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Case Study

Embedded PDF viewer for an industrial HMI

A compact and programmable document viewer integrated into a rugged embedded Linux display without disrupting the existing application environment.

IndustrialEmbedded Linux displayPDF · Wayland IVI · D-Bus

The challenge

An industrial HMI needed to display large technical documents directly on the device while other control and visualisation applications continued to run. A desktop-oriented viewer did not fit the product: memory use, integration behaviour, touch interaction and programmable control all had to match the constraints of an embedded display.

Engineering approach

Crossware developed and integrated a dedicated PDF-viewer component around the existing embedded Linux and window-management architecture. The viewer was designed as an independent application with a small footprint, predictable window behaviour and external control interfaces for the surrounding product software.

Control applicationD-Bus interfacePDF rendererWayland IVI surface

Designed as a product component

The viewer was not simply ported from a desktop environment. Lifecycle control, focus, window placement, memory usage and interaction had to be coordinated with the rest of the industrial HMI. A stable external interface allows native software and IEC-oriented control applications to open documents, navigate pages and manage multiple viewer windows without embedding rendering logic themselves.

Delivered capabilities

  • PDF rendering in an independent embedded application window
  • Wayland IVI window integration and D-Bus control interface
  • Use from CODESYS and native C/C++ application environments
  • Touch navigation, scrolling, rotation and zoom control
  • Text search, table-of-contents navigation and embedded document links
  • Support for multiple parallel viewer instances and long technical documents
  • Target validation, defect correction and footprint optimisation
Embedded-firstResource use and lifecycle behaviour designed for the target product.
Externally controlledDefined interfaces keep rendering separate from the host application.
Operator-readyTouch navigation, search and document structure available on-device.

Outcome

The result added technical-document access as a native product capability rather than a detached desktop tool. Application developers could control the viewer through defined interfaces while operators retained responsive touch interaction inside the established industrial HMI workflow.