PL/PDF SDK
Oracle-native, developer-controlled generation of PDF, PDF/A, PDF/UA, DOCX and XLSX documents directly from PL/SQL.
Formerly known as PL/PDF Core.
A complete document engine inside Oracle
PL/PDF SDK is the core document-generation engine for Oracle applications. It enables developers to create precisely formatted business documents from database data and PL/SQL logic without deploying a separate reporting server, Java application server or external document service.
Layouts are implemented programmatically, giving developers direct control over document structure, pagination, content placement, fonts, graphics, forms, security and output behaviour.
Oracle-native
Generate documents where the data and business logic already reside: inside the Oracle Database environment.
Code-driven
Build content and layouts with SQL queries, cursors, procedures, loops, conditions, calculations and existing PL/SQL packages.
Multiple outputs
Create fixed PDF output as well as editable Microsoft Word DOCX and Microsoft Excel XLSX documents.
PDF capabilities by area
PL/PDF provides more than basic text and page output. Its APIs cover the complete lifecycle of a database-generated PDF, from page composition and typography to charts, forms, navigation, protection and digital signing.
Page composition and pagination
Control the complete page model from PL/SQL, including document dimensions, usable areas and page-level processing.
- Portrait and landscape orientation
- Predefined and custom page formats
- Margins and precise X/Y positioning
- Automatic and manual page breaks
- Page rotation and page insertion
- Headers, footers and page numbering
- Backgrounds, watermarks and stamps
- Reusable page templates
Text, fonts and international output
Create accurately measured, wrapped and styled text for multilingual enterprise documents.
- Standard PDF fonts
- Embedded TrueType fonts
- Unicode and configurable encoding
- Chinese, Japanese and Korean fonts
- Document language metadata
- Font size, style, alignment and colour
- Text-width and text-height measurement
- Single-line, multiline and flowing text
Tables and structured content
Build structured business layouts from configurable cells and rows rather than relying only on absolute positioning.
- Dynamic cells and rows
- Independent margins and padding
- Per-side borders, widths and colours
- Background colours and text styles
- Minimum dimensions and measured heights
- Multiline and image cells
- XHTML-formatted cell content
- Barcode cells
Graphics, images and visual elements
Combine database content with images, vector drawing operations and reusable graphical elements.
- Images stored in Oracle BLOB values
- Lines, rectangles and rounded rectangles
- Circles, ellipses, polygons and sectors
- Custom vector paths
- Drawing, filling and text colours
- Configurable line widths
- Clipping regions
- Opacity and transparency control
Barcodes and charts
Generate machine-readable codes and data-driven visualisations without exporting the information to another reporting tool.
- Code 39, Code 128 and Interleaved 2 of 5
- EAN-13, UPC-A and PostNet
- PDF417
- QR Code and Micro QR
- Data Matrix and Aztec Code
- Chart categories and multiple datasets
- Titles, legends and data labels
- Axes, scaling, grid lines and tick marks
Navigation and document packaging
Create documents that are easy to navigate, distribute and process as complete information packages.
- Bookmarks and document outlines
- Internal links and named destinations
- External web links
- Embedded file attachments
- Author, title, subject and keywords
- Viewer display and initial-view settings
- Document identifiers
- Optional PDF JavaScript actions
Interactive PDF forms
Generate fillable PDF documents and control field behaviour directly from PL/SQL.
- Checkbox fields
- List boxes and editable combo boxes
- Radio-button groups
- Single-line and multiline text fields
- Pushbuttons
- Digital-signature fields
- Read-only, required, hidden and printable states
- Submit, reset and JavaScript actions
Security, compliance and authenticity
Produce final business documents with the controls needed for secure distribution, accessibility, archiving and verification.
- PDF encryption and access permissions
- PDF/A archival output
- PDF/UA accessible output
- Digital-signature workflows
- Signature fields and signing metadata
- Document language and metadata
- Configurable compression
- Controlled final PDF BLOB output
Programmatic output beyond PDF
The SDK is not limited to fixed PDF documents. The same Oracle application can also generate editable Office Open XML output when a business process requires Word or Excel files.
Microsoft Word DOCX
Create editable Word documents programmatically from PL/SQL for workflows where users need to continue editing, reviewing or distributing the generated content.
Microsoft Excel XLSX
Generate Excel workbooks from Oracle data for spreadsheet-oriented reporting, data exchange and downstream analysis.
Designed for Oracle application workflows
Transactional documents
Invoices, account statements, confirmations, certificates, correspondence and other database-driven customer documents.
Operational output
Production forms, barcode documents, labels, technical documents, regulatory output and internal business reports.
Application and batch integration
Use the SDK from stored procedures, scheduled jobs, Oracle Forms, Oracle APEX and other Oracle-based applications.
SDK or OffX?
Choose PL/PDF SDK when developers will create and maintain document layouts programmatically in PL/SQL.
Choose PL/PDF OffX when you also need the Microsoft Word template engine, allowing business-maintained DOCX templates to drive document generation. OffX includes the complete SDK, so a separate SDK licence is not required.
Evaluate PL/PDF SDK
Download the SDK package with installation files, documentation and examples, and start generating documents directly from PL/SQL.
Trial mode is limited to five generated pages and applies a trial watermark. A commercial licence key removes these restrictions.