16 tools
PostScript and PDF interpreter/renderer from Artifex: converts PostScript/PDF to images, text, DOCX, PCL, and XPS; compresses PDFs while preserving quality; converts to/validates PDF/A; adds an OCR text layer to scanned pages; imposition (N-up), ICC color management, and ZUGFeRD/Factur-X e-invoicing support.
CANSI C library for generating PDFs from scratch: lines, text, and images (PNG/JPEG with CMYK/alpha/CCITT support); Type1/TrueType/CJK font embedding; outlines, text and link annotations; document encryption; Deflate compression; and PDF/A-1b compliant output.
C#This is the source code of the well-known PDFCreator from `pdfforge`. PDFCreator works like a virtual printer that converts any printable application's output to PDF, and (per pdfforge's product page) supports merging/reordering pages, password/digital-signature protection, PDF/A archiving, cover pages, and automated actions (FTP upload, email, scripting).
C#Open-source virtual (network) printer for Windows: print-to-PDF, PDF/A-1b/2b/3b, PDF/X, PDF/Image, PNG/JPEG/TIF/text output; OCR; password protection with up to 256-bit AES encryption; and multi-user/enterprise deployment support.
Fluent-API PDF generation library for .NET: page layout, headers/footers, tables, columns, sections, watermarks, text/fonts/colors/backgrounds/borders, images, SVG, alignment/padding/scaling/rotation/layering, loops/conditionals/reusable components for data-driven documents, merging, encryption, metadata, page extraction, and PDF/A, PDF/UA, and EN 16931 (e-invoicing) compliance.
C++C++17 library for reading, writing, and modifying PDFs: full-featured low-level Unicode text extraction (with CJK support), text drawing with automatic CID encoding and font subsetting, incremental-update saving, PAdES-B digital signing (RSA/ECDSA, async), and PDF/A and PDF/UA compliance preservation when adding annotations or form fields. Does not yet render PDF content, and text shaping/kerning is limited.
C++Free, open-source desktop publishing (DTP) application for laying out newspapers, brochures, newsletters, posters, and books, with professional-grade PDF export: PDF/X-3 and PDF/X-4 support, native PDF 1.6 output with embedded OpenType fonts, transparency and encryption, and interactive PDF form fields, annotations, and bookmarks.
GoGo PDF processor (CLI + library) supporting PDF up to 2.0 (ISO 32000-2): validate, optimize, split, trim, and merge PDFs; encrypt/decrypt; resize, rotate, and crop pages; extract/manipulate images, fonts, and metadata; manage attachments and portfolios; validate, report, and remove digital signatures; add/remove stamps and watermarks; process forms, bookmarks, and annotations; and generate booklets, N-up/N-down layouts, grids, and posters.
JavaJava library and CLI toolset covering PDF creation from scratch (with embedded fonts/images); Unicode text extraction; splitting and merging; form field extraction and filling; PDF/A-1b validation via Preflight; rendering pages to PNG/JPEG; printing via the Java printing API; and digital signing.
JavaLegacy iText 5: core PDF creation/manipulation library (receiving security fixes only), with add-on modules for PDF 2.0 features (itext-xtra), PDF/A generation/validation (itext-pdfa), and XML/HTML-to-PDF conversion (xmlworker). Targets Java 5 compatibility, which blocks upgrading some vulnerable dependencies.
Renders a practical subset of XML/XHTML/HTML5 with CSS 2.1+ (incl. CSS3 transforms, gradients, multiple backgrounds) to PDF or images, with SVG and MathML plugin support, accessible/tagged PDF output (Section 508, PDF/UA, WCAG 2.0), PDF/A compliance, font fallback and embedding, RTL/bidi text, footnotes, and file embedding via link download attributes.
Industry-backed, open-source validation library and CLI for checking PDF files against the PDF/A and PDF/UA standards.
JavaCreate and manipulate PDFs, merge documents, digitally sign, create/fill AcroForm fields, PDF/A and PDF/UA generation, encryption (incl. FIPS-compliant crypto), barcode generation, SVG embedding, content redaction, and (via separate add-ons) OCR and HTML/CSS-to-PDF conversion.
UTF-8/RTL text with TrueType/OpenType/Type1/CID-0 font support and subsetting; HTML/CSS and SVG rendering with multi-column layouts, headers/footers, bookmarks, and TOC; JPEG/PNG/SVG images (plus GIF/BMP/TIFF/etc. via GD); RC4/AES-256 encryption; PAdES/PKCS#7 digital signatures with RFC 3161 TSA timestamps and LTV; PDF/A, PDF/X, and PDF/UA compliance modes; page import/reordering; AcroForm fields; and companion-package barcode support.
PHPLaravel wrapper around Dompdf: converts HTML strings, files, or Blade views to PDF with paper size/orientation, DPI, fonts, CSS page breaks, and UTF-8 support; generates PDF/A-3b compliant output with embedded files and XMP metadata (for Zugferd/Factur-X e-invoicing); toggles JS/remote-content/PHP execution; outputs to disk, browser stream, download, or string.
PythonAdds a searchable OCR text layer beneath page images and produces a validated PDF/A file: deskews crooked pages, optionally cleans images pre-OCR, optimizes/compresses images, recognizes 100+ languages via Tesseract, rotates misrotated pages, edits output metadata, parallelizes across CPU cores, and processes multi-thousand-page files in place.