Introduction
Portable Document Format (PDF) is a document file format created by Adobe that maintains the presentation, font, graphics, and formatting of a document regardless of the device or platform utilized. PDF requires consistency in the appearance of documents, whether viewed or printed using any other software or hardware. PDFs find extensive use in the exchange of reports, eBooks, forms, invoices, and legal documents because of their capability to display a fixed layout, as well as providing security options like password protection and digital signatures.
PDFs are also best suited for archiving because they maintain the original integrity. PDFs have a tendency to provide a guaranteed and professional means of sharing and delivering documents. In this article, we are going to compare iText with one of the most used PDF libraries, IronPDF.
Introduction to iText
iText is a powerful PDF library that allows programmers to create, edit, and manipulate PDF documents programmatically. It is versatile in the sense that it can create dynamic PDFs and is most suitable for generating reports, invoices, and contracts.
iText supports digital signatures, filling out forms, encryption, and content extraction. iText is utilized in industries where automatic and secure document processing is present. Being modular in design and standards-compliant to PDF/A and PDF/UA, iText is an end-to-end solution for generating top-class, standards-compliant PDFs in enterprise-wide applications.
Key Features of iText
Below are some of the important features of the iText.
PDF Creation
We can generate sophisticated PDF documents from scratch using iText APIs. We can include text, images, tables, headers, footers, and even barcodes.
PDF Manipulation
We can reorder, rotate, divide, or combine pages of existing PDFs. Annotating, watermarking, and stamping are also supported by iText.
Text and Data Extraction
iText provides developers with the ability to extract text and metadata from PDFs that can be utilized for document indexing, searching, or auditing.
HTML to PDF Conversion
iText helps us convert HTML content to well-styled PDFs. We are able to utilize it while creating invoices or reports in web applications.
Interactive Forms
We can use iText to fill and create interactive PDF forms. With the help of these features, we can automatically fill forms for applications, questionnaires, or contracts.
Introduction to IronPDF
IronPDF is a .NET library provided by Iron Software that programmers utilize to write, read, and print PDFs for .NET applications. It helps us to work with HTML to PDF creation, changing an existing PDF, inserting text, images, headers, footers, watermarks, and breaking up or merging documents. Its largest feature is that it can render styled, complex HTML (CSS and JavaScript) into pixel-perfect PDFs with a complete Chromium rendering engine.
IronPDF is utilized in business applications for creating invoices, reports, legal forms, and archiving of web content. It also features support for electronic signatures, PDF/A for archiving.
Key Capabilities of IronPDF
The following are some of the key features of IronPDF.
HTML to PDF Conversion
IronPDF's greatest feature is the conversion of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to pixel-perfect PDF pages. It also offers a Chromium rendering engine for web page or web application content rendering.
Editing Existing PDFs
IronPDF supports developers in modifying already existing PDF documents by inserting or replacing text, images, annotations, headers, footers, and metadata. It supports document editing without needing to re-create them.
Add Headers, Footers, and Watermarks
Dynamic headers and footers (page numbers, dates) and custom watermarks can be implemented by developers with ease, and this is beneficial for branding or document tracking.
PDF Security and Encryption
Password security, 128-bit and 256-bit encryption, and user permissions can also be managed by IronPDF. Digital signatures for document integrity and authenticity are supported.
PDF/A Compliance
IronPDF supports the creation of PDF/A conformant documents that can be used for long-term archive and industry use in legal, healthcare, and government applications.
Image to PDF and PDF to Image Conversion
The library simplifies image file (PNG, JPG, etc.) conversion to a PDF file and PDF page extraction as an image.
Creating a Console Project
The steps involved in creating a new Visual Studio project are as follows:
Start the Visual Studio IDE, which is already installed Visual Studio on your system.
Navigate to File, New, and Project.
Select the programming language of your choice (e.g., C#) from the left-hand column menu under the "Create a new project" box. Select the "Console App" or "Console App (.NET Core)" template from the list of provided project templates. Enter your project name in the "Name" field.
Select the location where the project should be created. Click "Create" to begin writing a new Console application project.
How to install a PDF Library
Navigate to Tools → NuGet Package Manager → Package Manager Console.
Installing iTextSharp
Execute the following command on the package manager console.
install-package itext
install-package itext.pdfhtml
install-package itext7.bouncy-castle-adapter
Installing IronPDF
Type the code below on the package console, which will install the IronPDF library into the chosen project.
Install-Package IronPDF
Building a PDF Programmatically
Here, were are going to use both iText and IronPDF to create a simple PDF using html string.
Using iText
using iText;
using iText.Html2pdf;
string html = "<html><body><h1>Hello, iText!</h1><p>This is a sample PDF from HTML string.</p></body></html>";
string outputPath = "output.pdf";
using (FileStream pdfDest = new FileStream(outputPath, FileMode.Create))
{
HtmlConverter.ConvertToPdf(html, pdfDest);
}
The above C# uses iText to use a string of HTML to create a PDF document. First, we are importing iText namespaces. A simple string of HTML with a title and a paragraph, and the output PDF file name is declared in order to save the created document.
A FileStream object is used to hold the PDF on disk, and inside the using block, HtmlConverter is invoked to render the HTML content as a PDF and save it in the given file.
Using IronPDF
using IronPdf;
// Instantiate Renderer
var renderer = new ChromePdfRenderer();
// Creating PDF pages from a HTML snippets using C#
var document = renderer.RenderHtmlAsPdf("<h1>Hello World!</h1>");
// save file in pdf format
document.SaveAs("output.pdf");
Console.WriteLine ( "PDF generated successfully using IronPDF.");
The code above uses the IronPDF library for constructing a PDF document from an HTML string. It starts by importing the IronPdf namespace. A new instance of ChromePdfRenderer is declared to access the renderer engine. An HTML string is passed into the RenderHtmlAsPdf method, which renders the string into a PDF file.
The resultant PDF is written to disk using the name via SaveAs(). This screen capture indicates how IronPDF enables programmers to render HTML content as lovely PDF documents.
License Information and Usage
iText
iText supports both open-source and commercial licenses. iText is free to use under the open-source AGPL (Affero General Public License), but with the stipulation that if distributed, their whole application's source code should be made freely available. This is ideal for open-source applications. For closed-source or proprietary applications, a commercial license has to be purchased.
Commercial licensing permits companies to include iText within their software without having to open up their source code. It comes with professional support, ongoing updates, and legal recourse.
IronPDF
IronPDF operates a commercial license model with flexible packages for individuals, companies, and businesses. It is not open-source, and a legitimate license is needed for use beyond trial. IronPDF offers several types of licenses, such as Developer, Project, and Enterprise licenses, each with its varying usage rights, deployment, and support.
IronPDF provides a free trial for developers with a watermark. When a license is purchased, this restriction is removed, and full features, updates, and technical support are made available.
Conclusion
IronPDF and iText are two PDF libraries used in applications for creating and editing PDF documents. Although iText is open source and commercially licensed transparently, care should be taken in respecting the terms of the AGPL. Instead, IronPDF provides developer-friendly capabilities such as native .NET support, JavaScript rendering, and HTML to PDF conversion, with minimum setup hassle, along with simple licensing and integration.
IronPDF possesses more capability, usability, and optimal performance, making it the perfect solution for business users and developers looking for a hassle-free, pure C# PDF creation solution. To know more about the Iron software product, check here.
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