The modern standard. Use for all new development for better performance and PDF/A support.
To stop developers from accidentally using these unofficial and potentially infringing forks, the original iText team reclaimed the com.lowagie group ID and released version 4.2.2 as a redirect to iText 5.5.6 . download jar itext 4.2.2
If your build is failing because it cannot find this JAR, you should switch to one of the following official versions depending on your licensing needs: Recommended Action Use if you must stick to the old, more permissive license. iText 5.x The modern standard
A popular open-source fork of iText 2.1.7 for those who need a free-to-use alternative. How to Fix Your Build If your build is failing because it cannot
Use the OpenPDF project on GitHub as a drop-in replacement for the old iText 2.x/4.x logic.
The version string exists primarily as a "meta-artifact" or a POM-only release in the Maven Central Repository . Here is why:
If your pom.xml currently lists com.lowagie:itext:4.2.2 , you can resolve the "Missing artifact" error by updating your dependency to a version that actually contains a JAR: Replace version 4.2.2 with 2.1.7 .