Open Source PDF Libraries and Tools

DocumentBurster

2010-04-11T23:05:00.001+03:00

DocumentBurster is a report distribution software which can burst reports such as payslips, invoices or statements in order to break up and distribute (by email, web, file share, etc.) relevant parts to each of your employees, customers or partners.

DocumentBurster is a report distribution software which works with any reporting software including Crystal Reports, Microsoft Access, Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services, IBM Cognos, Oracle Hyperion and QlikView.

Using DocumentBurster it is easy to integrate report distribution and report bursting capabilities into existing in-house built legacy software or with systems like SAP ERP, Oracle Applications, Sage, Microsoft Dynamics, PeopleSoft, JD Edwards, MYOB or QuickBooks accounting software.

Features

Automate high-volume document delivery to customers, vendors, employees and prospects.
Split reports and documents into personalized PDF files and e-mail them securely and reliably.
It has out of the box delivery targets like email and ftp. Email is referring to any SMTP compatible server including gmail and yahoo.
It has command line support so it is easy to automate the bursting of reports.

http://www.pdfburst.com/

Apache PDFBox

2010-04-11T23:04:00.001+03:00

Apache PDFBox is an open source Java PDF library for working with PDF documents. This project allows creation of new PDF documents, manipulation of existing documents and the ability to extract content from documents. Apache PDFBox also includes several command line utilities.

Features

PDF to text extraction
Merge PDF Documents
PDF Document Encryption/Decryption
Lucene Search Engine Integration
Fill in form data FDF and XFDF
Create a PDF from a text file
Create images from PDF pages
Print a PDF

http://pdfbox.apache.org/

Apache FOP

2010-04-11T23:03:00.001+03:00

Apache FOP (Formatting Objects Processor) is a print formatter driven by XSL formatting objects (XSL-FO) and an output independent formatter. It is a Java application that reads a formatting object (FO) tree and renders the resulting pages to a specified output. Output formats currently supported include PDF, PS, PCL, AFP, XML (area tree representation), Print, AWT and PNG, and to a lesser extent, RTF and TXT. The primary output target is PDF.

http://xmlgraphics.apache.org/fop/

iText PDF

2010-04-11T23:02:00.000+03:00

iText is a library that allows you to generate PDF files on the fly.

iText is an ideal library for developers looking to enhance web- and other applications with dynamic PDF document generation and/or manipulation. iText is not an end-user tool. Typically you won't use it on your Desktop as you would use Acrobat or any other PDF application. Rather, you'll build iText into your own applications so that you can automate the PDF creation and manipulation process.

You can use iText to:

Serve PDF to a browser
Generate dynamic documents from XML files or databases
Use PDF's many interactive features
Add bookmarks, page numbers, watermarks, etc.
Split, concatenate, and manipulate PDF pages
Automate filling out of PDF forms
Add digital signatures to a PDF file
And much more...

www.itextpdf.com

iTextSharp

2010-04-11T23:01:00.001+03:00

iTextSharp is a library that allows you to generate PDF files on the fly. iTextSharp is a port of the iText, a free Java-Pdf library.

http://itextsharp.sourceforge.net/

PDFCreator

2010-04-11T23:00:00.001+03:00

PDFCreator is an application for converting documents into Portable Document Format (PDF) format on Microsoft Windows operating systems. Once installed, it allows the user to select PDFCreator as their printer, permitting almost any application to print to PDF.

http://www.pdfforge.org/

Ghostscript

2010-04-11T22:59:00.002+03:00

Ghostscript is an interpreter for the PostScript (TM) language. A PostScript interpreter usually takes as input a set of graphics commands. The output is usually a page bitmap which is then sent to an output device such as a printer or display. PostScript is embedded in many printers.

http://www.ghostscript.com/

pdftk

2010-04-11T22:57:00.001+03:00

If PDF is electronic paper, then pdftk is an electronic staple-remover, hole-punch, binder, secret-decoder-ring, and X-Ray-glasses. Pdftk is a simple tool for doing everyday things with PDF documents. Keep one in the top drawer of your desktop and use it to:

Merge PDF Documents
Split PDF Pages into a New Document
Rotate PDF Pages or Documents
Decrypt Input as Necessary (Password Required)
Encrypt Output as Desired
Fill PDF Forms with FDF Data or XFDF Data and/or Flatten Forms
Apply a Background Watermark or a Foreground Stamp
Report on PDF Metrics such as Metadata, Bookmarks, and Page Labels
Update PDF Metadata
Attach Files to PDF Pages or the PDF Document
Unpack PDF Attachments
Burst a PDF Document into Single Pages
Uncompress and Re-Compress Page Streams
Repair Corrupted PDF (Where Possible)

Pdftk allows you to manipulate PDF easily and freely. It does not require Acrobat, and it runs on Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, FreeBSD and Solaris.

http://www.accesspdf.com/pdftk/index.html

PDFsam

2010-04-11T22:56:00.001+03:00

pdfsam is an open source tool (GPL license) designed to handle pdf files. It’s released in 2 versions, basic and enhanced.

Requirements:

pdfsam branch 1: Java Virtual Machine 1.4.2 or higher
pdfsam branch 2: Java Virtual Machine 1.6 or higher

pdfsam basic:

A simple tool designed to split and merge pdf files. With it’s simple and intuitive interface you can:

split your pdf documents (into chapters, single pages, etc.).
merge many pdf documents or subsections of them.
extract sections of your document into a single pdf document.
mix alternate pages taken from two pdf documents in straight or reverse order into a single document.
rotate pages of the selected pdf documents.
visually reorder pages of a selected pdf document.
visually compose a document dragging pages from selected pdf documents.
save and load your environment to automatize your recurrent jobs.
manage pdfsam settings and set an environment to load at start up.

pdfsam enhanced:

This is the enhanced version of pdfsam. In this version you’ll find all the basic features plus:

encrypt your pdf files (RC40 bits, RC128 bits, AES128 bits) and set permissions on them.
add a pdf frontpage or an addendum (or both) to your pdf documents.
decrypt pdf documents.
extract attachments from your pdf documents.
set viewer options to a document to tell the viewer application how should open the document.
set the metadata of a document (author, title, subject and keywords).

http://www.pdfsam.org/

PDF Renderer

2010-04-11T19:13:00.004+03:00

The PDF Renderer is all Java library which renders PDF documents to the screen using Java2D. Typically this means drawing into a Swing panel, but it could also draw to other Graphics2D implementations.

http://java.net/projects/pdf-renderer

PDF Clown

2010-04-11T19:07:00.005+03:00

PDF Clown is a Java/.NET library for manipulating PDF files, with multiple abstraction layers to satisfy different programming styles: from the lower level (PDF object model) to the higher (PDF document structure and content streaming).

http://clown.stefanochizzolini.it/

PJX

2010-04-11T18:43:00.002+03:00

PJX is a general purpose PDF programming library for Java; with support for reading, combining, manipulating, and writing PDF documents.

http://www.etymon.com/epub.html

JPedal

2010-04-11T18:38:00.003+03:00

JPedal is an application for viewing and printing of pdf files. Features of JPedal:

* JPedal supports a wide variety of different font technologies.
* Jpedal supports the following colour spaces: DeviceRGB, CalRGB, DeviceGRAY, CalGRAY, ICC, indexed, DeviceCMYK and DeviceN.
* Jpedal also reads and displays raw tiff, jpg and gif file formats.
* Text can be extracted from an entire document, a single page, from within page co-ordinates or from tables. Font information and metadata can also be extracted.
* JPedal can extract any image from a pdf with a choice of output options.
* View, edit, print and extract content from interactive FDF forms.
* JPedal includes an interactive search function that allows you to search either the current page or the entire pdf document for occurrences of a word or a phrase.

http://www.jpedal.org/

PDFjet - Open Source Edition

2010-04-11T18:27:00.003+03:00

A library for dynamic generation of PDF documents from Java and .NET.
Create PDF documents and reports with just a few lines of Java or C# code.

http://pdfjet.com/index.html

gnujpdf

2010-04-11T18:22:00.003+03:00

gnujpdf is a Java package (gnu.jpdf.*) licensed under the LGPL. It provides a simple API to create pdf files and print using subclasses of java.awt.Graphics and java.awt.PrintJob. The PDF classes write to an OutputStream in pdf format instead of a typical Graphics object, but the method calls are the same as they would be in any Applet or Application drawing to a canvas.

http://gnujpdf.sourceforge.net/

jPod

2010-04-11T18:11:00.004+03:00

jPod is a mature PDF manipulation and rendering library. It supports COS and PD level manipulation of PDF documents, AFM and TrueTypes fonts, incremental writing of files, and parsing of files that slightly deviate from the specification.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/jpodlib/

Report.NET

2010-04-11T18:10:00.003+03:00

Report.NET is a powerful library that will help you to generate PDF documents in a simple and flexible manner. The document can be created with data that have been retrieved from any ADO.NET data set. The Report.NET library is available for free under the LGPL license.

Features
- entirely written in C# for the Microsoft .NET framework
- very compact code (Hello World: 6 lines)
- supported graphic objects: text, lines, rectangles, jpeg images
- easy alignment and transformation of graphic objects
- ASP.NET can generate dynamic PDF pages
- XML Documentation (Comment Web Pages)

http://report.sourceforge.net/

PDFsharp

2010-04-11T18:09:00.003+03:00

PDFsharp is the Open Source library that easily creates PDF documents from any .NET language.The same drawing routines can be used to create PDF documents, draw on the screen, or send output to any printer.

http://www.pdfsharp.com/

SharpPDF

2010-04-11T18:08:00.002+03:00

SharpPDF is a C# library that implements different objects for the creation of PDF documents with few steps. It is created for .NET framework 1.1 and it can create 100% compatible PDF (tested with Acrobat Reader, Ghostscript , JAWS PDF Editor and other PDF readers). The most important goal of this library is the simple way of use.
It can be used in many ways:

You can use it with Windows Forms to generate new pdf files or to save them on a database.
You can use it with Web Applications (ASP.NET) to generate files or to get them directly into the browser.

http://sharppdf.sourceforge.net/

ASP.NET FO PDF

2010-04-11T18:07:00.002+03:00

FO PDF is similar to ASP.NET Server Controls, written in C#.It takes DataTable and few other params to generate the XSL FO and renders a DataGrid like PDF Report using NFOP (Apache FOP Port in J#) PDF Formatter.More tags to generate XSL FO will be added.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/npdf/

NFop

2010-04-11T18:06:00.005+03:00

NFop is a Formatting Objects Processor (FOP) for XSL-FO that runs on the .NET Framework. It is a port from the Apache XML Project's FOP Java source to .NET's Visual J#. This makes it great for pure .NET reporting modules.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/nfop/

Haru Free PDF Library

2010-04-11T18:05:00.001+03:00

libHaru is a free, cross platform, open source library for generating PDF files.

It supports the following features:

Generating PDF files with lines, text, images.
Outline, text annotation, link annotation.
Compressing document with deflate-decode.
Embedding PNG, Jpeg images.
Embedding Type1 font and TrueType font.
Creating encrypted PDF files.
Using various character sets (ISO8859-1~16, MSCP1250~8, KOI8-R).
Supporting CJK fonts and encodings.
You can add the feature of PDF creation by using HARU without understanding complicated internal structure of PDF.

libHaru is written in ANSI C, so theoretically it supports most of the modern OSes.

http://libharu.org

libpdfdoc

2010-04-11T18:00:00.001+03:00

libpdfdoc is a library to access PDF (Portable Document Format). It provides classes and functions for reading and writing to PDF files.

Features

read/write PDF files with the same API
not much right now

http://libpdfxx.sourceforge.net/

PoDoFo

2010-04-11T17:59:00.001+03:00

The PoDoFo library is a free, portable C++ library. It can parse existing PDF files and create new ones from scratch.

http://podofo.sourceforge.net/

Cairo

2010-04-11T17:58:00.001+03:00

Cairo is a 2D graphics library with support for multiple output devices. Currently supported output targets include the X Window System, Quartz, Win32, image buffers, PostScript, PDF, and SVG file output. Experimental backends include OpenGL (through glitz), XCB, BeOS, OS/2, and DirectFB.

http://cairographics.org/