DocSharp is a pure C# library to convert between document formats without Office interop or native dependencies.
The following packages are currently available:
DocSharp.Binary: convert Office 97-2003 binary documents (doc, xls, ppt) to OpenXML documents (docx, xlsx, pptx). This is a fork of the abandoned b2xtranslator project which provides critical fixes.
DocSharp.Docx: convert DOCX to Markdown, RTF and plain text (.txt). Possible applications include generating Open XML documents in C# and exporting for other editors, or loading Word documents in a RichTextBox / RichEditBox control.
DocSharp.Markdown: convert Markdown to DOCX or RTF using custom Markdig renderers.
Packages can be installed via NuGet:
The optional extra packages DocSharp.ImageSharp and DocSharp.SystemDrawing allow to convert unsupported images (e.g. GIF / TIFF for DOCX -> RTF or WMF / EMF / TIFF for DOCX -> MD).
There is no common DOM to manipulate or generate documents, this library is mainly for conversion. Some helper methods on top of the Open XML SDK and format-specific writers are available, but they are mostly intended for internal use.
A new simplified DOM and RTF import are being worked on in a separate branch, but I can't guarantee when/if it will be ready.
For now, you can consider the following libraries for documents creation and manipulation: OfficeIMO, OpenXML-Office, ClosedXML, ShapeCrawler, QuestPDF, MigraDoc.
Supported features
Binary formats: most doc/xls/ppt features were supported by the original project, but exceptions occurred when using .NET (rather than .NET Framework) or loading specific documents. The most noticeable issues have been fixed, but more work is needed to make the library reliable; if you find other bugs, you are welcome to open an issue (please attach a sample file if the issue only occurs for specific documents).
DOCX, RTF, Markdown: supported elements vary depending on input and output formats, see Supported features for an overview.
Requirements
.NET 6, 8, 9 and .NET Framework 4.6.2 and higher are supported, but tests are mostly performed on .NET 8 and above.
DocSharp is licensed under MIT license and can be used for both open source and commercial projects.
DocSharp.ImageSharp is licensed under Apache 2.0 license; ImageSharp and VectSharp have their own licenses, please visit their repositories for more information.
If you find the library useful, adding a star is highly appreciated, stars are a way to guide other developers towards helpful libraries and tools.
