Delivering stability in an uncertain world
The PDF Association looks back at industry activities, events and accomplishments in 2024.
Contents
In 2024, 31 years after its introduction, PDF remains uncontested as the global digital document format for final-form content, and as an essential complement to the HTML/CSS experience that underpins the web.
As we report in another post, in 2024, PDF’s popularity as a search term (even relative to the most popular search terms worldwide) continues to grow.
As PDF grows, so too does the PDF Association. The home of PDF’s technical community, we serve PDF’s worldwide stakeholders with a vendor-neutral platform for the development of specifications, standards, best-practices, test-suites and other resources supporting PDF developers, policy-makers and users.
Looking back on 2024
2023 was an active year for the PDF Association, especially given the launch of no-cost PDF 2.0. 2024 has seemed, if anything, busier, with hundreds of TWG and LWG meetings, over a dozen projects completed and more resources published. Here are the highlights from projects that matured this year.
Specifications & standards
Well-Tagged PDF (WTPDF)
The PDF Reuse TWG published Well-Tagged PDF (WTPDF) providing much needed file format guidance on tagging content and annotations in PDF files for general reuse, including accessibility. This document was also published by ISO as ISO 14289-2 (PDF/UA-2), with identical provisions regarding accessibility.
ISO 14289 at no cost!
Following the finalization and publication of ISO 14289-2, the PDF Association initiated a sponsorship program to make the ISO standards for accessible PDF available at no cost. We are grateful to the sponsors: Allyant, axes4, CDP Communications and TargetStream Technologies, for making it possible for anyone to download PDF/UA-1, PDF/UA-2 or ISO TS 32005. To aid in understanding and adoption the PDF Reuse and PDF/UA TWGs developed a Q & A about Tagged PDF to explain the relationship between ISO 14289-1 and ISO 14289-2.
More ISO publications
ISO published ISO TS 32007, specifying how to extend PDF 2.0 by adding support for ISO/IEC 12113 (glTF) as an available format for 3D artworks contained in a RichMedia annotation.
PDF errata
The public pdf-issues GitHub repo continues to collect errata on ISO 32000-2 for resolution by the PDF TWG. Thus far, over 500 issues have been opened and 365 resolved since the repo’s launch in early 2021. Issues related to PDF/A-4 and PDF/X-6 are now passed to respective ISO WGs for consideration in the upcoming dated revisions of those important standards.
As the PDF Issues repo is available to the public, and not only PDF Association members, we thank everyone in the broader PDF community for their interest in improving PDF’s specification!
New industry resources
PDF Cheat Sheets
In 2023 we launched the first edition of CTO Peter Wyatt’s PDF Cheat Sheets to help developers to work more efficiently while ensuring that their information is technically correct and up-to-date. These were well-received, so in 2024 we published a second edition of the PDF Cheat Sheets, with new subjects added (e.g., Tagged PDF and MathML in PDF). Cheat sheets in the second edition also conform to PDF/UA-1.
PDF Forensics LWG
The Board created this new Liaison Working Group (LWG) at the request of forensics professionals who are increasingly called-on to provide authoritative analysis of PDF files in civil, criminal and other legal settings. The group will produce vendor-neutral guidance information to help drive a common understanding of relevant aspects of PDF technology in a forensic context.
Understanding Private Data in PDF/A
The PDF/A Technical Working Group (TWG) developed this Application Note to provide reference information on private data in PDF files. In addition to the history of private data in PDF, this document also provides an extensive Q&A and specific examples.
Use of standard Print Product Metadata (PPM) with PDF
The Print Product Metadata Liaison Working Group (LWG) published an Application Note providing a technical introduction and discussing the use of ISO 21812-1.
PDF Association news
Membership Benefits Manager
Melina Tusch has joined the team to help ensure that PDF Association members have the opportunity to obtain all the various benefits of their membership. Based in Berlin, Melina is looking forward to helping you understand the opportunities and access all available resources.
Division membership
We recently introduced a new type of PDF Association membership designed for those who do not develop or sell commercial products that include PDF technology but nonetheless wish to engage with PDF’s technical community.
Archiving & Accessibility publications
Two new resource pages, one for archiving, the other for accessibility, gather together ISO standards, industry publications, articles, presentations and posted resources for each of these subject areas.
Restarted the PDF/UA Marketing Working Group
The PDF/UA Marketing Working Group (MWG) was relaunched with Zak Kinsey as its new chair. The reconstituted group will focus on vendor-neutral ways in which the industry can promote awareness and adoption of ISO 14289 as a means of achieving tagged and accessible PDF.
Sponsored ISO 32000-2 surpasses 7,000 downloads
We are grateful to the sponsors: Adobe, Apryse and Foxit, for making it possible for anyone to obtain ISO 32000-2 and several ISO-standardized Extensions at no cost! After initiating this program back in April of 2023, as of December 2024 we’ve distributed over 7,000 copies of the latest specification of PDF to developers and other stakeholders worldwide.
PDF Week events in 2024
Tokyo
In May, PDF Association members and ISO working group experts met in Tokyo in Chiyoda City, adjacent to Japan's Imperial Palace, to further ISO business on PDF standards, As usual, in addition to hosting meetings of ISO's TC 171 SC 2, the PDF Association's technical and liaison working groups held their own working sessions.
Prague
The second PDF Week of 2024 was held in a very special city in the heart of Europe. Thanks to Board of Directors member Roman Toda, the PDF Association was able to meet at facilities provided by Charles University, just steps from the famous Charles Bridge. Beyond the work, part of the purpose of PDF Week is to create opportunities for networking and relationship building, and PDF Week Prague 2024 was especially successful in this regard, even if the work-space was a little cramped!!
What’s coming in 2025?
Techniques for Accessible PDF
The long-awaited release of the PDF Accessibility LWG’s project to create a comprehensive set of techniques for accessible PDF is almost here! The first tranche will focus on fundamentals – characteristics required of all PDF files, irrespective of content. Additional techniques addressing various use cases, such as lists, tables and headings, will be released on a quarterly basis.
Email Archiving in PDF
In late 2024 the EA-PDF LWG finalized its new specification for the use of PDF as a means of archiving email data. This document is now in the final stages of the publication process, with publication expected in February 2025.
PDF Accessibility APIs Mapping (PDF-AAM)
The PDF/UA Processor LWG is now working with W3C’s Accessible Rich Internet Applications Working Group to develop an authoritative mapping from PDF’s semantic structures to modern accessibility APIs. The PDF-AAM project was launched in November, 2024; we look forward to achieving at least a public draft in 2025.
Updated and new ISO standards
Several ISO standards for PDF technology, including PDF/A-4, PDF/X-6 and ISO TS 32005, are in the revision process. New PDF 2.0 extensions are on the way.
PDF Week Boston 2025
As in 2024, the PDF Association will hold two “PDF Week” events next year in which we integrate in-person Technical and Liaison Working Groups meetings with meetings of ISO TC 171 SC 2. The first PDF Week of 2025, scheduled for April 28-May 2 2025, will be held in Concord, Massachusetts. The exact location of the fall PDF Week will be announced soon.
PDF Days returns in 2025!
We aren’t ready to share any details, but our members have demanded it, so we’re going to deliver. Our traditional PDF Days event will be held in Germany in late 2025, and will again offer educational presentations from subject-matter experts, and providing an unmatched opportunity to meet and learn from PDF experts and vendors in an intensive, collegial setting.
Conclusion
As PDF technology moves into its 4th (!) decade it continues evolving to meet the changing needs of a wide and varied marketplace. The PDF Association welcomes developers and other PDF stakeholders to join our Technical and Liaison communities, whether to listen, to ask, to suggest, or to help.
As members who attended the All Member Meeting in September already know, 2025 will also bring an increase in membership fees. We’ve kept these fees unchanged since 2020, but can no longer delay the inevitable adjustment for inflation. We know that our efforts, as an organization, are appreciated; we trust that our members will understand.
A community of shared interests is how PDF keeps getting better.