PDFium

Spec sheet

Purpose

PDFium is a C++ implementation of the PDF specification that can parse PDF content and render pages.Read 4 Oct 2026 · pdfium.googlesource.com

License

The repository license grants perpetual, worldwide, no-charge, royalty-free rights to use, reproduce, modify, and distribute the work subject to its terms.Read 4 Oct 2026 · pdfium.googlesource.com

API stability limit

Only headers under public/ are intended for embedders; code outside that directory may change at any time and should not be called directly.Read 4 Oct 2026 · pdfium.googlesource.com

Architecture limit

The project says some code may not work properly on big-endian architectures and that supporting them is not currently a priority.Read 4 Oct 2026 · pdfium.googlesource.com

Build tools

PDFium uses Chromium's build tooling, with GN generating build files and Ninja executing them.Read 4 Oct 2026 · pdfium.googlesource.com

Compiler support

PDFium currently supports Clang, allows community-contributed GCC patches, and does not accept MSVC patches.Read 4 Oct 2026 · pdfium.googlesource.com

Document features

The core document logic includes bookmarks, annotations, interactive AcroForms, and links.Read 4 Oct 2026 · pdfium.googlesource.com

Embedding

The public directory contains API headers intended for use by applications embedding PDFium, and the project aims to keep those APIs stable.Read 4 Oct 2026 · pdfium.googlesource.com

JavaScript and XFA

Builds enable JavaScript and XFA form support by default; either can be disabled, and XFA requires JavaScript.Read 4 Oct 2026 · pdfium.googlesource.com

Platforms and architectures

The project documents builds for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android; default CPU targets are x64 on Windows, Linux, and Mac, and arm for Android.Read 4 Oct 2026 · pdfium.googlesource.com

Security reporting

The project directs security bug reports to Google Bug Hunters and lets project members and embedders use Chromium's security bug template.Read 4 Oct 2026 · pdfium.googlesource.com

Support and community

The project lists PDFium, PDFium Reviews, and PDFium Bugs mailing lists; the reviews and bugs lists are typically read-only.Read 4 Oct 2026 · pdfium.googlesource.com

Test utility

The standalone pdfium_test utility can read, parse, and rasterize PDF pages into PPM or PNG images.Read 4 Oct 2026 · pdfium.googlesource.com

Text tools

PDFium's text module supports extracting text, identifying reading order, and searching within a page.Read 4 Oct 2026 · pdfium.googlesource.com

Plans and prices

Every PDFium plan and price →

Where Specifiction places it

• PDF SDKs#19 of 317.8