.

XFINIUM.PDF is a comprehensive software library designed to empower developers with robust tools for integrating PDF functionalities into their applications across a wide range of platforms. This library enables the creation, editing, and manipulation of PDF documents with a single codebase. This cross-platform approach eliminates the need for platform-specific development, significantly reducing development time and effort while ensuring consistency in functionality and user experience across devices. Ideal for applications that require advanced document workflows, digital signatures, form handling, or PDF generation, XFINIUM.PDF offers a solution for businesses and developers seeking to deliver PDF capabilities across diverse environments.

The latest version of XFINIUM.PDF significantly expands its text rendering capabilities by introducing support for complex scripts. This enhancement enables accurate representation of right-to-left and context-sensitive scripts such as Arabic, Hebrew, and more intricate Indic scripts including Bengali, Devanagari, Tamil, Thai, and Khmer. By incorporating these languages, XFINIUM.PDF now offers developers a more versatile and globally inclusive PDF generation toolkit, making it an excellent choice for applications requiring multilingual support and precise typographic control in diverse linguistic contexts.

XFINIUM.PDF is licensed per developer and is run-time royalty free. All licenses include a 12 month subscription which provides all major and minor product updates and technical support. See our XFINIUM.PDF licensing page for full details.

XFINIUM.PDF is available to buy in the following products:

Create, Modify, and Remove SmartArt Graphics

April 29, 2025
Syncfusion Essential Studio WPF 2025 Volume 1 now allows users to generate and manage complex visual content in Word documents.

Syncfusion Essential Studio WPF (available as part of Syncfusion Essential Studio Enterprise) is a powerful suite of over 95 UI controls, 50+ charts, and document processing libraries designed to boost the development of high-performance line-of-business applications for the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) framework. With built-in themes, touch-friendly interfaces, and seamless Visual Studio integration, it empowers developers to craft modern, feature-rich, and cross-platform experiences with ease.

The Syncfusion Essential Studio WPF 2025 Volume 1 release improves the Word Library by adding programmatic support for creating, modifying, and removing SmartArt graphics in Word documents. This feature allows developers to dynamically generate several types of SmartArt diagrams, including hierarchical structures and process flows, directly through code. By automating the manipulation of SmartArt graphics, organizations can improve the creation of complex documents, maintain consistency in visual presentations, and reduce the reliance on manual editing, thereby improving efficiency and accuracy in document management processes.

To see a full list of what's new in 2025 Volume 1, see our release notes.

Syncfusion Essential Studio WPF is available as part of Syncfusion Essential Studio Enterprise which is licensed per developer starting with a Team License of up to five developers. It is available as a 12 Month Timed Subscription License which includes support and maintenance. See our Syncfusion Essential Studio Enterprise licensing page for full details.

Learn more on our Syncfusion Essential Studio WPF product page.

Enhance Grid Data Entry with Custom Edit Forms

April 23, 2025
Deliver flexible, data editing experiences directly within your .NET grid applications, improving usability and aligning inputs with business logic.

Customized Forms in .NET Grid components allow developers to tailor the structure and layout of data entry interfaces within grid-based controls, providing flexibility to match specific application requirements. These forms enable the addition of custom fields, validation logic, and user interface elements directly into the grid's editing workflow, enhancing the user experience and ensuring that data entry aligns with business rules. By offering control over how data is captured and displayed, customizable edit forms simplify complex data interactions, reduce the need for separate dialog windows, and support consistent, efficient data management within enterprise applications.

Many .NET Grid collections enable edit forms including:

  • DevExpress WPF Data Grid (part of DevExpress WPF) lets you design highly flexible edit forms directly within the grid, supporting complex layouts and validation logic.
  • FlexGrid for WinForms (part of ComponentOne Studio WinForms by MESCIUS) allows you to integrate customizable edit forms for efficient, user-friendly data entry.
  • Telerik UI for WinForms GridView (part of Telerik UI for WinForms) facilitates intuitive, adaptable edit form customization, enabling structured data input and validation.
  • NOV Grid for .NET (part of Nevron Open Vision for .NET) enables the creation of configurable edit forms inside the grid, supporting personalized data entry.

For an in-depth analysis of features and price, visit our .NET grid controls comparison.

Compare .NET Grid Controls