lopdf vs pdfium in Rust — What I Learned Building a PDF App

All tests run on an 8-year-old MacBook Air. All results from shipping 7 Mac apps as a solo developer. No sponsored opinion.

I built Hiyoko PDF Vault — a macOS PDF tool — in Rust. Choosing the right PDF library was the first real decision. lopdf or pdfium. Here's what I found.

lopdf: pure Rust, no dependencies

lopdf is pure Rust. No C bindings, no system libraries, no bundling headaches.

What it does well:

lopdf vs pdfium in Rust — What I Learned Building a PDF App

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