We are unable to create and save a PDF with images using Aspose.Pdf on Linux because of a dependency issue with System.Drawing.Common. Switching to Aspose.Pdf.Drawing resolves the dependency, but it introduces an evaluation watermark that appears only on the embedded images (not on the whole document), even though the licensing is identical (Overview of Aspose.PDF.Drawing for .NET|Aspose.PDF for .NET).
Our Conholdate.Total for .NET license expired on 2025‑05‑26, so we are using version 25.5.0, the last version we can use. All other Aspose libraries work without error or watermark, but Aspose.Pdf.Drawing still shows the watermark on images.
The licenses are registered at startup:
new Aspose.Drawing.License().SetLicense("Licenses/Conholdate.Total.NET.lic");
new Aspose.Imaging.License().SetLicense("Licenses/Conholdate.Total.NET.lic");
new Aspose.Html.License().SetLicense("Licenses/Conholdate.Total.NET.lic");
new Aspose.Pdf.License().SetLicense("Licenses/Conholdate.Total.NET.lic");
Could you advise why an evaluation watermark appears for a version that should be fully licensed?
Dependency Issue on Linux: The System.Drawing.Common dependency causes runtime issues on non-Windows platforms like Linux when using the main Aspose.Pdf package. To address this, Aspose released a variant called Aspose.Pdf.Drawing, which does not depend on System.Drawing.Common and is intended for use on systems where this library is unavailable . Replacing Aspose.Pdf with Aspose.Pdf.Drawing resolves the dependency error, as confirmed by Aspose team members .
Evaluation Watermark on Images: Despite correctly setting the license for Aspose.Pdf, you are observing an evaluation watermark only on embedded images when using Aspose.Pdf.Drawing. This is likely because Aspose.Pdf.Drawing was released as a beta package and had not been fully merged into the main Aspose.Pdf library at the time of version 25.5.0 . As a beta variant, it may not fully recognize or apply the main product’s licensing mechanism, particularly in image rendering scenarios.
While you have set licenses for Aspose.Pdf, Aspose.Drawing, and other components, there is no documented method to explicitly license Aspose.Pdf.Drawing as a standalone assembly . The Aspose.Drawing.License applies to Aspose.Drawing, not necessarily to the drawing logic within Aspose.Pdf.Drawing. This could explain why other Aspose libraries function without watermarks, but Aspose.Pdf.Drawing does not.
Workaround and Limitation: Since Aspose.Pdf.Drawing was a beta release in version 25.5.0, it may inherently apply evaluation watermarks regardless of the main Aspose.Pdf license status. This behavior appears to be a known limitation of the beta package rather than a configuration error .
Recommendation:
Confirm whether the watermark appears when using Aspose.Pdf with System.Drawing.Common on Windows, to isolate the issue.
If possible, test a newer version of Aspose.Pdf (beyond 25.5.0) in a licensed environment, as later versions may have resolved the System.Drawing.Common dependency on Linux without requiring the beta Aspose.Pdf.Drawing package.
Consider posting a follow-up on the Aspose forum to request clarification on whether Aspose.Pdf.Drawing in 25.5.0 is fully supported under Conholdate.Total for .NET licensing, as this may indicate a licensing recognition gap in the beta assembly.
Would you kindly try obtaining a 30-days free temporary license and try it with 25.12 version of the API and let us know if you are still noticing the watermark? We will further proceed accordingly.
This means that the issue is already fixed in the latest available version of the API. We request that you please upgrade to the latest version. In case you face any issues using latest version, please let us know.