GemBox.Spreadsheet
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    Supported File Formats

    GemBox.Spreadsheet supports multiple file formats with varying degree of support.

    GemBox.Spreadsheet Feature Support

    Following list describes each icon used in the subsequent tables.

    • Supported - Feature is supported (it can be created, modified or removed with GemBox.Spreadsheet).

    • Not applicable - Feature is not applicable for file format (file format is not designed to support this kind of feature).

    • Not supported - Feature is not supported (it cannot be created, modified or removed with GemBox.Spreadsheet, nor it will be preserved when loading and saving to the same file format).

    GemBox.Spreadsheet Format Support

    FrameworkXLSXXLSXLSBODSCSVTXTXMLHTMLPDFXPSImage
    .NET 6.0+ on Windows
    YYYYYYYYYYY
    .NET Standard 2.0+
    (for Linux, macOS, Android, iOS, …)
    YYYYYYYYYNN
    .NET Framework 3.5+
    YYYYYYYYYYY

    GemBox.Spreadsheet Feature Support

    FeatureXLSXXLSXLSBODSCSVTXTXMLHTMLPDFXPSImage
    Reading
    File formats from which GemBox.Spreadsheet can read.
    YYYYYYYYNNN
    Writing
    File formats to which GemBox.Spreadsheet can write.
    YYYYYYNYYYY
    Document Properties
    Built-in & custom workbook properties.
    YYYYXXYYYYX
    Cell/Row/Column Formatting
    Number formats, text alignment, font settings, borders, background fill, column width, row height.
    YYYYXXYYYYY
    In-line Text Formatting
    Different font settings for parts of a textual cell value.
    YYYYXXYYYYY
    Conditional Formatting
    Conditional Formatting and calculation.
    YYNNXXNYYYY
    Row/Column Outline & GroupYYYYXXXNNNN
    Defined Names & Formulas
    Workbook and worksheet scope defined names, formula reading/writing.
    YYYYXXYXXXX
    Pictures
    JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP, TIF, EMF, WMF, EXIF, ICO, SVG.
    YYYYXXXYYYY
    Charts
    Column, Bar, Line, Area, Pie, Scatter, Combo.
    YNYNXXXYYYY
    Shapes & Textboxes
    YNYNXXXYYYY
    Hyperlinks
    Internal & external hyperlinks.
    YYYYXXYYYNX
    Comments
    Text, author, visibility and size.
    YYYYXXNYNNX
    Pivot Tables
    Pivot Tables are loaded from and saved to XLSX file format only.
    YNNNXXXNNNN
    AutoFilter & SortState
    Filtering and sorting can be executed in spreadsheet read from any input file format. Filtering and sorting settings are loaded from and saved to XLSX file format only.
    YNNNXXNXXXX
    Data Validation
    Validation criteria, input message, error alert.
    YYNNXXNXXXX
    Sheet Header & Footer
    First page, even pages and default header/footer.
    YYYYXXYNYYY
    Sheet Horizontal & Vertical Page BreaksYYYYXXYXYYY
    Sheet Split/Freeze Panes
    Set pane state and position.
    YYYYXXNXXXX
    Sheet Page Setup
    Margins, orientation, size, etc.
    YYYYXXYXYYY
    Sheet View & Print Options
    Gridlines, headings, etc.
    YYYYXXYYYYY
    Workbook Encryption
    YNYNXXXXNNX
    Sheet Protection Options
    Simple password sheet protection, restrict selection, insertion, removal, editing, etc.
    YYYYXXNXXXX
    Certain Charts, Embedded Objects
    - supported only through preservation,
    - cannot be created, modified or removed with GemBox.Spreadsheet,
    - can only be preserved when loading and saving to XLSX file format.
    YNYNXXXXNNN

    Supported Image Formats

    GemBox.Spreadsheet supports writing worksheet to following image formats:

    • Portable Network Graphics (PNG) format,
    • Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) format,
    • Graphics Interchange Format (GIF),
    • Bitmap (BMP) format,
    • Tagged Image File Format (TIFF),
    • Windows Media Photo (WMP) format,
    • Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG).
    Note

    Open XML (.XLSX) and OpenDocument (.ODS) formats have become industry standards, because they are open, standardized and extensible. You can read XLSX files in Microsoft Excel 2003 and older by using Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack. ODS files are fully supported in Microsoft Excel 2007 SP2.

    Additional conversion outputs

    In addition to exporting to a file or a stream, GemBox.Spreadsheet also supports printing a workbook ( Print() method) and converting a workbook to the following types:

    • XpsDocument using the ExcelFile.ConvertToXpsDocument(XpsSaveOptions) method and
    • ImageSource using the ExcelFile.ConvertToImageSource(ImageSaveOptions) method.

    These outputs are especially useful in WPF applications, by providing a means to embed a spreadsheet in your WPF application with DocumentViewer and Image controls.

    Following code snippet shows how to assign a ExcelFile instance to DocumentViewer and Image controls:

    • C#
    • VB.NET
    // Assign an ExcelFile instance to DocumentViewer control.
    documentViewer.Document = workbook.ConvertToXpsDocument(SaveOptions.XpsDefault).GetFixedDocumentSequence();
    
    // Assign an ExcelFile instance to Image control.
    image.Source = workbook.ConvertToImageSource(SaveOptions.ImageDefault);
    
    ' Assign an ExcelFile instance to DocumentViewer control.
    documentViewer.Document = workbook.ConvertToXpsDocument(SaveOptions.XpsDefault).GetFixedDocumentSequence()
    
    ' Assign an ExcelFile instance to Image control.
    image.Source = workbook.ConvertToImageSource(SaveOptions.ImageDefault)
    

    Additionally, worksheet drawings (pictures, charts, etc.) can be exported to PDF, XPS and image formats; printed or embedded in WPF application. For more information, see drawing export.

    Support level for PDF, XPS and image formats

    Exporting a spreadsheet to a fixed document file format, such as PDF and XPS, and to image formats is accomplished with GemBox.Spreadsheet internal paginator and renderer that are commonly used for all formats mentioned.

    This means that PDF, XPS and image formats share the same level of support for spreadsheet features, since they are all rendered in the same way.

    The following list contains GemBox.Spreadsheet API members that are, currently, not supported when exporting to PDF, XPS and image formats:

    • ExcelWorksheet property PivotTables.
    • ExcelPrintOptions properties:
      • PrintCellNotes,
      • PrintBlackWhite,
      • DraftQuality,
      • PrintNotesSheetEnd,
      • PrintResolution,
      • VerticalPrintResolution.
    • Entire ExcelViewOptions class except properties ShowZeroValues, ShowFormulas and ShowColumnsFromRightToLeft.
    • ExcelRow and ExcelColumn properties Collapsed and OutlineLevel.
    • ShapeType all fields except Line, Rectangle, RoundedRectangle, Oval, SnipSingleCornerRectangle, SnipSameSideCornerRectangle, SnipDiagonalCornerRectangle, IsoscelesTriangle, RightTriangle, Parallelogram, Trapezoid, Diamond, RegularPentagon, Hexagon, Octagon, RightArrow, LeftArrow, UpArrow, DownArrow, LeftRightArrow, UpDownArrow, Pentagon, RectangularCallout, RoundedRectangularCallout and OvalCallout.
    • SheetHeaderFooter property AlignWithMargins.
    • HorizontalAlignmentStyle fields Fill and CenterAcross.
    • VerticalAlignmentStyle fields Justify and Distributed.
    • LineStyle field SlantDashDot.
    • All FillPatternStyle fields except None and Solid.
    • UnderlineStyle fields SingleAccounting and DoubleAccounting.
    • Members from GemBox.Spreadsheet.Charts namespace listed in the following link: unsupported chart members in PDF.
    Note

    Support for these members will be added in future versions of GemBox.Spreadsheet based on customer feedback.

    Support for ISO-standardized versions of the Portable Document Format (PDF)

    GemBox.Spreadsheet supports writing to PDF/A, the ISO-standardized version of the Portable Document Format (PDF) specialized for long-term archiving of electronic documents.

    The following list contains conformance levels that are currently supported when exporting to PDF format:

    • PDF/A-1a,
    • PDF/A-1b,
    • PDF/A-2a,
    • PDF/A-2b,
    • PDF/A-2u,
    • PDF/A-3a,
    • PDF/A-3b,
    • PDF/A-3u.

    Support for Partially Trusted applications

    Most of the Internet Service Providers restrict hosted ASP.NET applications to Medium Level Trust and by doing so, disable accessing files outside the application directory, among other things, as explained in trust Element (ASP.NET Settings Schema) level Attribute.

    GemBox.Spreadsheet support for Partially Trusted applications depends on the used file formats as follows:

    • Excel Workbooks (XLSX), Excel 97-2003 Workbooks (XLS), OpenDocument Spreadsheets (ODS), Character-separated-values text files (CSV), Fixed-columns-width text files (TXT) and Web Pages (HTML) are fully supported in Partially Trusted applications.
    • Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) is supported in Partially Trusted applications if font location is set to a directory that is available to the Partially Trusted application.
      Important

      Setting the font location directory is necessary for Partially Trusted applications because they can only access files inside the application directory, and font files are, by default, located in C:\Windows\Fonts, which is restricted to Partially Trusted applications. For more information on how to set font location directory, see Private Fonts example. Font files are, usually, copyrighted, so make sure you conform to the font license, before copying a font file to another location.

    • Creating a digitally signed PDF file is not supported in Partially Trusted applications because ComputeSignature() does not work in partial trust.
    • Microsoft XMP Paper Specification (XPS) is not supported in Partially Trusted applications because ReachFramework.dll assembly, where most of the XPS implementation resides, is not decorated with AllowPartiallyTrustedCallersAttribute.
    • Image formats (PNG, JPEG, GIF, BMP, TIFF, WMP) are not supported in Partially Trusted applications because BitmapEncoder class and its derived classes, used for writing image data to the specific image file format, do not work in partial trust.
    • Printing is not supported in Partially Trusted applications because it uses XPS infrastructure.
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