---
id: pypdf3
version: "1.0.6"
license: unclear
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: abandoned
---

# PyPDF3 — Pure Python PDF toolkit

License: permissive · Maintenance: abandoned · Downloads: 75.6K/mo

## What it is and what it does

PyPDF3 is a pure-Python PDF manipulation library that lets you read, split, merge, crop, and encrypt PDF files without installing system libraries or external tools. It works entirely in memory using StringIO objects, making it suitable for web applications that need to generate or modify PDFs on the fly.

The package has been abandoned since February 2022 and its repository is now archived. While it carries a Production/Stable classifier and has no known security vulnerabilities, the lack of maintenance means it will not receive bug fixes, security patches, or updates for modern PDF specifications. It remains functional for basic PDF operations on older or simpler documents, but newer projects should evaluate actively maintained alternatives.

Use it for:

- Extract metadata (title, author) from PDF files in a web service without external dependencies
- Split multi-page PDFs into individual pages or merge pages from multiple documents
- Encrypt or decrypt PDF files programmatically in memory for secure document handling
- Crop or resize PDF pages before serving them to users in a web application
- Generate simple PDF reports by combining pages from template documents

## Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts above — verify before relying.

PyPDF3 is a pure-Python PDF toolkit for extracting document information, splitting and merging pages, cropping, and encrypting or decrypting PDF files without external dependencies.

No, unless you have legacy code already using PyPDF3 or a specific constraint preventing use of maintained alternatives. The package is abandoned, unmaintained since 2022, and its repository is archived. While it has no known vulnerabilities and works for basic tasks, the lack of ongoing support means no fixes for edge cases, modern PDF formats, or Python version incompatibilities. Evaluate actively maintained PDF libraries instead.

## Install

pip install pypdf3
uv add pypdf3
poetry add pypdf3

## Installing PyPDF3

Before you install: High install friction due to source distribution. Package is abandoned as of 2022-02-03 with no maintenance since then; the repository is archived. Use only if no active alternative exists.

License in practice: BSD License (permissive) allows commercial and private use with minimal restrictions, though the abandoned status means no ongoing legal or security updates.

Quickstart:

pip install PyPDF3==1.0.6

from PyPDF3 import PdfFileReader, PdfFileWriter

with open('input.pdf', 'rb') as f:
    reader = PdfFileReader(f)
    writer = PdfFileWriter()
    writer.addPage(reader.getPage(0))
    with open('output.pdf', 'wb') as out:
        writer.write(out)

No external dependencies, but package is unmaintained since 2022; test thoroughly with your target PDF files before production use.

Verify before relying:

- Whether PyPDF3 handles modern PDF specifications and edge cases reliably given its abandoned status since 2022
- Known compatibility issues or regressions with recent Python versions beyond the unspecified support declaration
- Whether in-memory StringIO manipulation still works as intended or has bitrotted

## Package facts

- License: not declared (permissive)
- Python support: unspecified
- Install friction: high
- Maintenance: abandoned
- Downloads: 75.6K/month (top 15,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

pdf manipulation python, extract pdf text and metadata, merge split pdf pages, encrypt decrypt pdf, pdf toolkit pure python, in-memory pdf processing, crop pdf pages, abandoned, pdf-processing, pure-python

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