.NET News

Improve PDF Security and Branding with Watermarks

March 25, 2025
Easily add customizable watermarks to PDFs to enhance document security, protect intellectual property, and reinforce branding.

Watermarks in PDFs are semi-transparent text or image overlays that serve as a security and branding tool by marking documents with identifying information. They help protect intellectual property, prevent unauthorized distribution, and reinforce authenticity by displaying ownership, confidentiality, or document status (e.g., "Draft," "Confidential," or "Approved"). Watermarking also enhances professionalism by incorporating company logos or copyright notices. Common use cases include securing legal contracts, corporate reports, research papers, and sensitive business documents to ensure proper handling and compliance. By integrating customizable watermarking, organizations can maintain control over their digital documents while preserving readability and usability.

Several .NET WPF PDF components allow you to add watermarks, including:

  • Syncfusion WPF PDF (part of Syncfusion Essential Studio Enterprise) lets you add customizable watermarks to PDFs, enhancing security, branding, and document control.
  • Telerik UI PDF for WPF (part of Telerik UI for WPF) enables dynamic watermarking in PDFs, ensuring confidentiality, copyright protection, and professional branding.
  • IronPDF for .NET by Iron Software facilitates advanced PDF watermarking, allowing developers to overlay text or images for security and authenticity in .NET projects.

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

Compare .NET WPF PDF Components

Create Drill Through Reports in a C# .NET Application

March 25, 2025
Build interactive drill through reports using ActiveReports.NET by passing parameters and setting up navigation actions.

ActiveReports.NET helps you deliver beautiful reports with intuitive Visual Studio integrated report designers and rich controls. It provides code-based cross-platform reporting, easy-to-use designers, and a flexible API, enabling you to design and deliver powerful reports with intuitive, reliable, and user-friendly report designers and controls.

In this blog post, MESCIUS Product Manager Alec Gall shows you how to use ActiveReports to drill through from one report to another in your .NET application. Steps include:

  • Defining Parameters for Drill-Through Reports in ActiveReports
  • Creating Dynamic Report Titles and Data Filtering with Parameters
  • Adding Interactive Drill-Through Actions to Images

Detailed source code is completed and there is even a video that you can watch as you go through the steps.

Read the complete blog and begin providing a seamless way to navigate between related datasets in your .NET applications.

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.

Optimize Data Input in .NET WinForms Grids

March 21, 2025
Use AutoComplete cells to enhance data entry by offering context-aware suggestions, reducing user effort, and decreasing the likelihood of errors.

An AutoComplete cell type in a grid control facilitates efficient data entry by providing predictive suggestions as users type, drawing from a predefined data source to minimize errors and enhance user experience. This functionality, often implemented via lookup editors, custom cell editors, or event handling, streamlines data input by displaying a dropdown list of matching values, allowing for quick selection and reducing typing effort, ultimately contributing to faster and more accurate data management within the application.

Several .NET WinForms grid controls enable the AutoComplete cell type including:

  • DevExpress WinForms Data Grid (part of DevExpress WinForms) enhances user input with an AutoComplete Cell Type, providing real-time suggestions from bound data sources.
  • True DBGrid for WinForms (part of ComponentOne Studio WinForms by MESCIUS) improves data entry efficiency with AutoComplete cells, minimizing errors by offering context-aware suggestions.
  • Telerik UI for WinForms GridView (part of Telerik UI for WinForms) enables seamless data selection with AutoComplete cells, reducing typing effort through intelligent, customizable predictions.
  • Infragistics WinDataGrid (part of Infragistics Ultimate UI for Windows Forms) optimizes UX with the AutoComplete cell type, simplifying structured input by dynamically displaying relevant choices.

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

Compare .NET WinForms Grid Controls

Simplify Date Editing with Auto Type Support

March 21, 2025
DevExpress WPF v24.2 adds automatic DateOnly and TimeOnly editor support in Grid, TreeList, and Property Grid, enhancing data handling.

DevExpress WPF is a powerful suite of controls that enhances your WPF development toolkit. It offers data grids, ribbon menus, rich text editors, spreadsheets, charts, and more – all with beautiful themes and touch-friendly interfaces. DevExpress WPF empowers you to build professional-looking, responsive applications that meet modern user expectations, saving you time and effort while adding polish and functionality.

The DevExpress WPF v24.2 update enhances data handling in Grid, TreeList, and Property Grid by introducing automatic support for DateOnly and TimeOnly properties. This improvement ensures that the appropriate data editors are automatically assigned to cells, filters, and conditional formatting dialogs without requiring manual configuration. By streamlining the editing experience, the update provides a more intuitive approach to working with date and time values while reducing development effort. Users can now rely on built-in editor selection, improving efficiency and ensuring a seamless user experience across their applications.

To see a full list of what's new in version 24.2, see our release notes.

DevExpress WPF is licensed per developer and is available as a Perpetual License with a 12 month support and maintenance subscription. We can supply new subscriptions, subscription renewals, and additional licenses. See our DevExpress WPF licensing page for full details.

DevExpress WPF is available to buy in the following products:

Mark Up PDFs with Customizable Annotations

March 20, 2025
Rectangle annotations provide a precise way to highlight sections within a PDF, with adjustable colors, borders, and transparency.

Rectangle annotations in PDF controls allow users to highlight specific areas within a document by drawing rectangular shapes. These annotations are useful for marking sections for review, redaction, or emphasis without altering the original document content. Typically, rectangle annotations support customization options such as border color, fill color, opacity, and line thickness, enabling users to tailor them to their needs. Many PDF viewer components also provide interactive features, such as the ability to move, resize, or delete annotations, ensuring flexibility in document review and collaboration workflows.

Several ASP.NET Core PDF viewer controls offer rectangle annotations including:

  • Document Solutions for PDF by MESCIUS provides extensive support for rectangle annotations that can be dynamically added, modified, and saved within the PDF file.
  • ImageGear for .NET by Accusoft supports rectangle annotations with styling options, suitable for applications requiring advanced document markup and editing features.
  • Syncfusion ASP.NET Core PDF (part of Syncfusion Essential Studio Enterprise) allows users to create rectangle annotations with options for color, transparency, and border width.

For an in-depth analysis of features and price, visit our ASP.NET Core PDF viewers comparison.

Compare ASP.NET Core PDF Viewer Controls