| Library / package | License | Description |
|---|
| Adobe Acrobat Reader for Java | Freeware | Read and display PDF documents. A viewer application and a JavaBean are available. Works with Java 1.1.8+. |
| Big Faceless PDF library | Commercial | Write PDF documents, with support for various advanced features. |
| ceTe Software | Commercial | DynamicPDF Generator to write, DynamicPDF Merger to read and write PDF files. |
| Etymon PJ | GPL / Commercial | Read and write PDF documents. There are two versions, classic and professional. Classic comes under the GPL and requires Java 1.1. Professional is commercial and requires Java 1.4. |
| FOP | Apache License | Write PDF documents, render them from XML/XSL sources. |
| gnujpdf | GPL | Write PDF documents. An extension of the retepPDF project. |
| iText | LGPL | Write PDF documents. Requires Java 1.2. |
| PDFGo | Commercial | Read PDF documents. Viewer (standalone application) and Java Bean available. |
| jPDFPrint | Commercial (trial version available) | Library to read and print PDF documents. |
| jPDFProcess | Commercial (trial version available) | Library to read, manipulate and save PDF documents. Manipulation operations include splitting, drawing, printing, encrypting and exporting as images. |
| jPDFViewer | Commercial (trial version available) | Java Bean to display PDF documents. |
| jPDFWriter | Commercial (trial version available) | Pure Java library to write PDF files. Library can be used like a Java printer job. Thus, existing Java code for printing can be reused to create PDF files. |
| JPedal | GPL or site license or fixed fee | Read PDF documents. This library can both extract content from PDFs and rasterize them. |
| jPDF | Commercial (trial version available on request) | Manipulation of PDF files, especially suited for the server side. Features include PDF generation from templates, splitting, merging, parsing and encryption. Written in pure Java (requires Java 1.3 or higher). |
| JustFormsPDF | Commercial (trial version available) | Pure Java library for filling and editing PDF documents with forms. Requires Java 1.2+. |
| Multivalent | Special license | Reads PDF and other document formats. Includes a browser to view all supported files. Provides various tools to manipulate PDF files: compress, uncompress, split, merge, encrypt, decrypt, info, validate, extract text, and full-text search (with Lucene ). Source code available. |
| PDF stream writer | Freeware | Java library to convert XML to PDF files. |
| PDFBox | BSD | Library to access PDF files. A utility to convert to text is included. |
| PDFlib | Commercial | Read and write PDF documents. This is a C library which has Java JNI bindings. |
| PDFTextStream | Commercial | Read PDF documents. This library can extract text and metadata from PDF files. It supports PDF up to version 1.5 and comes with support for Lucene . |
| retepPDF | GPL | Write PDF documents. |
| Saffron Document Server | Commercial | Reads PostScript (.ps) documents and generates PDF, HTML, RTF, TIFF, and other formats. Configured as a server for concurrent document rendering. |
| SmartJPrint | GPL-like | Pure Java library to write PDF files. Generates PDF files from Swing GUI components, provides preview functionality. |
| Snowbound | Commercial | Read and write PDF files. |
| XMLMill | Commercial, trial version available | Create PDF documents from XML/XSL. |