title: ClassNotFoundException: com.itextpdf.text.Element
body: <p><strong>Situation</strong>: I have a Java file in my project that uses the features of the iTextPDF library. The project compiles properly. I use JDK 1.7, Tomcat 7.45 and Eclipse Neon.3 Release (4.6.3).</p>
  
  <p><strong>Problem</strong>: While starting the server via Eclipse, I get an error:
  java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: com.itextpdf.text.Element</p>
  
  <p><strong>What I've tried so far:</strong></p>
  
  <ol>
  <li><p>Ensured that only 1 version of iTextPdf 5.4.jar is available in the entire project. It's there in WEB-INF/lib folder. It's not there in any of the externally referenced libraries.</p></li>
  <li><p>I updated my Eclipse.</p></li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>Any help will be greatly appreciated.</p>