iText

What is iText

iText is an ideal library for developers looking to enhance web- and other applications with dynamic PDF document generation and/or manipulation. iText is not an end-user tool. Typically you won't use it on your Desktop as you would use Acrobat or any other PDF application. Rather, you'll build iText into your own applications so that you can automate the PDF creation and manipulation process. For instance in one or more of the following situations:
* Due to time or size, the PDF documents can't be produced manually.
* The content of the document must be calculated or based on user input.
* The content needs to be customized or personalized.
* The PDF content needs to be served in a web environment.
* Documents are to be created in "batch process" mode.

You can use iText to

* Serve PDF to a browser
* Generate dynamic documents from XML files or databases
* Use PDF's many interactive features
* Add bookmarks, page numbers, watermarks, etc.
* Split, concatenate, and manipulate PDF pages
* Automate filling out of PDF forms
* Add digital signatures to a PDF file
* And much more...In short: the iText classes are very useful for people who need to generate read-only, platform independent documents containing text, lists, tables and images; or who want to perform specific manipulations on existing PDF documents. The library is especially useful in combination with Java(TM) technology-based Servlets; there's also a .NET port available: iTextSharp (written in C#).iText requires JDK 1.4. It's available for free under a multiple license: MPL and LGPL.
iText is the core of birt and jasper reporting tools

When to Choose between iText and tools?

using tools always hides some of the core that's a trade-off but if:
* your reports are straight forward
* your reports are boiler-plated
* performance is not an issue(it is always an issue)
* Exporting to excel is a must
then use tools.., but if:
* performance is an issue
* your reports are so complicated
* you need acroform support
iText is the only way
iText also helps adding barcode to your PDF's, maybe an MP3 file!!!