Compare the pros and cons of using HTML5 versus an applet to display / view PDF documents online, in the browser:
| HTML5 PDF Viewer | HTML5 PDF Markup Module | Applet PDF Viewer | |
| Client Installation | No client installation needed “zero footprint” HTML-based |
No client installation needed “zero footprint” HTML and JavaScript |
Java plugin needed (comes installed on most browsers) and a signing certificate |
| Server Installation | Needs J2EE server | Easy Installation of PDF Automation Server | No server side needed other than receiving or sending PDF files |
| Operating System Supported | Windows, Mac OSX, Linux / Unix, Android, IOS, any browser supporting HTML5 | Windows, Mac OSX, Linux / Unix, Android, IOS, any browser supporting HTML5 | Windows, Mac OS X, Linux / Unix, any java supported platform |
| PDF Support | Renders SVG which were converted from PDFs on the server | Renders SVG which were converted from PDFs on the server | Renders PDFs directly on the client side |
| Qoppa PDF Support | View PDFs only | View and Annotate PDFs (and more to come in the next few months…) | View, Annotate, Fill Forms, Digitally Sign, Edit Content, Redact, Assembly and Other Manipulation |
| Qoppa Live Demo | HTML5 PDF Viewer Live Demo | HTML PDF Markup Module Demo | jPDFEditor (Applet) Live Demo |
| Qoppa Product | Based on jPDFWeb PDF to SVG Conversion Library | Packaged with PDF Automation Server | Based on jPDFEditor Swing Component |
