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Getting started with MakoSDKDemo

Mako has a licensed version for time-limited trials and other applications.

  • It is only available on the Windows platform

  • It is controlled via a license key

  • The license is per PC

  • A command-line tool is provided to activate the license for a PC running the Mako-built application, which must be online at the time of activation

  • No special code is required in your project

📦Package

Inside the MakoSDKDemo_9.0.0 folder, you will find:

➡️ Windows

↘️ makodemo-apex.zip

↘️ makodemo.zip

➡️ Windows_SWIG_DemoDLL_(C#-Java-Python)

  • Windows is for C++

  • Windows_SWIG… is for the other languages that we support

  • Apex and APO are available for C++ only; let us know if you need Apex support for C#.

🔺Apex and APO

Apex is the name we give to performance components in Mako. Apex itself is a renderer that runs natively on a GPU.

  • To use it, you must have a Vulkan-compatible GPU (most are)

  • To build Mako applications that make use of Apex, you will need to install the Vulkan SDK.

See the Apex: Getting Started page for further details.

APO stands for Apex PDF Output. This is the high-performance PDF writer that is available alongside Apex, although it does not need a GPU. See Apex PDF Output for further details.

📘 Instructions

The simplest way to start is to build one or more of the makoapps, a folder of code examples that is included in the Mako distribution. (There are many other code examples elsewhere in the Mako documentation and on GitHub).

Let’s begin by building simpleapexrender, an example that leverages Apex GPU rendering of PDF to a choice of image formats.

First:

  1. Unzip makodemo-apex.zip (found in MakoSDKDemo_9.0.0\Windows)

  2. Navigate to MakoWindowsDemo\Windows\makodemo-apex\makoapps\simpleapexrender

  3. Open simpleapexrender-vc16-dll.sln in VS2022. (If using VS2026, open simpleapexrender-vc16-dll.vcxproj instead.)

  4. Type Ctrl-B to build. You should see something like this:

PowerShell
Build started at 10:33...
1>------ Build started: Project: simpleapexrender, Configuration: Release x64 ------
1>  simpleapexrender.cpp
1>  renderparams.cpp
1>  stopwatch.cpp
1>  workthreads.cpp
1>  Generating Code...
1>  simpleapexrender-vc16-dll.vcxproj -> C:\ggtest\MakoWindowsDemo\Windows\makodemo-apex\makoapps\release-win-x64-vc16-dll\simpleapexrender.exe
1>  Copying Libs
1>  ..\..\libs\release-win-x64-vc16-dll\MakoDemo.dll
1>          1 file(s) copied.
========== Build: 1 succeeded, 0 failed, 0 up-to-date, 0 skipped ==========
========== Build completed at 10:33 and took 17.627 seconds ==========

  1. Open the build folder in a command window. Here we are using PowerShell. Attempting to run the application will fail, because we first need to activate the license.

PowerShell
PS C:\ggtest\MakoWindowsDemo\Windows\makodemo-apex\makoapps\release-win-x64-vc16-dll> ls

    Directory: C:\ggtest\MakoWindowsDemo\Windows\makodemo-apex\makoapps\release-win-x64-vc16-dll

Mode                 LastWriteTime         Length Name
----                 -------------         ------ ----
-a---          24/06/2026    18:55       54805504 MakoDemo.dll
-----          24/06/2026    18:56              0 makolicense.dep
-a---          24/06/2026    18:56          28160 makolicense.exe
-a---          05/08/2026    16:09              0 simpleapexrender.dep
-a---          05/08/2026    16:09         153088 simpleapexrender.exe

PS C:\ggtest\MakoWindowsDemo\Windows\makodemo-apex\makoapps\release-win-x64-vc16-dll> .\simpleapexrender.exe
Exception thrown: [jawsmako\jawsmako_licensecheck.cpp:20] Product key is invalid
PS C:\ggtest\MakoWindowsDemo\Windows\makodemo-apex\makoapps\release-win-x64-vc16-dll>

  1. To activate the license, run makolicense.exe. If no license is active, you will be prompted for the 16-character product key supplied to you via email.

PowerShell
PS C:\ggtest\MakoWindowsDemo\Windows\makodemo-apex\makoapps\release-win-x64-vc16-dll> .\makolicense.exe
Mako Core SDK Product Key Activation
------------------------------------

Checking for license...

No valid license could be found found.
Enter a product key to activate: XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX

Licensed to: _company name_
Product key: XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX
Status: Active
Valid until: 2026-9-14 1:0:0
Days remaining: 40
Last online check: 2026-8-5 16:21:15

The product key has been successfully activated.
You're able to use the Mako Core SDK for the remainder of your license term.

Press enter to exit...

This tool is just for activation. To deactivate a license, you will need makolicensetool.exe. This is another code example that you can build in the same way as previously described. Run the tool without arguments to see the options available with this tool.

PowerShell
PS C:\ggtest\MakoWindowsDemo\Windows\makodemo-apex\makoapps\release-win-x64-vc16-dll> .\makolicensetool.exe
Usage: C:\ggtest\MakoWindowsDemo\Windows\makodemo-apex\makoapps\release-win-x64-vc16-dll\makolicensetool.exe [-printinfo] [-deactivate] [<product key>]
Where:
       -printinfo     will dump information about the active license
       -deactivate    deactivate the license on this machine
       <product key>  is the product key

  1. Once the license is activated, you can run simpleapexrender.exe normally:

PowerShell
PS C:\ggtest\MakoWindowsDemo\Windows\makodemo-apex\makoapps\release-win-x64-vc16-dll> .\simpleapexrender.exe C:\ggtest\_TestFiles\dy_2.pdf dy2_2.tif
ElapsedTime::Fetch page  0.146301
ElapsedTime::Render page 0.733725
ElapsedTime::Render Avg::AVG  0.733725
ElapsedTime::Render Avg::TPUT 1.362908