One Hub for All Documentize Clients

Enable your paid subscription

Desktop and terminal clients don't share your browser session, so they need your API token to unlock your paid subscription. Sign in on the web app, open the side menu, and click Copy API token to copy it to your clipboard — then paste it into the client as described below. Once an API key is set, it's sent with every request and takes priority over any signed-in session, so the client uses your subscription immediately. Leave the field empty to sign in interactively instead; either method gives the client access to your paid plan.

1. Open the client and go to Settings (in the TUI, it's on the main menu).
2. Paste your copied token into the API Key field of your profile — labeled "API Key (optional)" in the Windows and Linux clients, "API Key:" in the TUI (input is masked).
3. Save the profile — the client now uses your subscription on every request.

Windows (MAUI)

The Windows client is built with .NET MAUI and runs natively on Windows 10 or later.

Requirements

• Windows 10 version 1809 (build 17763) or later
• x64 processor architecture

Setup

1. Download and extract pdfcon_windows.zip
2. Run PDFCON.exe from the extracted folder

No installer is required — the package is self-contained and runs directly after extraction.

Linux (Avalonia)

The Linux client is built with Avalonia UI and supports X11 and Wayland display servers.

Requirements

• 64-bit Linux (Ubuntu 22.04+ or equivalent)
• X11 or Wayland display server
• Required libraries: libfontconfig1, libfreetype6, libglib2.0-0, libgl1

Setup

1. Download and extract pdfcon_linux.zip
2. Install required dependencies if not already present:

sudo apt-get install -y libfontconfig1 libfreetype6 libglib2.0-0 libgl1

3. Make the binary executable and run it:

chmod +x ./PDFCON
./PDFCON

TUI — Terminal client (cross-platform)

A lightweight terminal interface built with Terminal.Gui. Runs entirely in the console with no display server required — ideal for servers and headless environments.

Requirements

• Windows 10+, Linux, or macOS
• Any terminal emulator (xterm, Windows Console, iTerm2, etc.)

Setup on Windows

1. Download and extract pdfcon_tui.zip
2. Open a terminal and run:

PDFCON.Tui.exe

Setup on Linux / macOS

1. Download and extract pdfcon_tui.zip
2. Make the binary executable and run it:

chmod +x ./PDFCON.Tui
./PDFCON.Tui

Run everything on your own computer (self-host)

By default the clients send files to the hosted Documentize API. You can instead point them at a self-host instance of the engine — the same API, running on your machine or your own server — so documents are processed locally and never leave your network. There are two ways to do this.

Option A — let the Windows client run the engine for you

The Windows client can download and run the engine itself, no .NET or Docker required.

1. Open Settings → Run Documentize on this computer.
2. Click Install. The client downloads Documentize.SelfHost into your user profile (%APPDATA%\PDFCON\self-host) and starts it on a local loopback port.
3. Click Use locally. The active provider switches to "Documentize (on this computer)" and every subsequent operation runs on-device.

If you are signed in with a paid subscription, the client fetches a signed entitlement key from your account and passes it to the local engine automatically, so watermark-free processing and full limits work with no extra steps. Stopping the engine or choosing a cloud profile again switches back.

Option B — point a client at an instance you already run

If you started Documentize.SelfHost yourself (see the self-host guide — dotnet Documentize.SelfHost.dll or the Docker image), add a provider profile that targets it. This works from the Windows, Linux, and TUI clients.

1. Start your instance and note its URL — http://localhost for the default dotnet run, http://localhost:8080 if you mapped Docker to another port.
2. In the client, go to Settings and add (or edit) a provider profile:
   • Kind: Documentize REST
   • Base URL: http://localhost/webapi/ (keep the trailing /webapi/)
   • API Key (optional): leave empty for the free tier, or paste a SelfHost activation key / DMZ1.… subscription key to unlock full limits on that instance.
3. Make the new profile the active one and save.

Licensing the local instance (Aspose .lic, an activation key from your account, or a self-issued DMZ1.… key) is configured on the instance itself — see Licensing & Subscription on the self-host page. The per-request API Key field above is only needed when you want a specific client to present its own key.