DroidPDF

Kotlin-native PDF library for Android — create, edit, merge, split, annotate, encrypt, and extract text from PDF documents.

An affordable iText7 alternative. Free for personal use, $99/year for commercial.

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Features

Category	Capabilities
PDF Generation	Text, images (JPEG/PNG/WebP), tables, custom fonts (TTF/OTF), page sizes
Layout Engine	Document, Paragraph, Table, Image — auto page breaks, margins, alignment
Page Operations	Merge, split, rotate, reorder, insert, delete pages
Annotations	Highlight, underline, strikeout, sticky notes, stamps, shapes, ink, links (11 types)
Forms (AcroForm)	Text fields, checkboxes, radio buttons, dropdowns
Encryption	AES-128 / AES-256, user & owner passwords, permission flags
Text Extraction	Extract text per page, case-insensitive search
Reader	Lenient parser — reads malformed PDFs without crashing

Quick Start

Installation

// build.gradle.kts
dependencies {
    implementation("com.droidpdf:droidpdf:1.0.0")
}

Create a PDF

val pdf = PdfDocument(outputStream)
val document = Document(pdf)

document.add(
    Paragraph("Hello, DroidPDF!")
        .setFont(PdfFont.helveticaBold())
        .setFontSize(24f)
)

document.add(
    Table(3).apply {
        addCell("Name")
        addCell("Age")
        addCell("City")
        addCell("Alice")
        addCell("30")
        addCell("Tokyo")
    }
)

document.close()

Merge PDFs

val merger = PdfMerger(outputStream)
merger.merge(inputStream1)           // all pages
merger.merge(inputStream2, 2, 5)     // pages 2–5
merger.close()

Add Annotations

val pdf = PdfDocument(PdfReader(input), outputStream)
PdfHighlightAnnotation(Rectangle(72f, 700f, 200f, 14f))
    .setColor(Color.YELLOW)
    .addTo(pdf.firstPage)
pdf.close()

Encrypt a PDF

val encryption = PdfEncryption.Builder()
    .setUserPassword("secret")
    .setKeyLength(256)
    .allowPrinting(true)
    .allowCopying(false)
    .build()

Extract Text

val reader = PdfReader(inputStream)
val extractor = TextExtractor(reader)
val text = extractor.extractAll()
val results = extractor.search("invoice")

Package Structure

com.droidpdf.core           PdfDocument, PdfPage, PdfReader, PdfWriter, TextExtractor
com.droidpdf.content        PdfCanvas, PdfFont, PdfImage
com.droidpdf.layout         Document, Paragraph, Table, Image
com.droidpdf.annotations    11 annotation types
com.droidpdf.forms          TextField, CheckboxField, RadioButtonField, DropdownField
com.droidpdf.manipulation   PdfMerger, PdfSplitter, PageOperations
com.droidpdf.security       PdfEncryption (AES-128/256)

Requirements

• Android API 26+ (Android 8.0)
• Kotlin 2.1+
• JVM target 17

Pricing

Plan	Price	For
Personal	Free	Personal, non-commercial, OSS
Commercial	$99/year	Any commercial app — any team size, any revenue

Free for personal use. 7-day free trial for commercial. The library is fully functional without a license key — a single warning log is emitted per session.

Buy a license

Documentation

• Website & Docs: droidpdf.abyo.net
• Getting Started: droidpdf.abyo.net/docs/
• API Reference: droidpdf.abyo.net/api/

Technical Details

• PDF Spec: ISO 32000-1 (PDF 1.7)
• Font handling: Apache FontBox (Apache 2.0)
• Image handling: Android BitmapFactory
• Compression: java.util.zip (Flate/Deflate)
• Encryption: javax.crypto (AES)
• Design: Single-thread, lazy page loading, lenient parsing

License

Business Source License (BSL) — code is open and readable. Commercial use requires a paid license key.

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome. Please read the contribution guidelines before submitting.