iText

From Encoresoup - The Ultimate Guide to Free/Open Source Software

iText is a free and open source library for creating and manipulating PDF, RTF, and HTML files in Java. It was written by Bruno Lowagie, Paulo Soares, and others; it is distributed under the Mozilla Public License with the LGPL as an alternative license.

The same document can be exported to multiple formats or multiple instances of the same format. Data can be written to a file or, for example, from a servlet to a web browser.

More recently, it has been extended into a general purpose PDF library, capable of filling out forms, moving pages from one PDF to another, and so on. These extensions are often mutually exclusive. One class allows you to fill in forms, while a different and incompatible class makes it possible to copy pages from one PDF to another.

iText supports PDF's PKI-based signatures, 40-bit and 128-bit encryption, color correction, PDF/X, color management via ICC profiles, and a host of other features.

[edit] Ports

• iTextSharp is a C# port of iText. The port was originally written by Gerald Henson, but is now maintained by Paulo Soares.
• Pdftk, short for PDF toolkit, is a free, cross-platform, command-line tool for manipulating consisting of a C++ frontend to a "slightly modified" iText that is compiled using gcj. It can split, merge, encrypt, decrypt, watermark, stamp, and rotate PDF pages. It can also fill or retrieve PDF form data.
• iText.NET is a J# port of iText, written by Kazuya Ujihara.

[edit] See also

• List of PDF software

[edit] External links

• iText home page
• iText @ SourceForge
• iText book: iText in Action
• iText in Action support site
• iTextSharp home page
• iTextSharp @ SourceForge
• iText.NET home page (English)
• iText.NET @ SourceForge
• PDF Toolkit Homepage