The latest articles on Forem by Timur Bekir BULUT (@informal061). https://forem.com/informal061 https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F3774618%2F80819648-89ac-4cfe-9e97-4f03dad46026.png https://forem.com/informal061 en Timur Bekir BULUT Sun, 15 Feb 2026 23:07:05 +0000 https://forem.com/informal061/i-built-a-gpu-accelerated-pdf-renderer-from-scratch-in-c-9mn https://forem.com/informal061/i-built-a-gpu-accelerated-pdf-renderer-from-scratch-in-c-9mn <p>I've been working on a project called <strong>ManasPDF</strong> — a PDF rendering engine written from scratch in C++ that uses Direct2D for GPU-accelerated rendering.</p> <h2> Why? </h2> <p>Most PDF libraries are either expensive or slow. I wanted to see if I could build one from scratch with hardware-accelerated rendering. Turns out, you can — but it takes implementing 90+ PDF operators to get there.</p> <h2> What it does </h2> <ul> <li> <strong>GPU rendering</strong> via Direct2D with automatic CPU fallback</li> <li>Font rasterization with FreeType (TrueType, CFF, Type1, Type3)</li> <li>7 image codecs (JPEG, JPEG2000, Flate, LZW, CCITT Fax, ASCII85, RunLength)</li> <li>AES-256 and PKCS#7 certificate encryption</li> <li>Glyph-level text extraction</li> <li>Page render cache (500MB), glyph cache (128MB)</li> </ul> <h2> Tech stack </h2> <div class="table-wrapper-paragraph"><table> <thead> <tr> <th>Component</th> <th>Technology</th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr> <td>Render Engine</td> <td>Direct2D (GPU) + FreeType</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Platform</td> <td>.NET 8.0 / WPF</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Native Core</td> <td>C++ (ManasPDFCore.dll)</td> </tr> <tr> <td>License</td> <td>Apache 2.0</td> </tr> </tbody> </table></div> <h2> Use it in your projects </h2> <p>Available as a NuGet package:<br> </p> <div class="highlight js-code-highlight"> <pre class="highlight plaintext"><code>dotnet add package ManasPDF --prerelease dotnet add package ManasPDF.Wpf --prerelease </code></pre> </div> <h2> What's next </h2> <p>Currently focused on getting the rendering solid. Once viewing is complete, I'm planning to add PDF editing capabilities.</p> <p>It's alpha stage — expect some rough edges with complex PDFs. Would love feedback, especially broken PDFs to test against.</p> <p><strong>GitHub:</strong> <a href="https://github.com/Informal061/ManasPDF" rel="noopener noreferrer">github.com/Informal061/ManasPDF</a><br> <strong>Website:</strong> <a href="https://thebigstudio.net/en/ManasPDF" rel="noopener noreferrer">thebigstudio.net/en/ManasPDF</a></p> showdev opensource dotnet cpp