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