The global community driving PDF forward

The PDF Association is the global standards development organization for PDF technology.

It develops and publishes its own consensus-based specifications, technical notes, application notes, and best-practice guides. The PDF Association, Inc, the US-based affiliate of the Berlin-based PDF Association, serves on behalf of ANSI as the secretariat administrator for ISO TC 171 SC 2 (on behalf of ANSI) and actively maintains a list of PDF-related ISO activities.

With headquarters across 27 countries, PDF Association members span stakeholder and liaison groups, academic and government institutions, individuals, and commercial and open-source developers. With 21 active communities spanning a wide range of interest areas, any member can raise their own topics and engage to reach consensus.

ISO TC 171 SC 2 is responsible for most PDF standardization activities, including the core PDF specification and its subsets and extensions; PDF/A, PDF/UA, 3D PDF, and, more recently, PDF/X. With 21 participating countries and 13 observing countries spanning Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and North and South America, support for diverse writing systems, a wide range of applications, and culturally diverse stakeholders is well represented.

ISO TC 130 covers graphic arts standards, including specialized standards for the use of PDF in the commercial printing industry. TC 130 has 22 participating countries and 22 observing countries, further extending the reach of nations interested in PDF.

In ISO, P (participating) members are national bodies that have voting rights. P members have the opportunity to actively participate in developing ISO standards for PDF to ensure they meet global needs. O (observing) members do not have voting rights but are kept informed about the ISO committee’s work, but do not actively participate in standards development.

The map below illustrates the global reach of participants in the PDF standards ecosystem. The visualization weights ISO participation and observation in either (or both) ISO TC 171 SC 2 and ISO TC 130, as well as PDF Association member headquarters countries.

Data driving the above SVG: