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Lite vs Standard Assemblies

Some of the controls included in the Telerik UI for Xamarin suite(Gauges, Rating, BusyIndicator) rely on the SkiaSharp rendering library. This is the reason а reference to it should be added when using the standard Telerik UI for Xamarin libraries. However, in case you do not intend to use these controls you can reference the binaries included in the Lite folder of your local installation. This will eventually lead to lower size when deploying your application in the respective store. If you are using NuGet as a package manager, you should install the .Lite package.

Тhe difference between the lite and standard binaries is that the former do not need the actual SkiaSharp binary files to function as intended. Instead, they reference an empty assembly labeled Telerik.XamarinForms.SkiaSharp.

If you need to include controls that rely on the SkiaSharp library and you are using the lite assemblies, an InvalidReferenceException with the following message will be thrown: Missing assembly reference. Please use the non-Light version of the assemblies/nuget packages. If you come across this exception, please make sure that you have added references to the correct binary files.

List of controls that utilize the SkiaSharp rendering library

The following controls rely on the SkiaSharp library to render some elements within their structure:

  • RadBusyIndicator
  • RadDataGrid
  • RadGauge
  • RadImageEditor
  • RadMap
  • RadPath
  • RadPdfViewer
  • RadRating
  • RadRSignaturePad

If you intend on using these, you need to add reference to the relevant version of SkiaSharp, SkiaSharp.Views and SkiaSharp.Views.Forms NuGet packages. In case you would like to not take advantage of these elements, we advise on using the Lite assemblies so that no direct references to SkiaSharp are required.

SkiaSharp NuGet Packages

The SkiaSharp packages that need to be installed are as follows:

  • SkiaSharp (install to all projects)
  • SkiaSharp.Views (install to all projects, except class library)
  • SkiaSharp.Views.Forms (install to all projects)

Minimum package version required is v2.80.3.

See Also

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