To use the latest release you'll need to add the following dependency:
<dependency>
<groupId>org.apache.pdfbox</groupId>
<artifactId>pdfbox</artifactId>
<version>3.0.0</version>
</dependency>
Important notice when using PDFBox with Java 8 before 1.8.0_191 or Java 9 before 9.0.4
Due to the change of the java color management module towards "LittleCMS", users can experience slow performance in color operations. A solution is to disable LittleCMS in favor of the old KCMS (Kodak Color Management System) by:
-Dsun.java2d.cmm=sun.java2d.cmm.kcms.KcmsServiceProvider
orSystem.setProperty("sun.java2d.cmm", "sun.java2d.cmm.kcms.KcmsServiceProvider")
Sources: https://bugs.openjdk.java.net/browse/JDK-8041125
Since PDFBox 2.0.4
PDFBox 2.0.4 introduced a new command line setting
-Dorg.apache.pdfbox.rendering.UsePureJavaCMYKConversion=true
which may improve the performance of rendering PDFs on some systems especially if there are a lot of images on a page.