Developer quick start

Edit PDFs programmatically

Install PDFDancer, run a working example, and start editing PDFs in Python, TypeScript, or Java. The examples on this page use SDK v3, and no account is required for a watermarked evaluation.

Install PDFDancer SDK v3

Run your first edit

AI-assisted workflow

Use PDFDancer with an MCP tool

Connect PDFDancer to your AI coding tool, then use natural-language prompts to build and edit PDF workflows.

Start with a prompt

Try these MCP prompts

Ask your AI tool to use PDFDancer, then adapt the result to your document and workflow.

Getting started

💬 "Create a PDF invoice generator in Python, use pdfdancer"
💬 "Create a three-page PDF report with the title 'Q4 Results', a header reading 'Acme Corp', and page numbers in the footer, use pdfdancer"
💬 "Add the image logo.png to the top-right corner of report.pdf, use pdfdancer"

Text manipulation

💬 "Find and replace all instances of 'finance@' with 'accounting@' in report.pdf, use pdfdancer"
💬 "Change the font of all headers to Helvetica Bold 18pt, use pdfdancer"
💬 "Add a watermark saying 'CONFIDENTIAL' to every page, use pdfdancer"

Image operations

💬 "Move the logo on page 1 of report.pdf to the top-right corner, use pdfdancer"
💬 "Resize all images on page 3 of report.pdf to 50% of their original size, use pdfdancer"
💬 "Replace the company logo on every page of report.pdf with logo-new.png, use pdfdancer"

Advanced tasks

💬 "Merge invoice-jan.pdf, invoice-feb.pdf, and invoice-mar.pdf, then add page numbers, use pdfdancer"
💬 "Find 'CONFIDENTIAL' in contract.pdf and replace it with 'INTERNAL USE ONLY', use pdfdancer"
💬 "Replace 'Draft' with 'Approved' in the footer on every page of report.pdf, use pdfdancer"

Common workflows

What can I build with the SDK?

Start with the small example above, then adapt one of these workflows to your documents.

Fill a PDF template

Replace named placeholders while keeping the document structure intact.

Change a font

Target text by its content and apply a new font without rebuilding the page.

Style runs by their current appearance

Find text runs by their existing font, size, and content, then update their styling without replacing their characters.

Create a PDF and add pages

Create a blank PDF, add an A4 landscape page at a specific position, and save the result.

Before you ship

Authentication and output

Try it without an account

The free tier supports anonymous evaluation. Output from an anonymous session is watermarked.

Use an API key for production

Purchase a Pro plan for production output without watermarks. Manage your subscription and API keys in the dashboard.

Open the dashboard →

Next Steps

Understand the SDK

Learn the core v3 concepts before choosing a document operation.

Edit Text

Find and replace, reflow layout, preserve formatting.

Work with Images

Extract, replace, and resize images in place.

Read The Docs

Get Your API Key

Use the free tier to evaluate PDFDancer without an account; evaluation output is watermarked. For production output without watermarks, purchase a Pro plan and manage your subscription and API keys in the dashboard.

Create Free Account

Version guidance

Migrating from API v1?

Review the v3 migration guide before updating your package, imports, or session calls.

Read the migration guide →

Ready to Build?

Anonymous sessions are supported with watermarked output. Create an account for an API key, then choose a plan that includes unwatermarked output.

Create Free Account Read the SDK docs →