iText for Java represents the next level of SDKs for developers that want to take advantage of the benefits PDF can bring. Equipped with a better document engine, high and low-level programming capabilities and the ability to create, edit and enhance PDF documents, iText can be a boon to nearly every workflow.
git clone https://github.com/itext/itext-java.git
iText Core/Community is a high-performance, battle-tested library that allows you to create, adapt, inspect and maintain PDF documents, allowing you to add PDF functionality to your software projects with ease. It is also available for .NET (C#).
The key features of iText Core/Community are:
- Core library:
- PDF creation with the use of our layout engine
- PDF manipulation, e.g. merging multiple PDFs into one, adding new content, ...
- PDF digital signing
- PDF form creation and manipulation
- Working with PDF/A documents
- Working with PDF/UA documents
- FIPS-compliant cryptography
- Barcode generation
- SVG support
- Addons:
- Converting XML/HTML & CSS to PDF repo, info
- Perform OCR on images and PDF documents repo, info
- Redacting sensitive information in PDF documents repo, info
- Support for international character sets (e.g. Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew, Thai, ...) info
- Optimize PDF documents for reduced file size, and increased performance info
- Flattening XFA documents info
- PDF debugging repo, info
Want to discover what's possible? Head over to our Demo Lab! It contains a collection of demo applications ready to use online!
Getting started
The easiest way to get started is to use Maven, just add the following entries to your pom.xml file:
<properties>
<itext.version>REPLACE_WITH_DESIRED_ITEXT_VERSION</itext.version>
</properties>
<dependencies>
<dependency>
<groupId>com.itextpdf</groupId>
<artifactId>itext-core</artifactId>
<version>${itext.version}</version>
<type>pom</type>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>com.itextpdf</groupId>
<artifactId>bouncy-castle-adapter</artifactId>
<version>${itext.version}</version>
</dependency>
</dependencies>
For more advanced use cases, please refer to the Installation guidelines. You can also build iText Community from source.
Hello PDF!
The following example shows how easy it is to create a simple PDF document:
package com.itextpdf.hellopdf;
import com.itextpdf.kernel.pdf.PdfDocument;
import com.itextpdf.kernel.pdf.PdfWriter;
import com.itextpdf.layout.Document;
import com.itextpdf.layout.element.Paragraph;
import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
public class HelloPdfApp {
public static void main(String[] args) throws FileNotFoundException {
try (Document document = new Document(new PdfDocument(new PdfWriter("./hello-pdf.pdf")))) {
document.add(new Paragraph("Hello PDF!"));
}
}
}
GraalVM compatibility
Starting from version 8.0.3 iText Core supports native image compilation using GraalVM. See building for details.
Examples
This is a small subset of examples to get you started. For more advanced examples, refer to our Knowledge Base or the following links: Examples repo, Signing examples.
Some of the output PDF files will be incorrectly displayed by the GitHub previewer, so be sure to download them to see the correct results.
| Description | Link |
|---|---|
| Basic layout | |
| Change text properties | Java, PDF |
| Creating a simple table | Java, PDF |
| Add an image to a PDF document | Java, PDF |
| Create a list | Java, PDF |
| Add a watermark | Java, PDF |
| Add links to navigate within a document | Java, PDF |
| Create a popup annotation | Java, PDF |
| Change font | Java |
| Add form fields | Java |
| General document settings | |
| Change page size and margin | Java, PDF |
| Write PDF to byte array instead of to disk | Java |
| Change page rotation | Java, PDF |
| Add header and footer | Java, PDF |
| Add dynamic page margins | Java, PDF |
| Add footnotes | Java, PDF |
| Merge documents | Java, PDF |
| Flatten annotations | Java |
| PDF/UA, PDF/A | |
| Create PDF/UA document | Java, PDF |
| Create PDF/A-3 document | Java |
| Create PDF/A-4 document | Java |
| Create WTPDF document | Java |
| Create ZUGFeRD/Factur-X document | Java, PDF |
| Digital signatures | |
| Sign PDF document | Java, PDF |
| Customize signature appearance | Java, PDFs |
| Sign PDF document with PaDES Profile | Java, PDFs |
| Two-phase signing | Java, PDFs |
| Signature validation | Java |
| Signing using PQC algorithms (experimental) | Java, PDFs |
| Custom HTML tag for signature | Java, HTML, PDF |
| FIPS | |
| Enable FIPS | Java |
| FIPS SHA3 example | Java |
| SVG | |
| Convert SVG to a PDF | Java |
| Convert SVG to a PDF using layout | Java |
| Convert SVG as string to PDF | Java |
| Convert SVG to a PdfPage | Java |
| Convert SVG as XObject | Java |
| Convert SVG to a PDF with pdfCalligraph | Java |
| Convert HTML and CSS to PDF | Link to repo |
| Convert simple HTML doc to PDF | Java |
| OCR images or PDFs | Link to repo |
| OCR images and create PDF | Using ONNX models, using Tesseract 4 |
| Make PDF searchable | Using ONNX models, using Tesseract 4 |
| OCR images to txt file | Using ONNX models, using Tesseract 4 |
| Secure redaction of content | Link to repo |
| Redacting content | Java |
| Redact based on regex | Java |
| Support complex writing systems | Link to docs |
| Add Arabic text | Java, PDF |
| Optimizing PDFs | Link to docs |
| Reduce size of PDF | Java |
| XFA flattening | Link to docs |
| Flatten an XFA document | Java |
| RUPS | Link to repo |
| Debug a PDF | Latest release |
FAQs, tutorials, etc.
Check out the iText Knowledge Base for the iText Jump-start tutorial and other tutorials, FAQs and more. For specific information and examples relating to digital signatures and iText, make sure to check the Digital Signatures Hub.
Many common questions have already been answered on Stack Overflow, so make sure to also check there.
Contributing
Many people have contributed to iText Core/Community over the years. If you've found a bug, a mistake in documentation, or have a hot new feature you want to implement, we welcome your contributions.
Small changes or fixes can be submitted as a Pull Request, while for major changes we request you contact us at community@apryse.com so we can better coordinate our efforts and prevent duplication of work.
Please read our Contribution Guidelines for details on code submissions, coding rules, and more.
Licensing
iText is dual licensed as AGPL/Commercial software.
AGPL is a free/open-source software license, however, this doesn't mean the software is gratis!
The AGPL is a copyleft license, which means that any derivative work must also be licensed under the same terms. If you’re using iText in software or a service which cannot comply with the AGPL terms, we have a commercial license available that exempts you from such obligations.
Contact Sales for more info.