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I'm looking for a PDF Viewer Library for Android without GPL License, does anybody have an idea if there's any available free-license library for that one?

Because I've been roaming around, and found some open source libraries such as MuPDF, Android PDF Viewer, DroidReader are using GPL License, which I cannot use for a commercial App I'm about to develop.

And no, I also don't want to use the google docs option ;-)

hectichavana
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  • http://stackoverflow.com/q/10299839/1289716 – MAC Jun 14 '12 at 10:19
  • Which one have curl/flip effect?! – Dr.jacky Jun 11 '15 at 07:40
  • I do not find this question off topic. If only questions about pure source code were allowed, with no external libraries being used, we would be still at programming stone age. – Yar Dec 07 '15 at 17:03
  • PSPDFKit for Android is a commercial, complete PDF solution for Android. Comes with a ready-to-use Activity or Fragment and is compatible with almost all devices. https://pspdfkit.com/pdf-sdk/android/ – steipete Oct 20 '18 at 06:50

4 Answers4

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MuPDF is GPL-ed, yes.

Using GPL-ed thirdparty components in your software doesn't prohibit its commercial usage (it just requires you release the source code of your software). So... your problem isn't the GPL per se, it's that you aren't willing to release your source code, right?

But... Artifex (the company behind MuPDF, Ghostscript, GhostXPS and GhostPCL) is willing to give you a license for MuPDF (as well as for its other products) for commercial use, which then doesn't require source code publishing of your stuff.

Kurt Pfeifle
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  • How can MuPDF be GPL'd, yet the company can offer a non-GPL'd version for commercial use? – LarsH Oct 29 '15 at 16:21
  • Artifex is not the only company which *[dual-licenses](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-licensing)* its software.... – Kurt Pfeifle Oct 29 '15 at 21:47
  • You're quite right, companies do it -- it's a recognized business model. It just seems paradoxical to me, and counter to the intent of the GPL. But maybe I'm missing something. – LarsH Oct 31 '15 at 02:31
  • I guess the key point I was missing is that since Artifex is the copyright holder, they're not themselves bound by the terms of the GPL. So they're free to offer a non-GPL version as well. By contrast, a downstream GPL-licensee of MuPDF could not offer a dual license. – LarsH Nov 03 '15 at 14:47
  • Unfortunately they are insanely expensive, you can buy a good brand new BMW for the price of a license. – Lothar Jan 13 '17 at 19:36
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http://www.pdftron.com/pdfnet/index.html this is a complete PDF toolkit (commercial)

David
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You can buy a commercial license for MuPDF.

Contact sales@artifex.com, according to their web page (I am not affiliated with them in any way). Since DroidReader uses their libs I guess their reader is pretty decent.

seumasmac
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I've found a good solution to our company needs (we adopted Radaee PDF) we started our evaluation and scouting here: I think is one of the most complete here around.

Community
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Ant Picci
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  • I don't get it! Should i buy license or it's free?! – Dr.jacky Jun 11 '15 at 07:32
  • @Ant Picci. Hello mate have you worked with Radaee PDF. So, did you paid for the license or is it for free. If you haven't paid, how did you resolve the issue of his name appearing on each page ? – B.rohit Nare Mar 24 '16 at 07:21
  • To remove Radaee PDF watermark You must register Your library and pass credentials in Radaee library in `Global.java`. We are using paid version in standard plan. – deadfish Jun 11 '17 at 21:21