Java PDF Library Decision Tree

A quick-reference flowchart to narrow down your library choices in 5 minutes.

Table of Contents

Start: What is your primary PDF operational need?

📄
1. PDF Creation Generate invoices, reports, documents
🖥️
2. PDF Viewing Display PDFs in your application
🔍
3. Data Extraction Pull text/data from PDFs
⚙️
4. Everything Multiple operations needed

Path 1 — Primary Need: PDF Creation

Do you have budget for commercial software?

No

Open Source Options:

  • Simple generation? → Apache FOP
  • Programmatic creation? → PDFBox
  • App is open source? → iText (AGPL)
Yes

Is creation your only need?

No — also need viewing/extraction

Consider: JPedal (viewing) + iText (creation)
OR Adobe PDF Library (premium, all-in-one)

Yes
✅ Recommended: iText Commercial
  • Purpose-built for creation
  • Mature, comprehensive features
  • Commercial support available
  • Good documentation

Alternative: Apache FOP (free, limited features)

Path 2 — Primary Need: PDF Viewing

Do you have budget for commercial software?

No

Budget-Constrained Option:

  • ICEpdf — basic viewing, free
  • ⚠ Limited features, slower development
Yes

Is pure Java deployment important?

containers, security requirements, multi-platform

No — native dependencies OK + premium budget

Adobe PDF Library via Datalogics

  • Adobe-certified rendering
  • Enterprise support
  • Premium pricing (£10k–50k+)
Yes — pure Java required

Do you process diverse PDFs from many sources?

customer uploads, external vendors, scanning systems

No — simple controlled internal PDFs

Consider ICEpdf (free) and upgrade later if needed.

Yes — diverse sources
✅ Recommended: JPedal
  • Built-in Swing viewer
  • 26 years of edge case handling
  • Pure Java — no native dependencies
  • Commercial support from developers
  • Excellent rendering fidelity
  • £2.5k–8k one-time + optional maintenance

Path 3 — Primary Need: Data Extraction

Are PDFs from diverse external sources?

Controlled internal sources
  • No budget → PDFBox (works well for standard PDFs)
  • Need support → JPedal or iText Commercial
Diverse external sources

Do you have budget for commercial software?

No

PDFBox

  • Free (Apache 2.0)
  • Good for basic extraction
  • Community support only
  • ⚠ May struggle with edge cases
Yes

Are PDFs scanned documents (need OCR)?

No — native text-based PDFs
✅ Recommended: JPedal
  • Excellent text extraction
  • Handles malformed PDFs
  • Commercial support
Yes — scanned PDFs
✅ Recommended: JPedal + OCR Engine
  • JPedal handles image rendering
  • Integrate with Tesseract (free) or ABBYY (commercial)
  • Commercial support for full pipeline

Alternative: Adobe PDF Library (premium, includes OCR integration)

Path 4 — Multiple Operations Needed

Do you have budget for commercial software?

No

Budget-Constrained Multi-Library Approach:

  • PDFBox for extraction + creation
  • ICEpdf for viewing
  • ⚠ More integration work
  • ⚠ Multiple libraries to maintain
Yes

What is your primary operation? (the one you do most often or is most critical)

Viewing is primary

JPedal (viewing)

+ iText for creation

Creation is primary

iText (creation)

+ JPedal for viewing

Extraction is primary

JPedal (extraction)

+ iText for creation

Alternative: Adobe PDF Library — handles everything; premium price (£10k–50k+); native dependencies; best for enterprises with budget.

Special Considerations

🏦 Regulated Industry?
Finance, Healthcare, Government, Legal

Must have:

  • Vendor support contract
  • Commercial backing
  • Security audit documentation

Eliminate: PDFBox, ICEpdf — no commercial support

Choose from:

  • JPedal (pure Java, mid-tier price)
  • iText Commercial (creation-focused)
  • Adobe PDF Library (premium)

☁️ Pure Java Deployment Critical?
Containers, security, multi-platform

Eliminate: Adobe PDF Library — native dependencies

Choose from:

  • JPedal (commercial, excellent support)
  • iText (commercial or AGPL)
  • PDFBox (free, community support)
  • ICEpdf (free, basic features)

💸 Budget = Zero?
Startup, open source project, no funding

Free options:

  • Creation: Apache FOP or PDFBox
  • Viewing: ICEpdf
  • Extraction: PDFBox
  • AGPL OK? iText AGPL (powerful but licensing restrictions)

⚠ Plan to migrate when you get funding, scale increases, or support becomes critical.

Quick Reference Matrix

Your Situation Recommended Library
Generate invoices + have budgetiText Commercial
Generate invoices + no budgetPDFBox or Apache FOP
Display PDFs + have budgetJPedal
Display PDFs + no budgetICEpdf
Extract data + diverse sourcesJPedal (if budget) or PDFBox
Extract data + controlled sourcesPDFBox
Everything + premium budgetAdobe PDF Library
Everything + mid budgetJPedal + iText
Everything + no budgetPDFBox + ICEpdf
Regulated industryJPedal, iText, or Adobe
Containers / pure Java requiredJPedal, iText, or PDFBox
Maximum rendering fidelity neededAdobe or JPedal
Startup, no fundingPDFBox / ICEpdf + migrate later

Next Steps

1Follow the decision tree to your recommendation.
2Download 2–3 candidate libraries.
3Run a proof-of-concept with your actual PDFs.
4Test the scenarios that matter most to your use case.
5Make your final decision based on real testing — not comparison charts alone.

Also available: interactive decision tool that asks you questions and recommends the best libraries for your specific situation.

Need Help?

Still unsure? We can help. We've been working with PDF for 26 years and can provide guidance even if JPedal isn't the right fit for your situation.

💬 Contact: /contact-us

📚 Full Guide: /guides/choosing-java-pdf-library-guide