Apache PDFBox vs IronPDF: Technical Comparison Guide

HTML to PDF Conversion

Converting HTML content to PDF reveals the most significant capability difference between these libraries.

Apache PDFBox (.NET Port):

// Apache PDFBox does not have official .NET port
// Community ports like PDFBox-dotnet are incomplete
// and do not support HTML to PDF conversion natively.
// You would need to use additional libraries like
// iText or combine with HTML renderers separately.

using PdfBoxDotNet.Pdmodel;
using System.IO;

// Note: This is NOT supported in PDFBox
// PDFBox is primarily for PDF manipulation, not HTML rendering
// You would need external HTML rendering engine

// Apache PDFBox does not have official .NET port
// Community ports like PDFBox-dotnet are incomplete
// and do not support HTML to PDF conversion natively.
// You would need to use additional libraries like
// iText or combine with HTML renderers separately.

using PdfBoxDotNet.Pdmodel;
using System.IO;

// Note: This is NOT supported in PDFBox
// PDFBox is primarily for PDF manipulation, not HTML rendering
// You would need external HTML rendering engine

IRON VB CONVERTER ERROR developers@ironsoftware.com

IronPDF:

// NuGet: Install-Package IronPdf
using IronPdf;
using System;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        var renderer = new ChromePdfRenderer();
        var pdf = renderer.RenderHtmlAsPdf("<h1>Hello World</h1><p>This is HTML to PDF</p>");
        pdf.SaveAs("output.pdf");
        Console.WriteLine("PDF created successfully");
    }
}

// NuGet: Install-Package IronPdf
using IronPdf;
using System;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        var renderer = new ChromePdfRenderer();
        var pdf = renderer.RenderHtmlAsPdf("<h1>Hello World</h1><p>This is HTML to PDF</p>");
        pdf.SaveAs("output.pdf");
        Console.WriteLine("PDF created successfully");
    }
}

IRON VB CONVERTER ERROR developers@ironsoftware.com

Apache PDFBox is primarily designed for PDF manipulation, not HTML rendering. Creating PDFs in PDFBox requires manual page construction with precise coordinate positioning—a tedious and error-prone process. IronPDF provides full Chromium-based HTML/CSS/JavaScript rendering, allowing developers to use familiar web technologies for PDF generation.

For advanced HTML rendering options, explore the HTML to PDF conversion guide.

Text Extraction from PDF

Extracting text from existing PDFs shows the API style differences clearly.

Apache PDFBox (.NET Port):

// Apache PDFBox .NET ports are experimental and incomplete
using PdfBoxDotNet.Pdmodel;
using PdfBoxDotNet.Text;
using System;
using System.IO;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        // Note: PDFBox-dotnet has limited functionality
        using (var document = PDDocument.Load("document.pdf"))
        {
            var stripper = new PDFTextStripper();
            string text = stripper.GetText(document);
            Console.WriteLine(text);
        }
    }
}

// Apache PDFBox .NET ports are experimental and incomplete
using PdfBoxDotNet.Pdmodel;
using PdfBoxDotNet.Text;
using System;
using System.IO;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        // Note: PDFBox-dotnet has limited functionality
        using (var document = PDDocument.Load("document.pdf"))
        {
            var stripper = new PDFTextStripper();
            string text = stripper.GetText(document);
            Console.WriteLine(text);
        }
    }
}

IRON VB CONVERTER ERROR developers@ironsoftware.com

IronPDF:

// NuGet: Install-Package IronPdf
using IronPdf;
using System;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        var pdf = PdfDocument.FromFile("document.pdf");
        string text = pdf.ExtractAllText();
        Console.WriteLine(text);

        // Or extract text from specific pages
        string pageText = pdf.ExtractTextFromPage(0);
        Console.WriteLine(pageText);
    }
}

// NuGet: Install-Package IronPdf
using IronPdf;
using System;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        var pdf = PdfDocument.FromFile("document.pdf");
        string text = pdf.ExtractAllText();
        Console.WriteLine(text);

        // Or extract text from specific pages
        string pageText = pdf.ExtractTextFromPage(0);
        Console.WriteLine(pageText);
    }
}

IRON VB CONVERTER ERROR developers@ironsoftware.com

Apache PDFBox requires creating a PDFTextStripper object and calling GetText() with the document. The code retains Java-style patterns with limited functionality notes. IronPDF provides a single ExtractAllText() method on the PdfDocument object, plus per-page extraction with ExtractTextFromPage().

Learn more about text extraction in the text extraction documentation.

PDF Merging Operations

Combining multiple PDF documents demonstrates different approaches to document manipulation.

Apache PDFBox (.NET Port):

// Apache PDFBox .NET port attempt (incomplete support)
using PdfBoxDotNet.Pdmodel;
using PdfBoxDotNet.Multipdf;
using System;
using System.IO;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        // PDFBox-dotnet ports have incomplete API coverage
        var merger = new PDFMergerUtility();
        merger.AddSource("document1.pdf");
        merger.AddSource("document2.pdf");
        merger.SetDestinationFileName("merged.pdf");
        merger.MergeDocuments();
        Console.WriteLine("PDFs merged");
    }
}

// Apache PDFBox .NET port attempt (incomplete support)
using PdfBoxDotNet.Pdmodel;
using PdfBoxDotNet.Multipdf;
using System;
using System.IO;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        // PDFBox-dotnet ports have incomplete API coverage
        var merger = new PDFMergerUtility();
        merger.AddSource("document1.pdf");
        merger.AddSource("document2.pdf");
        merger.SetDestinationFileName("merged.pdf");
        merger.MergeDocuments();
        Console.WriteLine("PDFs merged");
    }
}

IRON VB CONVERTER ERROR developers@ironsoftware.com

IronPDF:

// NuGet: Install-Package IronPdf
using IronPdf;
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        var pdf1 = PdfDocument.FromFile("document1.pdf");
        var pdf2 = PdfDocument.FromFile("document2.pdf");
        var pdf3 = PdfDocument.FromFile("document3.pdf");

        var merged = PdfDocument.Merge(pdf1, pdf2, pdf3);
        merged.SaveAs("merged.pdf");
        Console.WriteLine("PDFs merged successfully");
    }
}

// NuGet: Install-Package IronPdf
using IronPdf;
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        var pdf1 = PdfDocument.FromFile("document1.pdf");
        var pdf2 = PdfDocument.FromFile("document2.pdf");
        var pdf3 = PdfDocument.FromFile("document3.pdf");

        var merged = PdfDocument.Merge(pdf1, pdf2, pdf3);
        merged.SaveAs("merged.pdf");
        Console.WriteLine("PDFs merged successfully");
    }
}

IRON VB CONVERTER ERROR developers@ironsoftware.com

Apache PDFBox uses a PDFMergerUtility class with Java-style setter methods (SetDestinationFileName). The ports note incomplete API coverage. IronPDF loads documents as PdfDocument objects and merges them with a static PdfDocument.Merge() method that accepts multiple documents.

Explore additional merge operations in the PDF merging documentation.

Core Document Operations

Namespace Mapping

HTML Rendering Capability

The most significant difference is HTML rendering support. Apache PDFBox is designed for PDF manipulation, not HTML-to-PDF conversion. Creating PDFs requires manual page construction:

// PDFBox: Manual page construction required
// No HTML rendering - must construct pages programmatically
// with coordinate positioning for each element

// PDFBox: Manual page construction required
// No HTML rendering - must construct pages programmatically
// with coordinate positioning for each element

IRON VB CONVERTER ERROR developers@ironsoftware.com

IronPDF provides full HTML/CSS/JavaScript rendering:

// IronPDF: HTML rendering with Chromium engine
var renderer = new ChromePdfRenderer();
var pdf = renderer.RenderHtmlAsPdf("<h1>Title</h1><p>Content with CSS styling</p>");
pdf.SaveAs("output.pdf");

// IronPDF: HTML rendering with Chromium engine
var renderer = new ChromePdfRenderer();
var pdf = renderer.RenderHtmlAsPdf("<h1>Title</h1><p>Content with CSS styling</p>");
pdf.SaveAs("output.pdf");

IRON VB CONVERTER ERROR developers@ironsoftware.com

API Style and Conventions

Apache PDFBox ports retain Java conventions:

// PDFBox: Java-style patterns
PDDocument document = PDDocument.load(new File(path));
PDFTextStripper stripper = new PDFTextStripper();
string text = stripper.getText(document);
document.close();  // Explicit close required

// PDFBox: Java-style patterns
PDDocument document = PDDocument.load(new File(path));
PDFTextStripper stripper = new PDFTextStripper();
string text = stripper.getText(document);
document.close();  // Explicit close required

IRON VB CONVERTER ERROR developers@ironsoftware.com

IronPDF uses idiomatic C#:

// IronPDF: .NET-style patterns
using var pdf = PdfDocument.FromFile(path);
string text = pdf.ExtractAllText();
// Automatic disposal with 'using'

// IronPDF: .NET-style patterns
using var pdf = PdfDocument.FromFile(path);
string text = pdf.ExtractAllText();
// Automatic disposal with 'using'

IRON VB CONVERTER ERROR developers@ironsoftware.com

Resource Management

Apache PDFBox ports require explicit close() calls following Java patterns:

// PDFBox: Manual close required
PDDocument document = null;
try
{
    document = PDDocument.load("input.pdf");
    // Operations
}
finally
{
    if (document != null)
        document.close();
}

// PDFBox: Manual close required
PDDocument document = null;
try
{
    document = PDDocument.load("input.pdf");
    // Operations
}
finally
{
    if (document != null)
        document.close();
}

IRON VB CONVERTER ERROR developers@ironsoftware.com

IronPDF implements IDisposable for standard .NET resource management:

// IronPDF: Standard .NET disposal
using var pdf = PdfDocument.FromFile("input.pdf");
// Automatic cleanup when scope ends

// IronPDF: Standard .NET disposal
using var pdf = PdfDocument.FromFile("input.pdf");
// Automatic cleanup when scope ends

IRON VB CONVERTER ERROR developers@ironsoftware.com

Apache PDFBox Strengths

• Proven Track Record: Longstanding history utilized by major organizations in Java
• Feature-Rich: Comprehensive features for PDF generation, manipulation, and extraction
• Comprehensive PDF Lifecycle Support: Supports creation, splitting, and merging
• Open Source: Apache 2.0 license

Apache PDFBox Considerations

• Unofficial .NET Ports: Lack official backing and may not align with latest Java releases
• Variable Quality: Community-driven ports have inconsistent quality and performance
• Limited .NET Community: Focus remains on Java with fewer .NET resources
• Complex API Usage: Java-first design paradigms feel cumbersome for .NET developers
• No HTML Rendering: Requires external libraries for HTML-to-PDF conversion

IronPDF Strengths

• Native .NET Design: Built from the ground up for .NET with seamless integration
• Dedicated Development: Continuous improvement and feature expansion
• Professional Support: Reliable support for enterprise applications
• HTML Rendering: Full Chromium-based HTML/CSS/JavaScript support
• Modern API: Straightforward API with minimal code requirements
• Extensive Resources: Comprehensive tutorials and documentation