iText 7 for Java: Complete Guide to Creating and Editing PDF

iText 7 is a powerful open-source (AGPL) library for Java, designed for programmatic creation, manipulation, and rendering of PDF documents. It is the successor to the popular iText 5 library and offers a completely redesigned, modular architecture focused on performance, flexibility, and ease of use. iText 7 allows developers to solve a wide range of tasks: from generating simple invoices and reports to creating complex, legally significant documents with digital signatures, forms, and metadata.

Why is iText 7 needed? In the modern world, PDF is a universal format for document exchange, guaranteeing consistent display on any device. Manual creation of PDF files is time-consuming and inefficient, especially when working with large volumes of data. iText 7 automates this process, giving Java developers full control over every aspect of the document: from adding text and images to creating interactive forms and managing access rights. It is indispensable in document management systems, e-commerce, banking, and any other applications requiring PDF generation or processing.

The library supports all the latest PDF specifications, including PDF 2.0. It also provides additional modules (add-ons) for working with HTML conversion (pdfHTML), optical character recognition (pdfOCR), SVG creation (pdfSVG), and image processing (pdfImage). It is important to note that iText 7 is distributed under a dual license: AGPL (requires open-sourcing your application) and commercial (for proprietary use).

Installation

To install iText 7 in your Java project, use the Maven or Gradle build system. Below is the exact command for adding dependencies to the pom.xml file (Maven).

<!-- pom.xml -->\n<dependencies>\n    <!-- Main iText 7 module -->\n    <dependency>\n        <groupId>com.itextpdf</groupId>\n        <artifactId>itext7-core</artifactId>\n        <version>8.0.4</version> <!-- Check the latest version on Maven Central -->\n        <type>pom</type>\n    </dependency>\n</dependencies>

For Gradle (build.gradle):

implementation 'com.itextpdf:itext7-core:8.0.4'

If you only need specific modules (e.g., kernel, layout, io), you can add them individually:

<dependency>\n    <groupId>com.itextpdf</groupId>\n    <artifactId>kernel</artifactId>\n    <version>8.0.4</version>\n</dependency>\n<dependency>\n    <groupId>com.itextpdf</groupId>\n    <artifactId>layout</artifactId>\n    <version>8.0.4</version>\n</dependency>

Quick Start: Minimal Working Example

The following code creates a simple PDF document with the text "Hello, World!" and saves it to the file HelloWorld.pdf.

import com.itextpdf.kernel.pdf.PdfDocument;\nimport com.itextpdf.kernel.pdf.PdfWriter;\nimport com.itextpdf.layout.Document;\nimport com.itextpdf.layout.element.Paragraph;\n\nimport java.io.FileNotFoundException;\n\npublic class HelloWorld {\n    public static void main(String[] args) throws FileNotFoundException {\n        // 1. Create a PdfWriter that will write data to the file\n        PdfWriter writer = new PdfWriter("HelloWorld.pdf");\n        \n        // 2. Create a PdfDocument — an object representing the PDF document itself\n        PdfDocument pdf = new PdfDocument(writer);\n        \n        // 3. Create a Document — a high-level object for adding