PDF Library Feature Comparison Table
A features comparison for Java PDF libraries
Core Capabilities Comparison
| Feature | PDFBox | iText | JPedal | Adobe PDF Library | ICEpdf |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PDF Creation | ✅ Good | ✅✅ Excellent | ⚠️ Limited | ✅✅ Excellent | ❌ No |
| PDF Viewing | ❌ No | ❌ No | ✅✅ Excellent | ✅✅ Excellent | ✅ Basic |
| Text Extraction | ✅ Good | ✅ Good | ✅✅ Excellent | ✅✅ Excellent | ✅ Basic |
| Image Extraction | ✅ Good | ✅ Good | ✅✅ Excellent | ✅✅ Excellent | ✅ Basic |
| Form Handling | ✅ Good | ✅✅ Excellent | ✅✅ Excellent | ✅✅ Excellent | ⚠️ Limited |
| PDF/A Support | ✅ Good | ✅✅ Excellent | ✅✅ Excellent | ✅✅ Excellent | ❌ No |
| Digital Signatures | ✅ Good | ✅✅ Excellent | ✅✅ Excellent | ✅✅ Excellent | ⚠️ Limited |
| Rendering Quality | ⚠️ Variable | N/A | ✅✅ Excellent | ✅✅ Excellent | ✅ Good |
| PDF to Image | ✅ Good | ⚠️ Limited | ✅✅ Excellent | ✅✅ Excellent | ✅ Good |
| Merge/Split | ✅✅ Excellent | ✅✅ Excellent | ✅✅ Excellent | ✅✅ Excellent | ✅ Good |
| Watermarking | ✅ Good | ✅✅ Excellent | ✅✅ Excellent | ✅✅ Excellent | ⚠️ Limited |
| Redaction | ⚠️ Limited | ✅ Good | ⚠️ Limited | ✅✅ Excellent | ❌ No |
Legend: ✅✅ Excellent | ✅ Good | ⚠️ Limited/Basic | ❌ Not Supported
Technical Characteristics
| Aspect | PDFBox | iText | JPedal | Adobe PDF Library | ICEpdf |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pure Java | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (Native) | ✅ Yes |
| Thread Safety | ⚠️ Partial | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes | ⚠️ Partial |
| Memory Efficiency | ⚠️ Moderate | ✅ Good | ✅✅ Excellent | ✅ Good | ✅ Good |
| Performance | ✅ Good | ✅✅ Excellent | ✅✅ Excellent | ✅✅ Excellent | ✅ Good |
| JAR Size | ~10 MB | ~15 MB | ~15 MB | Platform-dependent | ~5 MB |
| Dependencies | Minimal | Moderate | Minimal | Native libs | Minimal |
| Container Friendly | ✅✅ Excellent | ✅✅ Excellent | ✅✅ Excellent | ⚠️ Complex | ✅✅ Excellent |
| Cloud Deployment | ✅ Easy | ✅ Easy | ✅ Easy | ⚠️ Complex | ✅ Easy |
Licensing & Support
| Aspect | PDFBox | iText | JPedal | Adobe PDF Library | ICEpdf |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| License | Apache 2.0 | AGPL / Commercial | Commercial | Commercial | Apache 2.0 |
| Closed-Source Use | ✅ Free | 💰 Requires License | 💰 Requires License | 💰 Requires License | ✅ Free |
| License Cost | $0 | $3k–20k+ | $1k–10k | $10k–50k+ | $0 |
| Annual Maintenance | N/A | Usually included | ~20% optional | Included | N/A |
| Commercial Support | ❌ No | ✅ Yes (paid) | ✅ Yes | ✅✅ Enterprise | ❌ No |
| Community Support | ✅✅ Strong | ✅ Moderate | ⚠️ Limited | ⚠️ Limited | ⚠️ Limited |
| Response Time | Variable | 24–48h (paid) | <72h (paid) | SLA-based | Variable |
| Bug Fix Priority | Community | Paid customers | All customers | Enterprise SLA | Community |
Developer Experience
| Aspect | PDFBox | iText | JPedal | Adobe PDF Library | ICEpdf |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| API Clarity | ✅ Good | ✅✅ Excellent | ✅ Good | ✅ Good | ⚠️ Basic |
| Documentation | ✅✅ Excellent | ✅✅ Excellent | ✅ Good | ✅ Good | ⚠️ Basic |
| Code Examples | ✅✅ Many | ✅✅ Many | ✅ Good | ✅ Good | ⚠️ Few |
| Learning Curve | Moderate | Moderate | Moderate | Steep | Easy |
| Maven/Gradle | ✅ Central | ✅ Central | ✅ Custom repo | ⚠️ Custom | ✅ Central |
| Active Development | ✅✅ Very Active | ✅✅ Very Active | ✅ Active | ✅ Active | ⚠️ Slow |
Edge Case Handling
| Scenario | PDFBox | iText | JPedal | Adobe PDF Library | ICEpdf |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Corrupted PDFs | ⚠️ Often fails | ✅ Good | ✅✅ Excellent | ✅✅ Excellent | ⚠️ Often fails |
| Unusual Fonts | ⚠️ Variable | ✅ Good | ✅✅ Excellent | ✅✅ Excellent | ⚠️ Variable |
| Non-standard Encoding | ⚠️ Struggles | ✅ Good | ✅✅ Excellent | ✅✅ Excellent | ⚠️ Struggles |
| Very Large PDFs | ⚠️ Memory issues | ✅ Good | ✅✅ Excellent | ✅✅ Excellent | ⚠️ Memory issues |
| Scanned PDFs | ✅ OK | ✅ OK | ✅✅ Excellent | ✅✅ Excellent | ✅ OK |
| Legacy PDFs (1990s) | ⚠️ Hit or miss | ✅ Good | ✅✅ Excellent | ✅✅ Excellent | ⚠️ Hit or miss |
| Password Protection | ✅ Supported | ✅✅ Excellent | ✅✅ Excellent | ✅✅ Excellent | ⚠️ Basic |
Use Case Suitability
| Use Case | Best Choice | Alternative | Budget Option |
|---|---|---|---|
| Generate invoices/reports | iText | Adobe PDF Library | PDFBox / Apache FOP |
| Display PDFs in app | JPedal | Adobe PDF Library | ICEpdf |
| Extract text for search | JPedal (diverse PDFs) | iText | PDFBox (controlled PDFs) |
| Convert PDF to images | JPedal | Adobe PDF Library | PDFBox |
| Enterprise document management | JPedal | Adobe PDF Library | PDFBox + ICEpdf |
| SaaS application | iText (creation) or JPedal (viewing) | Adobe PDF Library | PDFBox |
| Regulated industry | JPedal or iText or Adobe | N/A | Not recommended |
| Startup / no budget | PDFBox | ICEpdf (viewing) | N/A |
| PDF form automation | iText | JPedal or Adobe | PDFBox |
| Archival / PDF-A | iText | Adobe PDF Library | Not recommended |
Platform Compatibility
| Platform | PDFBox | iText | JPedal | Adobe PDF Library | ICEpdf |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Windows | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Linux | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ (native) | ✅ |
| macOS | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ (native) | ✅ |
| Docker / Containers | ✅✅ | ✅✅ | ✅✅ | ⚠️ Complex | ✅✅ |
| AWS Lambda | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Azure Functions | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Google Cloud Run | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Kubernetes | ✅✅ | ✅✅ | ✅✅ | ⚠️ Complex | ✅✅ |
| ARM Architecture | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ⚠️ Limited | ✅ |
Version & Maturity
| Aspect | PDFBox | iText | JPedal | Adobe PDF Library | ICEpdf |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First Released | 2002 | 2000 | 1999 | 1990s | 2009 |
| Years Active | 22+ years | 24+ years | 26+ years | 30+ years | 15+ years |
| Current Version | 3.0.x | 8.0.x | 2025.x | 19.x | 7.x |
| Release Frequency | Quarterly | Monthly | Quarterly | Quarterly | Yearly |
| Breaking Changes | Rare | Occasional | Rare | Rare | Rare |
| Backward Compatibility | ✅ Good | ⚠️ Moderate | ✅✅ Excellent | ✅ Good | ✅ Good |
| Long-term Support | N/A | Available | Available | Available | N/A |
Vendor / Project Health
| Aspect | PDFBox | iText | JPedal | Adobe PDF Library | ICEpdf |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Organization | Apache Foundation | iText Group NV | IDRsolutions | Adobe/Datalogics | O3spaces (dormant) |
| Business Model | Open Source | Commercial | Commercial | Commercial | Open Source |
| Funding | Apache donations | VC-backed | Bootstrapped | Enterprise | Minimal |
| Team Size | Community | 50+ employees | 12–13 employees | Large enterprise | Very small |
| Financial Stability | ✅✅ Very Stable | ✅ Stable | ✅✅ Profitable 26 years | ✅✅ Adobe-backed | ⚠️ Uncertain |
| Risk of Abandonment | ⚠️ Low | ⚠️ Low | ⚠️ Very Low | ⚠️ Very Low | ⚠️⚠️ Moderate |
| Notable Users | Many F500 | Banking, Gov | Adobe, Publishers | F100 enterprises | Smaller companies |
Ideal Customer Profile
PDFBox
Best for:
- Budget-constrained projects
- Open source projects
- Simple PDF operations
- Teams with PDF expertise
Not for:
- Mission-critical viewing applications
- Regulated industries requiring support
- Processing diverse/problematic PDFs
iText
Best for:
- High-volume PDF generation
- Complex document creation
- Enterprise with budget
- Need commercial support
Not for:
- PDF viewing applications (no viewer)
- Want to avoid AGPL complexity
- Need pure viewing capabilities
JPedal
Best for:
- PDF viewing applications
- Processing diverse PDF sources
- Security-conscious environments (pure Java)
- Regulated industries
- Teams needing support
Not for:
- Heavy PDF creation focus
- Zero budget projects
- When community support is sufficient
Adobe PDF Library
Best for:
- Large enterprises
- Adobe-compatibility requirements
- Mission-critical applications
- Premium support needed
Not for:
- Cost-sensitive projects
- Pure Java requirement
- Small to mid-size companies
- Container-first architecture
ICEpdf
Best for:
- Budget-constrained viewing needs
- Prototyping
- Simple internal tools
- Learning PDF processing
Not for:
- Production applications with complex PDFs
- When reliability is critical
- Regulated industries
- Heavy feature requirements
Quick Selection Matrix
Answer these 3 questions:
1. Budget Available?
- Yes → Consider: JPedal, iText, Adobe
- No → Consider: PDFBox, ICEpdf
2. Primary Need?
- Creation → iText or PDFBox
- Viewing → JPedal or ICEpdf
- Extraction → JPedal or PDFBox
3. Support Required?
- Yes (regulated, mission-critical) → JPedal, iText, Adobe
- No (internal tools, can self-support) → PDFBox, ICEpdf
Need help choosing?
Contact our team — We've been working with PDF for 26 years and can provide guidance even if JPedal isn't the right fit for your situation.