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# To go beyond the goals of [[Xpdf]], and integrate with functionality provided by modern [[operating system]]s
# To go beyond the goals of [[Xpdf]], and integrate with functionality provided by modern [[operating system]]s


As of the version 0.18 release in 2011, the poppler library represents a complete implementation of [[International Organization for Standardization|ISO]] 32000-1, the PDF format standard, and is the first major free PDF library to support its forms (only [[Acroforms]] but not full [[XFA]] forms<ref name="bug18935">{{citation |url=https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=18935 |title=Bug 18935 - Form data is not saved for PDF files using XFA forms, will show old values when opened in acroread / Adobe Reader |date=2008-12-07}}</ref><ref>{{citation |url=https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/poppler/+bug/321720 |title=PDF v1.7 asks to upgrade Adobe Reader |date=2009-01-27}}</ref>) and annotations features.<ref name="fsf-mission-complete">{{cite web |url= http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/gnu-pdf-project-leaves-high-priority-projects-list-mission-complete |title= GNU PDF project leaves FSF High Priority Projects list; mission complete! |date= October 6, 2011| accessdate= 2011-10-11 }}</ref>
As of the version 0.18 release in 2011, the poppler library represents a complete implementation of [[ISO 32000-1]], the PDF format standard, and is the first major free PDF library to support its forms (only [[Acroforms]] but not full [[XFA]] forms<ref name="bug18935">{{citation |url=https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=18935 |title=Bug 18935 - Form data is not saved for PDF files using XFA forms, will show old values when opened in acroread / Adobe Reader |date=2008-12-07}}</ref><ref>{{citation |url=https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/poppler/+bug/321720 |title=PDF v1.7 asks to upgrade Adobe Reader |date=2009-01-27}}</ref>) and annotations features.<ref name="fsf-mission-complete">{{cite web |url= http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/gnu-pdf-project-leaves-high-priority-projects-list-mission-complete |title= GNU PDF project leaves FSF High Priority Projects list; mission complete! |date= October 6, 2011| accessdate= 2011-10-11 }}</ref>


Poppler itself is a [[fork (software development)|fork]] of [[Xpdf]]-3.0, a PDF viewer developed by Derek Noonburg of Glyph and Cog, LLC.<ref name="README"/><ref name="Homepage" />
Poppler itself is a [[fork (software development)|fork]] of [[Xpdf]]-3.0, a PDF viewer developed by Derek Noonburg of Glyph and Cog, LLC.<ref name="README"/><ref name="Homepage" />

Revision as of 17:12, 1 May 2014

Poppler
Developer(s)freedesktop.org
Initial releaseMarch 4, 2005; 19 years ago (2005-03-04)[nb 1]
Stable release
0.24.5 / January 2, 2014; 10 years ago (2014-01-02)[2]
Preview release
0.25.1 / January 2, 2014; 10 years ago (2014-01-02)[2]
Repository
Written inC++
Operating systemLinux, Unix, BSD, Windows
TypeLibrary
LicenseGPLv2 or GPLv3
Websitepoppler.freedesktop.org

In computing, Poppler (or libpoppler) is a free software library used to render PDF documents. Its development is supported by freedesktop.org. It is the most common such library on GNU/Linux systems,[3] and is used by the PDF viewers of the open source GNOME and KDE desktop environments.

The project was started by Kristian Høgsberg with two goals in mind:[4]

  1. To provide PDF rendering functionality as a shared library, in order to centralize maintenance effort
  2. To go beyond the goals of Xpdf, and integrate with functionality provided by modern operating systems

As of the version 0.18 release in 2011, the poppler library represents a complete implementation of ISO 32000-1, the PDF format standard, and is the first major free PDF library to support its forms (only Acroforms but not full XFA forms[5][6]) and annotations features.[3]

Poppler itself is a fork of Xpdf-3.0, a PDF viewer developed by Derek Noonburg of Glyph and Cog, LLC.[4][2]

The name "Poppler" comes from the animated series Futurama episode "The Problem with Popplers".[2]

PDF applications using Poppler

A number of free software applications use Poppler to render PDF documents[7]

Application Graphical Toolkit
Evince GTK+
qpdfview Qt
KPDF Qt
LibreOffice 4.2 GTK+[8]
Inkscape GTK+
Okular Qt
pdftotext, pdftohtml, etc. none
TeXworks Qt
Xournal GTK+

Features

Poppler can use two back-ends for drawing PDF documents, Cairo and Splash. Its features may depend on which back-end it employs. A third back-end based on Qt4's painting framework "Arthur", is available, but is incomplete and no longer under active development.[9] Bindings exist for Glib, Qt3, and Qt4, that provide interfaces to the Poppler backends, although the Qt3 and Qt4 bindings support only the Splash backend. There is a patchset available to add support for the Cairo backend to the Qt4 bindings,[10] but the Poppler project does not currently wish to integrate the feature into the library proper.[11]

Some characteristics of the back-ends include:

Poppler comes with a text-rendering back-end as well, which can be invoked from the command line utility pdftotext. It is useful for searching for strings in PDFs from the command line, using the utility grep, for instance.[12]

Example: 

pdftotext file.pdf - | grep string

Poppler parially supports interactive documents using JavaScript,[13] annotations, and Acroforms. It does not support rendering of full XFA forms.[5]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ This file-modification date appears on the version 0.1.1 tarball, the "first real release", according to Poppler's release history.[1]

References

  1. ^ "Poppler Releases". Retrieved 2013-12-30.
  2. ^ a b c d "Poppler Homepage". Retrieved 2014-01-03.
  3. ^ a b "GNU PDF project leaves FSF High Priority Projects list; mission complete!". October 6, 2011. Retrieved 2011-10-11.
  4. ^ a b "Poppler README file". Retrieved 2010-01-21.
  5. ^ a b Bug 18935 - Form data is not saved for PDF files using XFA forms, will show old values when opened in acroread / Adobe Reader, 2008-12-07
  6. ^ PDF v1.7 asks to upgrade Adobe Reader, 2009-01-27
  7. ^ a b c "Poppler Wiki. Information about Poppler". Retrieved 2010-01-21.
  8. ^ https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/ReleaseNotes/4.2
  9. ^ Re: [poppler] Qt4 Arthur
  10. ^ giddie/poppler-qt4-cairo-backend · GitHub
  11. ^ Bug 25240 – Cairo backend for Qt4 wrapper
  12. ^ "Searching PDF Files With grep". Retrieved 2010-01-21.
  13. ^ "Poppler PDF library learns Javascript". September 12, 2008. Retrieved 2010-01-21.
  • Albert Astals Cid (29 August 2005) The Poppler Library, presentation at the 2005 KDE conference
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