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The PDF Association celebrates its members’ public statements
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for ISO-standardized PDF technology.

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Twenty Years of Trust: Celebrating the 20th Anniversary of PDF/A-1

November 2025 by PDF Association staff

This month the PDF industry is celebrating the 20th anniversary of PDF/A-1 (ISO 19005-1:2005), the publication of which revolutionized digital preservation.

Before this standard, archiving suffered from dependency issues. PDF/A-1, based on a constrained subset of PDF 1.4, mandated self-contained, device-independent documents. These rules ensure that a PDF/A document’s appearance can be reliably maintained over centuries, regardless of viewing software.

Rapidly adopted globally, the principles established in PDF/A-1 persist in later standards like PDF/A-4, which is based on PDF 2.0, the latest ISO standard for PDF.

Happy 20th, PDF/A! We (ok, not us personally) fully expect to be celebrating your 200th anniversary in November 2225!

This month the PDF industry is celebrating the 20th anniversary of PDF/A-1 (ISO 19005-1:2005), the publication of which revolutionized digital preservation.

Before this standard, archiving suffered from dependency issues. PDF/A-1, based on a constrained subset of PDF 1.4, mandated self-contained, device-independent documents. These rules ensure that a PDF/A document’s appearance can be reliably maintained over centuries, regardless of viewing software.

Rapidly adopted globally, the principles established in PDF/A-1 persist in later standards like PDF/A-4, which is based on PDF 2.0, the latest ISO standard for PDF.

Happy 20th, PDF/A! We (ok, not us personally) fully expect to be celebrating your 200th anniversary in November 2225!

Document accessibility roles and responsibilities

April 2025 by Duff Johnson
Article


What does it take to build the organizational skills and resources necessary to succeed in ensuring PDF documents are accessible?

Duff Johnson
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March 2025 by Robin Watts (Artifex Software Inc)
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Brotli compression is coming soon to PDF 2.0, enabling smaller file sizes. Sample PDF files are available to kickstart development!

Article

March 2025 by Erin Dempsey (TWAIN Working Group)
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This article explores how ISVs can use PDF/R to improve imaging application software’s efficiency, reduce development complexity, and enhance customer … Read more

Article

February 2025 by Peter Wyatt
Peter Wyatt
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Google’s Jpegli promises smaller JPEG images (and so, smaller PDF files) with no change to reader software! Check it out … Read more

Article

January 2025 by Peter Wyatt
Peter Wyatt
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What’s the smallest possible fully compliant and validatable PDF file? We set out to answer the question.

Article

January 2025 by Peter Wyatt
Peter Wyatt
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Triggered by our own experience in preparing the cheat sheet collection, this article explores the capabilities of PDF collections and … Read more

Article

December 2024 by Duff Johnson
Duff Johnson
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Most people searching for “pdf” are interested in a document, not the file format. Google Trends data offers a window … Read more

Article

December 2024 by Duff Johnson
Duff Johnson
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The PDF Association looks back at industry activities, events and accomplishments in 2024.

Article

November 2024 by PDF Association staff
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We’ve established a new public GitHub repository to allow anyone to log and discuss issues and requests against PDF Association … Read more

Article

November 2024 by Peter Wyatt
Peter Wyatt
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In 2021, not a single tested implementation passed this test. 3 years later about three-quarters of viewers we checked now … Read more

Article

October 2024 by Duff Johnson
Duff Johnson
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Accessibility considerations for digital content aren’t limited to navigation, reading and interaction. Users also need to be able to archive, … Read more

Article

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