Syncfusion Essential Studio 2025 Volume 2 Is Here!

TL;DR: The Essential Studio^® 2025 Volume 2 release delivers significant updates across multiple platforms, including new .NET MAUI controls, Flutter SDK compatibility, a Blazor Spreadsheet component, and substantial performance improvements. These enhancements are designed to streamline your development process, offering powerful developer workflow enhancements for web, desktop, and mobile applications.

We’re excited to announce that the Essential Studio^® 2025 Volume 2 release is live! This release brings a wide range of new components, feature enhancements, and performance improvements across multiple platforms. Whether you’re building web, desktop, or mobile applications, there’s something here to elevate your development experience.

Let’s take a closer look at what’s new!

.NET MAUI

New Color Picker control

The new Color Picker control is a flexible UI component that allows users to choose colors from a variety of palettes or a color spectrum. This is especially useful in design, drawing, or customization scenarios where precise color selection is essential.

New Dock Layout control

The new Dock Layout is a flexible and powerful layout panel that lets you dock child elements to the top, bottom, left, or right of a container. It automatically arranges elements based on their declaration order, making it easier to build structured and responsive layouts.

DataGrid enhancements

The .NET MAUI DataGrid delivers the following new user-friendly features:

• Row template: Customize each row with rich content using TemplateViewDefinition, allowing for more detailed and interactive data presentations.

• Clipboard operations: Users can now cut, copy, and paste data between the DataGrid and external applications, such as Notepad or Excel, improving productivity and data handling.

Kanban enhancements

The .NET MAUI Kanban control now supports multi-category workflows within columns. This allows cards to transition seamlessly across multiple categories, making it easier to manage complex workflows and task hierarchies.

PDF Viewer enhancements

You can now add views as custom stamps in the .NET MAUI PDF Viewer. This means you can embed UI elements directly into a PDF, which are then converted into images and saved, ideal for adding dynamic annotations or branding.

Flutter

SDK compatibility update

All Syncfusion Flutter widgets are now compatible with the latest Flutter SDK v3.32. This ensures developers can take full advantage of the latest features, improvements, and stability enhancements offered by the Flutter framework.

Licensing and packaging update

Starting with Volume 2, 2025 release, Flutter products will be offered as an add-on to Essential Studio^®. This means Flutter is no longer included by default in the main package. However, it is still covered under the Essential Studio^® license.

To use Syncfusion^® Flutter widgets, developers will still need a community or commercial license; this policy remains unchanged.

Directional Zooming in Cartesian Charts

The Cartesian Chart widget now supports directional zooming, allowing users to zoom in horizontally, vertically, or both directions simultaneously. This provides greater control and flexibility when analyzing data visualizations.

PDF Viewer support for Linux

The PDF Viewer widget has been expanded to support the Linux platform, enabling cross-platform document viewing capabilities for desktop applications.

Optimized Android PDF Viewer

A new Android-specific PDF Viewer package has been released, significantly improving the loading time for devices running API levels 34 and below. This enhancement ensures a smoother and faster user experience on older Android devices.

Keyboard accessibility for Sliders

The Slider, Range Slider, and Range Selector widgets now support keyboard accessibility. Users can:

• Focus on the widgets using the TAB key.

• Adjust values using the Left, Down, Right, and Up arrow keys.

This update enhances usability and accessibility, especially for users who rely on keyboard navigation.

Blazor

New Spreadsheet component

Introducing the Blazor Spreadsheet, which brings an Excel-like experience to your web apps. It supports formula calculations, file operations, and cell styling, perfect for data-heavy applications.

PDF Viewer with Redaction support

The Blazor PDF Viewer now includes redaction annotations, allowing users to securely remove sensitive content. You can also customize redaction marks, making this feature essential for privacy and compliance.

Dropdown performance boost

Significant performance improvements have been made to dropdown components, especially in initial rendering and virtualization. This results in a smoother and faster user experience.

DataGrid enhancements

The Blazor DataGrid delivers the following new user-friendly features:

• Drag-and-drop in empty areas: Users can drag rows even into empty grid spaces.

• Accent-insensitive search: Makes searching more intuitive by ignoring accent marks in characters.

Rich Text Editor upgrades

New features include a format painter for consistent styling and voice recognition for hands-free content creation, making editing more powerful and accessible.

Diagram performance overhaul

A new routing algorithm and connector ports have been introduced, improving clarity and connectivity. In some scenarios, performance has improved by up to 99%!

Essential JS 2

Block Editor (Preview)

Introducing the new Block Editor component, which helps in creating structured content. It supports:

• Multiple block types: Support for headings (H1–H4), paragraphs, lists, checklists, quotes, callouts, dividers, and code blocks.

• Slash commands: Quickly insert or transform blocks using intuitive / commands.

• Drag and drop: Reorder blocks effortlessly.

• Rich text formatting: Apply bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, and uppercase styles.

• Action & Context menu: Manage blocks with right-click or inline actions.

• Inline content: Add links, labels, and mentions within blocks.

• Undo/Redo: Seamless editing with full undo/redo support.

Other enhancements

AI AssistView

Enhance AI interactions with richer context:

• File Attachments: Add .docx, .pdf, or image files to prompts.

• Improved Input: Div-based text input for a more natural typing experience.

Charts & Stock Charts

• Highlight Last Value: Emphasize the final data point with a label and grid line, ideal for financial and performance charts.

Chat UI

• Status indicators: Show user presence (online, offline, busy, away).

• Compact mode: Left-align messages for a cleaner layout.

• Message actions: Copy, reply, pin, delete, and forward messages.

• Enhanced input: Div-based input for better UX.

DateRangePicker

• Flexible input: Type ranges like “10 Jan 2025 – 12 Jan 2026” directly.

Diagram

• Container support: Group and manage nodes/connectors visually.

• UML sequence generation: Auto-generate UML diagrams from data.

• Mermaid syntax: Import/export diagrams using Mermaid.

• Auto port creation: Drag to create ports dynamically.

• Axis drag restriction: Prevent dragging into negative axes.

• Performance boost: 92% faster rendering for large diagrams.

Word Processor

• Ribbon UI: Familiar Microsoft Word-like interface.

• Accessibility: Screen reader support.

• Layout toggle: Skip layout rendering for faster edits.

• Advanced editing: APIs for scroll sync, paragraph deletion, undo grouping, and more.

• Group shape support: Preserve group shapes in documents.

Dropdowns

• Improved search: Delayed result display for smoother typing in large lists.

File Manager

• Secure image access: Add authorization headers for image requests.

Gantt Chart

• Weekend toggle: Hide/show weekends in the timeline.

• WBS column: Visualize task hierarchies.

• Task constraints: Define scheduling rules like “start no earlier than.”

DataGrid

• Chart integration: Combine tables with charts for visual insights.

Image Editor

• Custom dimensions: Open images with specific width/height.

• Text formatting: Underline and strikethrough support.

• BMP support: Load BMP files easily.

• Image smoothing: Enhance the quality of scaled/rotated images.

PDF Viewer

• Squiggly annotations: Highlight text for review.

• Zoom in page organizer: Easier page identification.

Pivot Table

• Classic layout: Server-side support for Excel-like views.

• Dual-Axis sorting: Sort values on both row and column axes.

• Excel Export: Export as native Excel PivotTables.

Rich Text Editor

• Code blocks: Insert formatted code with language selection.

• Bottom toolbar: Better mobile accessibility.

• Table editing: Copy/paste rows and columns.

• Horizontal lines: Visually separate content.

• Popup toolbar: Overflow items move to a popup.

• Recent colors: Quick access to frequently used colors.

Spreadsheet

• Style skipping: Skip styles during Excel import for faster rendering.

TreeGrid

• Sticky headers: Keep headers visible while scrolling.

• Load-on-demand: Efficiently load remote child rows with virtualization.

WinUI

WindowsApp SDK compatibility

All WinUI controls are now compatible with Microsoft.WindowsAppSDK 1.7.250513003, ensuring a stable and modern development experience.

AI AssistView Toolbar customization

Customize the response toolbar in chat with built-in options like copy, regenerate, like, and dislike, or add your custom items.

WPF

Calculation Engine performance enhancements

Enjoy faster and more efficient calculations with significant performance improvements to the Calculation Engine.

Simplified Theme customization

Themes can now be applied using default styles, eliminating the need for resource merging in App.xaml.

Document Processing Libraries

PDF Library

• Optimized font embedding: Smarter font subset embedding during PDF to PDF/A conversion.

• AES GCM encryption: Modern encryption for enhanced document security.

• Redaction enhancements: Customize fill colors for redaction marks and content areas.

Word Library

• Editable regions: Define editable sections in protected documents.

• Multilingual list numbering: Supports Arabic, Hebrew, Chinese, Thai, and more.

• Drawing Canvas preservation: Maintain layout integrity during Word-to-PDF or image conversions.

Excel Library

• Auto Fill and Fill Series: Programmatically fill cells based on patterns, sequences, or trends, no more manual data entry!

That wraps up the highlights for Essential Studio^® 2025 Volume 2! We hope these updates help you build even more powerful and efficient applications.

FAQs

Q1: What are the most significant performance improvements in this release?

The most notable performance enhancements include the 99% improvement in Diagram rendering for large diagrams, faster Excel imports in the Spreadsheet component, and significant calculation engine improvements in WPF applications.

Q2: How do I access the new Flutter components if they’re now an add-on?

Flutter components remain covered under your Essential Studio^® license. You can access them through your account dashboard or contact customer support for assistance with the add-on installation.

Q3: Can I upgrade directly from Essential Studio^® 2024 to 2025 Volume 2?

Yes, you can upgrade directly from previous versions. The upgrade process preserves your existing configurations while adding the new components and enhancements.

Q4: Which new component offers the best value for enterprise applications?

For enterprise applications, the Blazor Spreadsheet component and the enhanced PDF Viewer with redaction support provide exceptional value, particularly for data-intensive applications requiring document management capabilities.

Q: Are there any breaking changes in this release?

A: The only significant change is the new packaging of Flutter components as an add-on. Functionally, all components maintain backward compatibility with previous versions.

Conclusion

Thanks for reading! The features listed here are just highlights of our Essential Studio^® 2025 Volume 2 release. You can check out all the features in our Release Notes and What’s New pages.

Try out these features and share your feedback as comments on this blog. You can also reach us through our support forums, support portal, or feedback portal.

Related Blogs

• Sneak Peek: Document Processing Libraries 2025 Volume 2

• Sneak Peek: .NET MAUI 2025 Volume 2

• Essential® UI Kit for .NET MAUI 2.0.0: 8 Customizable Pages to Boost App Development

• Introducing the Fourth Set of Open-Source Syncfusion® .NET MAUI Controls