Apache PDFBox — Open-Source Java PDF Library
Apache PDFBox open-source Java PDF library for document processing, serving as foundation for enterprise document workflows and government-scale applications.
Overview
Apache PDFBox is a project of the Apache Software Foundation that enables developers to create, manipulate, and extract content from PDF documents. First released in 2008, this Java PDF library has evolved into a mature toolkit used in enterprise applications, commercial products, and open-source projects.
In October 2025, Apache PDFBox demonstrated enterprise-scale reliability when integrated into the NIH's FAIR-SMART system, which processed over 5 million supplementary materials from biomedical research papers with a 99.46% conversion success rate. The library operated alongside Apache POI and OpenCSV to transform diverse file formats into standardized BioC-compliant XML and JSON formats.
Apache PDFBox 2.0.30 has gained recognition for its lenient PDF parsing capabilities, particularly for handling malformed documents that other libraries reject. This approach has influenced development across programming ecosystems, with LibPDF, a new TypeScript library launched by Documenso in January 2026, explicitly adopting PDFBox's parsing methodology as a benchmark for robust document processing.
How Apache PDFBox Java PDF library processes documents
Apache PDFBox provides lenient PDF parsing that handles malformed and inconsistent PDF documents that cause other libraries to fail. The Java PDF library extracts text, images, and metadata from existing PDF files while offering PDF rasterization capabilities that convert vector-based PDF content to pixel-based images with configurable DPI (72-600). The platform enables document manipulation through merge, split, and modify operations, while supporting form handling to fill in, extract data from, and flatten PDF forms. Digital signature capabilities allow adding and verifying signatures in PDF files, with PDF/A support for creating and validating compliant documents for archiving. Security features remove links, scripts, and macros while making text non-selectable.
Use Cases
Government and Research Applications
PDFBox serves as the PDF processing component in large-scale government systems like the NIH's FAIR-SMART platform, which converted millions of biomedical research supplementary materials into machine-readable formats for scientific research workflows.
Document Security and Compliance
Organizations in legal, healthcare, and financial sectors leverage Apache PDFBox rasterization capabilities to convert sensitive documents into secure image formats, removing interactive elements and ensuring consistent display across platforms.
Technical Specifications
| Feature | Specification |
|---|---|
| Programming Language | Java |
| License | Apache License 2.0 |
| PDF Specification Support | Up to PDF 1.7 |
| Platform Compatibility | Cross-platform (Java-based) |
| Current Version | 2.0.30 |
| Rasterization DPI Range | 72-600 DPI |
| Image Output Types | RGB, GRAY, BINARY |
| Memory Management | Streaming capability for large documents |
Resources
Company Information
- Website: pdfbox.apache.org
- Mailing List: users@pdfbox.apache.org
- Bug Reporting: Apache JIRA
- Source Code: GitHub