PDF is all around us and successfully drives many processes. But there are many circumstances when using a commercial software is not an option – for many possible reasons.
What can be done in such situations? There seems to be one simple answer for these situations: just use open source!
But those that had to use open source solutions know, that it is not as simple as just selecting an open source library and everything will go well. There is a lot to consider: Is the tool or library actually able to fulfill my requirements? How healthy is the community and therefore how likely will I find help? Does the licensing allow the use of the tool? There are a lot of similar questions.
This presentation aims at providing an overview of proven open source libraries and tools and their limitations to help finding the right tooling – or to explicitly decide against open source in favor of commercial products, if required for the use-case.
The goal is not to promote open source in all situations, but to help people find a viable tooling when they are forced to use something “free”. And if no open source solution is able to fulfill project requirements, to provide some arguments that help establishing a commercial solution.