iText Summit 2014: Keynote talk

iText Group

iText, open source PDF library

Java

C#

Fighting the FUD

Open source: not a trivial choice In 2000, large corporations were responsible for a number of misconceptions about open source: • Open source isn’t well documented • Open source implies legal issues • Open source isn’t future-proof

Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt

DOCUMENTATION

Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them. (Lemony Snicket)

“in Action” Books

1st Edition: 2006 • 11.500 copies

2nd Edition: 2010 • 8.000 copies

“LeanPub” Books

Future titles: • Create your PDFs with iText • Update your PDFs with iText • Sign your PDFs with iText

LEGAL ASPECTS

Free software without a license is like free sex without a condom (open source, software hygiene and STDs)

Intellectual Property

White zone

Gray zone

Black zone

2000-2005: • “organic” growth of the code 2006-2007: • IP review with IBM

• Inventory of white zone • Clarify gray zone

• Contributor OK? • License compatible?

• Remove black zone • Delete • Refactor

Detailed IP Documentation

CLA

Business Model Basics “dual licensing”

Suppose that iText was an engine and the application using iText was a car or a bus:

License: MPL / LGPL GPL AGPL

Car distribution (e.g. OEM)

Commercial use? OK for gratis commercial use Commercial license needed Commercial license needed

Bus service (e.g. SaaS)

Commercial use? OK for gratis commercial use OK for gratis commercial use Commercial license needed

Free/Proprietary Before iText 5: Improvements engine: LGPL

Car or bus: can be proprietary

Car: must be GPL

Bus: can be proprietary

Since iText 5: Car or bus: must be AGPL

Or: buy commercial license

Good engineers build great technology

Great engineers also create a sustainable business model

BUSINESS

Visitors 2013 — Google Analytics

Heat Map 2013 — Google Analytics

Our brand — Google Trends

Reputation — StackOverflow

Our Users Our

Stars

MONITIZATION

First 5 years in business

• Jan 2008: – IP company (1T3XT BVBA)

• Jan 2009: first two sales (iText Software LLC)

• Feb 2009: – incorporated in the US (iText Software Corp.) – sales people on commission

• Dec 2009: License change MPL/LGPL to AGPL

• Oct 2010: Bruno quits his dayjob

• 2011: – operational company in BE (iText Software BVBA) – first employees on payroll

• 2013: – Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500: #53 in EMEA, #10 in Benelux, #3 in Belgium – US: sales people on payroll – Change company structure, change 1T3XT BVBA into iText Group NV, install board of directors

Sales: countries

Customers: IT Vendors / Integrators

Customers: Government sector

Customers: Financial/insurance sector

And many others

Health care:

Fortune 500:

Manifacturers:

Technical Roadmap

Technical Road Map 2012

• Mobile versus Cloud – Android version – Google App Engine (GAE) Version

• Digital Signatures – Update to new specs – Documentation

• XML Worker / XFA Worker – Generic XML to PDF engine – Test with HTML, target XFA


• Creating Tagged PDF – From high-level objects – From XFA Worker

• Focus on standards – Rewriting the PDF/A functionality – Introducing PDF/UA support

• PAdES 5 – XML-DSig + XAdES


• Major upgrade for RUPS

• XFA Worker: Enterprise-grade solution

• Standards: – PDF 2.0 and PDF/UA

– PDF/A-2, PDF/A-3, ZUGFeRD

• Fonts – Support for ligatures


• Unstructured PDF

– Add structure!

• Writing a book = making an inventory of iText

– Add missing functionality: PDF 2.0-ready

– Cleaning up the API: iText 6?

• GIS? SVG? 3D? Our

Customers Our

Stars

AT A CROSSROAD: 2014

Company Structure

Shareholders: - Ingeborg Willaert (50%) - Bruno Lowagie (50%)

iText Group NV

°2008 Belgium IP, TM, Development

Marketing

iText Software BVBA

°2011 Belgium

Sales EMEA/Asia

iText Software Corp.

°2009 USA (CA/MA)

Sales Americas/Oceania

Board of Directors: - Peter Camps (chairman) - Ingeborg Willaert - Bruno Lowagie - Andrew Binstock - TBD

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them. (Henry David Thoreau)

Personally I’m always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught. (Winston Churchill)

A process cannot be understood by stopping it. Understanding must move with the flow of the process, must join it and flow with it. (Frank Herbert, Dune)

Men who are doers can also be thinkers, but the thinking is done on the move, in the midst of events. (Colleen McCullough, The October Horse)

There are people that fish, and those who just disturb the water. (Chinese proverb)

Do or do not... There is no try (Yoda)

There’s more!

• Technical Tracks:

• iText for Archiving and Accessibility • PDF and Testing

• Customer Tracks: • Templates for PDF

• Carpass • CSC — Ministry of Justice

• PDF and Workflow • Inventive Designers • Trust1Team

• Unstructured documents

Contact info

EMEA, Asia

Kerkstraat 108 9050 Gentbrugge

BELGIUM

T: +32 92 98 02 31 F: +32 92 70 33 75

E: [email protected]

Americas, Oceania

1 Broadway, 14th floor Cambridge, MA 02142

USA

T: +1 617 982 2646 F: +1 617 982 2647

E: [email protected]

iText Headquarters

Adolf Baeyensstraat 121 9040 Sint-Amandsberg

BELGIUM