NuGet Packages

Reference for all NuGet packages produced by SkiaSharp — purpose, contents, and usage guidance.

Related: Adding Libraries | Architecture

Core Managed Packages — SkiaSharp, HarfBuzzSharp, and extensions
Views Packages — UI controls for each platform
GPU Backend Packages — Vulkan and Direct3D support
Native Assets — Platform-specific native binaries for SkiaSharp and HarfBuzzSharp
- Platform Packages — Per-platform package details
- Auto-Included NativeAssets — What's pulled in automatically by TFM
- Linux Package Selection Guide — Which Linux package to use
Deployment & Containers — Container and publishing guidance
- Container Deployment — Which Linux package to use in containers
- Publishing Modes — Framework-dependent, self-contained, single-file
Obsolete Packages — Deprecated, do not use
Troubleshooting: Native Loading — Diagnosing DllNotFoundException on Linux

Core Managed Packages

These contain the managed C# assemblies. The SkiaSharp and HarfBuzzSharp core packages automatically include the appropriate NativeAssets for most platforms (see Auto-Included NativeAssets). For Linux, WebAssembly, NanoServer, and WinUI you must add the NativeAssets package manually.

Package	Description
SkiaSharp	Cross-platform 2D graphics API. Managed C# bindings to Google's Skia library. Core types: `SKCanvas`, `SKPaint`, `SKBitmap`, `SKImage`, `SKPath`, `SKSurface`.
HarfBuzzSharp	Managed C# bindings to the HarfBuzz text shaping engine. Provides `Buffer`, `Font`, `Face` for complex text layout.
SkiaSharp.HarfBuzz	Integration bridge — adds HarfBuzz text shaping to SkiaSharp via `SKShaper`. Depends on both SkiaSharp and HarfBuzzSharp.
SkiaSharp.Skottie	Lottie/Bodymovin animation playback. Renders After Effects animations. Depends on SkiaSharp, SkiaSharp.SceneGraph, and SkiaSharp.Resources.
SkiaSharp.SceneGraph	Scene graph API for complex rendering pipelines. Depends on SkiaSharp. Used by Skottie internally.
SkiaSharp.Resources	Resource provider implementations. Depends on SkiaSharp. Used by Skottie for asset loading.

Views Packages

Platform-specific UI controls for rendering SkiaSharp content. These provide ready-to-use views/controls that handle the platform-specific rendering surface setup.

Package	Description
SkiaSharp.Views	Platform views for iOS, tvOS, macOS, Mac Catalyst, Android, and Tizen. Provides `SKCanvasView` and `SKGLView`.
SkiaSharp.Views.Desktop.Common	Common base classes for desktop views (netstandard2.0+, net462+).
SkiaSharp.Views.WindowsForms	Windows Forms controls: `SKControl`, `SKGLControl`. net462+ and net6.0-windows+. Depends on OpenTK.
SkiaSharp.Views.WPF	WPF control: `SKElement`. net462+ and net6.0-windows+. Depends on OpenTK.
SkiaSharp.Views.WinUI	WinUI 3 controls: `SKXamlCanvas`, `SKSwapChainPanel`. net6.0-windows+. Depends on Microsoft.WindowsAppSDK. Auto-includes SkiaSharp.NativeAssets.WinUI.
SkiaSharp.Views.Gtk3	GTK# 3 control: `SKDrawingArea`. netstandard2.0+. For Linux desktop apps. Depends on GtkSharp.
SkiaSharp.Views.Blazor	Blazor WebAssembly controls: `SKCanvasView`, `SKGLView`. net6.0+ (WASM native assets require net8.0+). Auto-includes SkiaSharp.NativeAssets.WebAssembly.
SkiaSharp.Views.Maui.Core	.NET MAUI shared view infrastructure. net8.0+. Depends on Microsoft.Maui.Core.
SkiaSharp.Views.Maui.Controls	.NET MAUI controls: `SKCanvasView`, `SKGLView`. net8.0+. Depends on SkiaSharp.Views.Maui.Core and Microsoft.Maui.Controls.
SkiaSharp.Views.Uno.WinUI	Uno Platform controls: `SKXamlCanvas`, `SKSwapChainPanel`. net8.0+. Depends on Uno.WinUI. Auto-includes SkiaSharp.NativeAssets.WebAssembly for WASM targets and SkiaSharp.Views.WinUI for Windows targets.

GPU Backend Packages

Optional packages for hardware-accelerated rendering via specific GPU APIs.

Package	Description
SkiaSharp.Vulkan.SharpVk	Vulkan GPU backend. netstandard2.0+, net462+, net6.0+. Depends on SharpVk 0.4.2.
SkiaSharp.Direct3D.Vortice	Direct3D 12 GPU backend. net8.0 only. Windows-only due to Vortice.Direct3D12 3.5.0 dependency.

Native Assets

Each platform has a pair of NativeAssets packages containing pre-built native binaries:

SkiaSharp.NativeAssets.{Platform} — contains libSkiaSharp
HarfBuzzSharp.NativeAssets.{Platform} — contains libHarfBuzzSharp

Both follow the same platform matrix and architectures. HarfBuzzSharp does not have Linux.NoDependencies, NanoServer, or WinUI variants.

Important: Library projects should depend on SkiaSharp only. NativeAssets packages belong in the application (executable) project so the correct binary is deployed. See Deployment & Containers.

Platform Packages

Package	Description
SkiaSharp.NativeAssets.Win32 HarfBuzzSharp.NativeAssets.Win32	Windows (x64, x86, arm64). Auto-included.
SkiaSharp.NativeAssets.macOS HarfBuzzSharp.NativeAssets.macOS	macOS universal binary (Intel + Apple Silicon). Auto-included.
SkiaSharp.NativeAssets.Linux HarfBuzzSharp.NativeAssets.Linux	Linux (x64, x86, arm, arm64, riscv64, loongarch64). Both glibc and musl (Alpine) variants. Must add manually. Requires fontconfig (`libfontconfig.so.1`) for system font enumeration.
SkiaSharp.NativeAssets.Linux.NoDependencies	Linux (same architectures as above, glibc + musl). SkiaSharp only. Must add manually. No fontconfig, no third-party deps — only requires libc/libm/libpthread/libdl. Designed for minimal containers. Fonts must be loaded explicitly.
SkiaSharp.NativeAssets.NanoServer	Windows Nano Server containers (x64 only). SkiaSharp only. Must add manually.
SkiaSharp.NativeAssets.WinUI	ANGLE rendering surface for WinUI 3 apps (x64, x86, arm64). SkiaSharp only. Contains `SkiaSharp.Views.WinUI.Native.dll`, `libEGL.dll`, and `libGLESv2.dll` for hardware-accelerated OpenGL ES — this is not a Skia binary. Auto-included by SkiaSharp.Views.WinUI.
SkiaSharp.NativeAssets.Android HarfBuzzSharp.NativeAssets.Android	Android (x86, x64, arm, arm64). Auto-included.
SkiaSharp.NativeAssets.iOS HarfBuzzSharp.NativeAssets.iOS	iOS framework bundle (arm64 device + simulator). Auto-included.
SkiaSharp.NativeAssets.MacCatalyst HarfBuzzSharp.NativeAssets.MacCatalyst	Mac Catalyst universal framework bundle. Auto-included.
SkiaSharp.NativeAssets.tvOS HarfBuzzSharp.NativeAssets.tvOS	Apple tvOS framework bundle (arm64, device only). Auto-included.
SkiaSharp.NativeAssets.Tizen HarfBuzzSharp.NativeAssets.Tizen	Samsung Tizen (armel, x86). Auto-included.
SkiaSharp.NativeAssets.WebAssembly HarfBuzzSharp.NativeAssets.WebAssembly	Emscripten static library (`.a`). Static linking, not P/Invoke — linked into `dotnet.wasm` at build time via MSBuild `NativeFileReference`. Includes Emscripten 3.1.34 (net8.0), 3.1.56 (net9.0/net10.0), and 5.0.6 (net11.0+) with threading (st/mt) and SIMD variants. Requires net8.0+. Must add manually (or use SkiaSharp.Views.Blazor / SkiaSharp.Views.Uno.WinUI).

⚠️ WASM is NOT dynamic loading. Unlike all other platforms, WebAssembly uses static linking at compile time. The .a files are passed to the Emscripten linker which embeds them into the final dotnet.wasm binary. DllImport("libSkiaSharp") still works — the .NET WASM runtime resolves it to statically linked symbols.

Unity WebGL: Unity WebGL also uses Emscripten. While not officially supported, the same static linking principle applies. Unity-specific integration may require manual configuration beyond the standard NativeFileReference approach.

Auto-Included NativeAssets

The core SkiaSharp and HarfBuzzSharp packages automatically include NativeAssets for most platforms via TFM-conditional dependencies:

Packages	Auto-included when targeting
SkiaSharp.NativeAssets.Win32 HarfBuzzSharp.NativeAssets.Win32	Windows TFM (`net8.0-windows`) or non-platform TFM (`net6.0`, `net8.0`, `netstandard2.0`, `netstandard2.1`, `net462`)
SkiaSharp.NativeAssets.macOS HarfBuzzSharp.NativeAssets.macOS	macOS TFM (`net8.0-macos`) or non-platform TFM (`net6.0`, `net8.0`, `netstandard2.0`, `netstandard2.1`, `net462`)
SkiaSharp.NativeAssets.Android HarfBuzzSharp.NativeAssets.Android	Android TFM (`net8.0-android`)
SkiaSharp.NativeAssets.iOS HarfBuzzSharp.NativeAssets.iOS	iOS TFM (`net8.0-ios`)
SkiaSharp.NativeAssets.MacCatalyst HarfBuzzSharp.NativeAssets.MacCatalyst	Mac Catalyst TFM (`net8.0-maccatalyst`)
SkiaSharp.NativeAssets.tvOS HarfBuzzSharp.NativeAssets.tvOS	tvOS TFM (`net8.0-tvos`)
SkiaSharp.NativeAssets.Tizen HarfBuzzSharp.NativeAssets.Tizen	Tizen TFM (`net8.0-tizen`)

Must be added manually (not auto-included):

SkiaSharp.NativeAssets.Linux / HarfBuzzSharp.NativeAssets.Linux — for Linux server/desktop
SkiaSharp.NativeAssets.Linux.NoDependencies — for minimal Linux containers (SkiaSharp only)
SkiaSharp.NativeAssets.WebAssembly / HarfBuzzSharp.NativeAssets.WebAssembly — for Blazor/Uno WASM. SkiaSharp.NativeAssets.WebAssembly is auto-included by SkiaSharp.Views.Blazor and SkiaSharp.Views.Uno.WinUI; HarfBuzzSharp.NativeAssets.WebAssembly must always be added manually.
SkiaSharp.NativeAssets.NanoServer — for Windows Nano Server (SkiaSharp only)
SkiaSharp.NativeAssets.WinUI — for WinUI 3 apps (SkiaSharp only; auto-included by SkiaSharp.Views.WinUI)

Linux Package Selection Guide

Scenario	Package	Why
Standard Linux server/desktop	`SkiaSharp.NativeAssets.Linux`	Full fontconfig integration for system font access
Docker containers (Debian/Ubuntu)	`SkiaSharp.NativeAssets.Linux.NoDependencies`	No system library dependencies beyond glibc
Alpine Docker containers	`SkiaSharp.NativeAssets.Linux.NoDependencies`	Includes `linux-musl-*` variants, no deps
Minimal/distroless containers	`SkiaSharp.NativeAssets.Linux.NoDependencies`	Zero third-party deps
App needs system font enumeration	`SkiaSharp.NativeAssets.Linux`	Fontconfig required for `SKFontManager` system fonts

Deployment & Containers

Application vs Library References

NativeAssets packages must be referenced in the application project (the one that produces the executable), not in library projects. The .NET runtime resolves native binaries from the application's output directory using runtime identifiers (RIDs).

If a NativeAssets package is only referenced in a transitive library, the native binary may not be copied to the final output — causing DllNotFoundException at runtime.

Container Deployment

For containers, use SkiaSharp.NativeAssets.Linux.NoDependencies unless you specifically need fontconfig for system font enumeration. This package has zero third-party dependencies and works in minimal base images (mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/aspnet, Alpine, distroless).

Publishing Modes

Mode	Native Binary Handling
Framework-dependent	Binaries in `runtimes/{rid}/native/` resolved at runtime
Self-contained	Binaries copied to publish output for the specified RID
Single-file	Binaries extracted alongside the executable at runtime

Obsolete Packages

These packages are no longer actively maintained. Use the listed replacement.

Package	Replacement
SkiaSharp.NativeAssets.UWP	SkiaSharp.NativeAssets.WinUI
SkiaSharp.NativeAssets.watchOS	(none — watchOS not supported)
HarfBuzzSharp.NativeAssets.UWP	HarfBuzzSharp.NativeAssets.Win32
HarfBuzzSharp.NativeAssets.watchOS	(none)
SkiaSharp.Views.NativeAssets.UWP	SkiaSharp.Views.WinUI
SkiaSharp.Views.Forms	SkiaSharp.Views.Maui.Controls
SkiaSharp.Views.Forms.WPF	SkiaSharp.Views.WPF
SkiaSharp.Views.Forms.GTK	SkiaSharp.Views.Gtk3
SkiaSharp.Views.Gtk2	SkiaSharp.Views.Gtk3
SkiaSharp.Views.Uno	SkiaSharp.Views.Uno.WinUI
SkiaSharp.Views.Maui.Controls.Compatibility	SkiaSharp.Views.Maui.Controls

Troubleshooting: Native Loading

Understanding DllNotFoundException on Linux

On Linux, DllNotFoundException errors from dlopen() have two distinct failure modes with different root causes:

Error pattern	What happened	Fix
`libSkiaSharp.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory`	The `.so` file was not found at any search path	Add `SkiaSharp.NativeAssets.Linux` (or `.NoDependencies`) as a `PackageReference` in the executable project, not a library
`libfontconfig.so.1: cannot open shared object file` (or another dependency OF libSkiaSharp)	A `.so` was found and loaded, but it has a dependency that isn't installed	Either install the missing library (e.g. fontconfig) or switch to `NoDependencies` (see below)

Wrong Binary Deployed

SkiaSharp.NativeAssets.Linux.NoDependencies ships a .so with zero external dependencies — only libc/libm/libpthread/libdl. If you reference NoDependencies but see errors about missing fontconfig, uuid, or other libraries:

The binary being loaded is not from NoDependencies — it's from NativeAssets.Linux (or another source)
Check for a transitive SkiaSharp.NativeAssets.Linux reference conflicting with NoDependencies
Check that NoDependencies is in the executable project (not a library project)
Check your container build tool (e.g. .NET Aspire, Docker SDK) — it may deploy the wrong RID variant

You can verify which binary is loaded by running ldd on the libSkiaSharp.so in your publish output. The NoDependencies variant will show only libc/libm/libpthread/libdl.

Reading .NET Native Loading Errors

The .NET runtime tries multiple paths to load a native library and reports ALL failures. Focus on the first error — subsequent lines are fallback attempts:

System.DllNotFoundException: Unable to load shared library 'libSkiaSharp'
  libfontconfig.so.1: cannot open shared object file     ← LOOK HERE (binary found, dependency missing)
  /usr/share/dotnet/.../libSkiaSharp.so: cannot open      ← fallback path, file not found
  /app/liblibSkiaSharp.so: cannot open                    ← fallback path, file not found

Container Deployment Checklist

Problem	Cause	Fix
`DllNotFoundException: libSkiaSharp`	Native binary not in output	Add `NativeAssets.Linux.NoDependencies` (or `.Linux`) as a direct `PackageReference` in the application project
`libfontconfig.so.1: cannot open`	Using `NativeAssets.Linux` in a minimal container	Switch to `NoDependencies`, or install fontconfig in your Dockerfile
Wrong binary for container arch	RID mismatch (glibc vs musl)	Alpine needs `linux-musl-*` RIDs — `NoDependencies` includes both glibc and musl variants
Trimming removes native deps	.NET trimmer strips unused assemblies	Add the NativeAssets package as a direct `PackageReference`

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NuGet Packages

Contents

Core Managed Packages

Views Packages

GPU Backend Packages

Native Assets

Platform Packages

Auto-Included NativeAssets

Linux Package Selection Guide

Deployment & Containers

Application vs Library References

Container Deployment

Publishing Modes

Obsolete Packages

Troubleshooting: Native Loading

Understanding DllNotFoundException on Linux

Wrong Binary Deployed

Reading .NET Native Loading Errors

Container Deployment Checklist

Related Documentation

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NuGet Packages

Contents

Core Managed Packages

Views Packages

GPU Backend Packages

Native Assets

Platform Packages

Auto-Included NativeAssets

Linux Package Selection Guide

Deployment & Containers

Application vs Library References

Container Deployment

Publishing Modes

Obsolete Packages

Troubleshooting: Native Loading

Understanding DllNotFoundException on Linux

Wrong Binary Deployed

Reading .NET Native Loading Errors

Container Deployment Checklist

Related Documentation