.NET News

Customize Instantly with Built-In Color Tools

June 27, 2025
Color pickers let users quickly apply color to cells or charts, making trends, outliers, and priorities easier to see at a glance.

A color picker is a user interface element that allows users to choose and apply colors to specific parts of their data without writing any code. It typically appears as a small palette or input box that, when clicked, opens a panel with color options like swatches, sliders, or hex code fields. This feature supports intuitive visual customization, enabling users to highlight patterns, mark important values, or align with corporate color schemes. In advanced editors, color pickers also support themes or accessibility settings, such as high-contrast palettes.

Several .NET Blazor data editors can provide you with a color picker, including:

  • Blazorise Data Editors let you apply custom colors effortlessly using an intuitive picker, enhancing data presentation and user interaction.
  • jQWidgets Blazor (part of jQWidgets) Data Editors allow you to visually organize content with a built-in color picker for clear, dynamic data styling.
  • Syncfusion Essential Studio for Blazor Data Editors (part of Syncfusion Essential Studio Enterprise) provides color picker integration, enabling visual formatting.
  • Telerik UI for Blazor Data Editors (part of Telerik UI for Blazor) facilitates precise data highlighting through a responsive color picker, supporting brand alignment and clarity.

For an in-depth analysis of features and price, visit our .NET Blazor data editors comparison.

Compare .NET Blazor Data Editors

Enable OCR in PDF Processing Apps for .NET

June 27, 2025
The Telerik Document Processing Libraries 2025 Q2 update enhances the PDF processing library with support for optical character recognition (OCR).

Telerik Document Processing is a suite of document processing libraries designed for web, desktop and cross-platform .NET applications. It enables developers to create, read, edit, and convert a wide range of document formats, including PDF, DOCX, XLSX, ZIP and HTML, without relying on external software such as Microsoft Office or Adobe Acrobat. These libraries are independent from the user interface (UI) and are built for high performance and accuracy, providing convenient APIs that give flexibility and control so you can integrate document processing capabilities into your applications with only a few lines of code.

The Telerik Document Processing Libraries 2025 Q2 (2025.2.520) update adds Optical Character Recognition (OCR) support to the PDFProcessing library, enabling developers to extract machine-readable text from scanned PDFs and images directly within .NET applications. This functionality facilitates the conversion of previously inaccessible content, such as scanned contracts, forms or handwritten notes, into editable and searchable machine-encoded text, providing users with extracted text along with a PDF containing the image with selectable text. By integrating OCR capabilities, developers can now streamline data extraction and analysis tasks, reducing the need for manual data entry and improving overall efficiency in handling diverse document types.

To see a full list of what's new in 2025 Q2 (2025.2.520), see our release notes.

Telerik UI is licensed per developer and has two licensing models: an annual Subscription License and a Perpetual License. The Subscription license provides access to the latest product updates, technical support, and exclusive benefits for a flat annual fee, and must be renewed to continue using the software. The Perpetual license is a one-time purchase granting access to the current released version and includes a one-year subscription for product updates and technical support. After this initial period, users can choose to renew the subscription element to continue receiving updates and support; otherwise, they may continue using the installed version available during their active subscription term but will forgo future updates and support. See our Telerik DevCraft Ultimate licensing page for full details.

The Telerik Document Processing Libraries are available in the following products:

Add Dynamic Grouping to Your Reports

June 27, 2025
ActiveReports v19.1 adds powerful grouping capabilities, enabling report authors to build customizable, interactive layouts with zero code changes.

ActiveReports.NET from MESCIUS, is a comprehensive reporting solution for developers building applications in .NET. It empowers you to design and deliver visually appealing reports through user-friendly designers and a wide range of controls. ActiveReports simplifies report creation and distribution with a versatile API, rich data source connectivity, and support for multiple export formats. This translates to increased developer productivity and improved end-user experience with powerful reporting functionalities within your .NET applications.

The ActiveReports v19.1 update introduces enhanced grouping control that allows developers to enable or hide groups in Tables, BandedLists, and Tablix controls based on expressions or parameters. This capability makes it easier to design reports that adapt at runtime to different data scenarios or user inputs, without requiring code changes. By configuring the new "Enabled" and "Hidden" properties directly within the report definition, developers can deliver more flexible and maintainable reporting solutions that respond dynamically to business logic.

To see a full list of what's new in v19.1, see our release notes.

ActiveReports.NET is licensed per developer and is available with or without a 12 month support and maintenance subscription. See our ActiveReports.NET licensing page for full details.

Learn more on our ActiveReports.NET product page.

Organize Data for Faster Insight

June 26, 2025
Sorting functionality allows spreadsheet users to bring structure to large data sets by arranging rows based on selected column values.

Data sorting in a spreadsheet control is a fundamental feature that enables users to rearrange data within a grid or table based on specific criteria, typically ascending or descending alphabetically or by numerical value. Sorting will usually be performed on single or multiple columns and is often integrated with other data manipulation tools like filtering, grouping, and searching. By sorting data, users can quickly locate and analyze information, identify patterns, and ensure consistency across records. Especially useful in large datasets, it improves the readability of the information and makes it more organized in preparation for decision-making, reporting, and data validation. This capability facilitates efficient data analysis, and supports better user interaction by allowing datasets to be viewed in meaningful sequences.

Several WPF spreadsheet controls offer support for data sorting including:

  • DevExpress WPF Spreadsheet (part of DevExpress WPF) offers built-in dialog boxes for single- and multi-column sorts, along with support for custom comparison.
  • Spread WPF by MESCIUS provides a flexible API for applying sorts programmatically or through the user interface, including options for nested multi-key sorts.
  • Telerik WPF Spreadsheet (part of Telerik UI for WPF) supports interactive column and row sorting, multi-field sorting, and programmatic control over sort direction and key range.
  • Syncfusion WPF Spreadsheet (part of Syncfusion Essential Studio Enterprise) includes context-menu and dialog-based sorting for one or more columns.

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

Compare WPF Spreadsheet Controls

Display Complex Data with Hierarchical Navigation

June 25, 2025
Telerik UI for .NET MAUI 2025 Q2 adds a new TreeDataGrid component that combines the hierarchy of a TreeView with the flexibility of a DataGrid.

Telerik UI for .NET MAUI is a robust suite of user interface components designed to simplify the creation of cross-platform applications using .NET Multi-platform App UI (MAUI). It offers a wide range of pre-built controls, including charts, grids, and navigation elements, enabling developers to build visually appealing, high-performance apps for Android, iOS, Windows, and macOS from a shared codebase. By ensuring a consistent user experience across platforms, it accelerates development and allows a focus on functionality, making it ideal for business applications, dashboards, and data-driven projects.

The Telerik UI for .NET MAUI 2025 Q2 update introduces the TreeDataGrid component, providing users with a powerful tool for presenting complex, hierarchical data in a structured, grid-based layout. By combining the features of a TreeView and a DataGrid, the TreeDataGrid enables efficient display and interaction with nested data using multiple columns, expandable rows, and customizable indentation. It supports dynamic operations such as adding or removing child items, auto-expanding nodes, and conditionally rendering expandable sections, providing precise control over data presentation and user experience.

To see a full list of what's new in 2025 Q2 (v11.0.0), see our release notes.

Telerik UI for .NET MAUI is licensed per developer and has two licensing models: an annual Subscription License and a Perpetual License. The Subscription license provides access to the latest product updates, technical support, and exclusive benefits for a flat annual fee, and must be renewed to continue using the software. The Perpetual license is a one-time purchase granting access to the current released version and includes a one-year subscription for product updates and technical support. After this initial period, users can choose to renew the subscription element to continue receiving updates and support; otherwise, they may continue using the installed version available during their active subscription term but will forgo future updates and support. See our Telerik UI for .NET MAUI licensing page for full details.

Telerik UI for .NET MAUI is available individually or as part of the following products: