This question is asked a lot. There is nothing better than iText for creating PDF files. Rendering PDF files is a more complex prospect. Maybe start with pdfrenderer . I used it before to print PDF files directly from Java with good results. It seems to offer a good display option.
The text part is more complicated, since PDF does not save text information as you think, because it is intended for display and printing, in contrast to the more “text” approach.
There's a brilliant book accompanying iText called iText In Action, which is full of good examples of how to do things with the library. I could start there to find out if he can do exactly what you want.