OpenPDF is a versatile, open-source PDF solution available both as a developer-ready Java library (under LGPL / MPL licenses) and as a browser-based editor for basic PDF manipulation. It’s a robust fork of iText, maintained by LibrePDF, and supports PDF creation, text/image editing, page operations, encryption, form handling, and HTML‑to‑PDF conversion via modules like openpdf‑html. OpenPDF excels at programmatic PDF tasks—adding pages, images, tables, fonts, and security features in Java and Kotlin applications. For non‑developers, the web version allows quick edits such as text/image insertion, merging, splitting, compression, and signing—ideal for lightweight PDF workflows .
Key features include:
- Java Library Core: Generate and manipulate PDFs programmatically with support for fonts, layouts, tables, encryption, and HTML conversion.
- Dual Licensing (LGPL/MPL): Permits commercial and open-source reuse without AGPL restrictions .
- Web-Based Editor: No registration needed for simple PDF edits, form filling, signing, merging, splitting, compressing.
- Modular Architecture: Includes sub-modules like renderer, kotlin, html, fonts, with community contributions and active GitHub support .
- Lightweight & Fast: Ideal for embedding into Java back-end services or quick browser use.
Use cases include:
- Embedding PDF generation and editing in Java/Kotlin apps (e.g., invoices, reports).
- Quick browser-based PDF tweaks: adding comments, images, or pages without software installs.
- Programmatic PDF workflows—rotating, encrypting, slicing, merging, stamping.
- HTML-to-PDF conversion through integration with Swing and html modules.
- Commercial and open-source SaaS using PDFs without restrictive licenses.
