Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups
Register | Login

Apache PDFBox VS PDFium

Compare Apache PDFBox VS PDFium and see what are their differences

DocRaptor
As the only API powered by the Prince HTML-to-PDF engine, DocRaptor provides the best support for complex PDFs with powerful support for headers, page breaks, page numbers, flexbox, watermarks, accessible PDFs, and much more featured
Contents:
  1. » Base Details
  2. » Reviews
  3. » Alternatives

Apache PDFBox logo Apache PDFBox

The Apache PDFBox™ library is an open source Java tool for working with PDF documents.

PDFium logo PDFium

The C# PDF Library to Create and Edit PDF documents in .
  • Apache PDFBox Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-09-14
  • PDFium Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-06-05

Apache PDFBox features and specs

  • Open Source
    Apache PDFBox is a completely open-source library, which means it's free to use and the source code is available for customization.
  • Comprehensive Features
    PDFBox provides a wide range of features, including PDF creation, manipulation, rendering, and extraction of text and images, making it versatile for PDF handling.
  • Java-Based
    Written in Java, it integrates well with Java applications and takes advantage of Java's portability across different platforms.
  • Active Community
    It benefits from an active community and ongoing support from Apache, ensuring regular updates and a wealth of shared knowledge.

Possible disadvantages of Apache PDFBox

  • Performance Limitations
    Handling very large PDF documents can be resource-intensive, potentially affecting performance.
  • Learning Curve
    The library can be complex for new users due to its extensive feature set and lack of detailed beginner-friendly documentation.
  • Java Dependency
    Being Java-based, it might not be suitable for projects using different programming languages unless interoperability bridges are used.
  • Limited GUI Support
    PDFBox focuses primarily on backend processes and provides limited support for GUI operations, potentially requiring additional libraries for visual PDF modifications.

PDFium features and specs

  • Comprehensive PDF Editing
    PDFium provides a wide array of functionalities for editing PDFs, including rendering, text extraction, and annotation support, which makes it suitable for various PDF-related tasks.
  • Open Source
    As an open-source library, PDFium allows developers to access and modify the source code, fostering transparency and enabling customization for specific needs.
  • Cross-Platform Support
    PDFium can be used across different platforms, including Windows, macOS, and Linux, making it versatile for applications that require cross-platform compatibility.
  • High Performance
    PDFium is designed for high performance, enabling quick rendering and processing of PDF documents, which is crucial for applications that handle large volumes of PDFs.

Possible disadvantages of PDFium

  • Complexity of Integration
    Integrating PDFium into a project can be complex, especially for those unfamiliar with C++ or low-level programming, potentially requiring a steep learning curve.
  • Limited Documentation
    Compared to some commercial PDF libraries, PDFium's documentation may not be as extensive or detailed, making it challenging for developers to find solutions to specific issues.
  • Lack of Advanced Features
    While PDFium covers fundamental PDF functionalities, it may lack some advanced features found in specialized or commercial PDF libraries, such as digital signatures or form handling.
  • Maintenance and Updates
    Being an open-source project, the frequency and quality of updates or maintenance could vary, depending on community contributions and support.

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Apache PDFBox and PDFium)

Apache PDFBox

PDFium

PDF Tools
57 57%
PDF Tools
43% 43
HTML To PDF
42 42%
HTML To PDF
58% 58
Office & Productivity
100 100%
Office & Productivity
0% 0
PDF Conversion API
0 0%
PDF Conversion API
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using Apache PDFBox and PDFium. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
Log in or Post with

Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Apache PDFBox and PDFium

Apache PDFBox Reviews

Best BFO Java PDF Library Alternatives (2024) for your project
Apache PDFBox is a powerful Java package that enables developers to easily create, edit, and extract content from PDF documents. This is made possible by Apache PDFBox. Because it is open-source and because it has a comprehensive feature set, it is a formidable competitor among PDF libraries. PDFBox is a flexible option for manipulating PDF files due to its support for a...
Source: www.compsmag.com

PDFium Reviews

  1. Basker
    Lousy platform which is incompatible with Adobe Acrobat

    PDF Files created using PDFium cannot be opened properly in Adobe Acrobat Reader DC... they simply open as Blank pages.... Totally Useless software given it is doesnt work with the most popular PDF reader on earth !!

    🏁 Competitors: Adobe Reader
    👎 Cons:    Not compatible with adobe acrobat

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, PDFium seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 1 time since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Apache PDFBox mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Apache PDFBox yet. Tracking of Apache PDFBox recommendations started around Mar 2021.

PDFium mentions (1)

  • QuestPDF 2022.3 - a new release of the modern, open-source library for PDF generation 🎉 Please help me make it popular 🚀
    For example this one has an example of doing that on their home page: https://pdfium.patagames.com/. Source: about 3 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Apache PDFBox and PDFium, you can also consider the following products

IronPDF - SDK for creating and editing PDFs.

Aspose.PDF for Java - Aspose.Pdf is a Java PDF component to create PDF documents without using https://alternativeto.

Docotic.Pdf - Docotic.Pdf is a high-performance C# PDF library for .NET. You can use it to create, read, and edit PDF documents in .NET Core, ASP.NET, Windows Forms, WPF, Xamarin, Blazor, Unity, and HoloLense applications.

iTextPDF - iText offers flexible tools for PDF creation, editing and inspection.

PDFCrowd - Pdfcrowd is a Web/HTML to PDF online service. Convert HTML to PDF online in the browser or in your PHP, Python, Ruby, .NET, Java apps via the REST API.

Aspose.Pdf for Cloud - Aspose.Pdf for Cloud is a REST API to create, edit & manipulate PDF files.

Loading...