Licensing Information - Open Source PDF Tools

Open Source

PDFlibrary is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 (AGPL-3.0). You are free to use, modify, and distribute PDFlibrary in your open-source projects.

Free to Use

Use PDFlibrary for free in open-source projects where you make your source code publicly available.

Modify & Distribute

Modify the source code and distribute your version, as long as you comply with AGPL-3.0 requirements.

Share Alike

Any modifications or derivative works must also be licensed under AGPL-3.0 and made publicly available.

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AGPL Requirements

When using PDFlibrary under AGPL-3.0, you must comply with the following requirements:

Producer Line & Copyright

You should mention our open-source and include AGPL license details in the PDF metadata. You should also retain the producer line in all PDFs created or modified using our open-source.

Code Modifications

Any modifications to our open-source must be disclosed under the AGPL. This includes sharing the modified code with any users interacting with it.

AGPL-Compliant Environments Only

Usage of our open-source tools must be limited to AGPL-compliant environments, where all AGPL requirements are fully respected.

Source Code Disclosure

You cannot deploy our open-source as part of a server-based application or service without disclosing your own application's full source code under AGPL to any users interacting with it.

What is AGPL-Compliant?

AGPL-Compliant

Open-source projects where you share your full source code publicly
Personal use where you're not distributing or hosting it as a service
Publicly hosted tools where you provide the complete source code (including modifications) under AGPL
Educational or research projects that make all code publicly available

NOT AGPL-Compliant

Proprietary/closed-source SaaS applications
Internal company tools where source code is not shared with users
Commercial products that don't disclose the full source code
Network services that don't provide source code access to users
Any application where you want to keep your source code private

Licensing FAQs

Yes! If you're using PDFlibrary on a public website, the AGPLv3 requires you to provide your source code to your users.

If you modify PDFlibrary and deploy it as a network service (e.g., a web application), you must make your modified source code available publicly under AGPL-3.0.

Licensing for PDFlibrary