A simple C library for reading, writing, and filtering PDF files with support for encryption and metadata.
PDFio is a simple C library for reading and writing PDF files programmatically. It provides low-level access to PDF structure, objects, and streams, enabling developers to manipulate PDFs without rendering them. The library supports encryption, metadata extraction, and filtering operations like page range extraction.
C developers building custom PDF processing tools, such as PDF filters, metadata editors, or specialized PDF generators that require fine-grained control over PDF internals.
Developers choose PDFio for its simplicity, lightweight design, and focus on core PDF manipulation without rendering overhead. It offers reliable support for encrypted files and metadata handling, making it a solid foundation for bespoke PDF applications.
PDFio is a simple C library for reading and writing PDF files.
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Supports reading and writing any version of PDF files, ensuring compatibility with diverse PDF standards, as explicitly stated in the README's primary goals.
Provides built-in support for encrypted PDF files and metadata management, allowing extraction or embedding of author, creator, and page information directly from the library.
Grants direct access to pages, objects, and streams within PDFs, enabling fine-grained manipulation for custom processing tools, as highlighted in the key features.
Designed for simplicity and core PDF manipulation without rendering overhead, making it efficient for specialized applications, per the project's philosophy.
By design, PDFio does not handle PDF rendering or viewing, requiring additional libraries for display purposes, which complicates projects needing visual output, as admitted in the README.
As a C library, it requires manual memory management and lower-level programming, posing a barrier for developers accustomed to higher-level languages with more abstraction.
Focuses on low-level access, so common tasks like form filling or annotation editing may require more code compared to libraries with higher-level APIs, increasing development time.
Documentation is split into multiple files (e.g., INSTALL.md, CHANGES.md), which can make it harder to find comprehensive information quickly, as noted in the README's instruction to read documentation first.