Google has launched PDFium, an open source project designed to replace Adobe’s proprietary tools for dealing with PDF files. Much of the code currently in the project was written by Fox-It software, which said it plans to continue working on PDFium. Because the project is open source, it will open up new possibilities for developers who want to incorporate PDF capabilities into their applications and Web apps.
Google also plans to incorporate PDFium into its Chromium browser. “This is great for a lot of reasons,” blogged Peter Kasting, senior software engineer for Chrome’s user interface team. “It reduces the number of closed pieces of Chrome, and thus the surface area for which people can be suspicious that we’re doing something shady.”