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The PDF Association celebrates its members’ public statements
of support
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!

How veraPDF does PDF/A validation

May 2015 by Boris Doubrov
Article


How veraPDF’s purpose-built validation model addresses the challenge of PDF/A validation and opens the door to a generalized model for file-format validation.

Boris Doubrov
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May 2015 by PDF Association staff
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The Document Strategy Forum 2015 is all about electronic documents, but not so much about PDF.

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April 2015 by PDF Association staff
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A set of Venn diagrams explaining the relationship between WCAG 2.0, PDF/UA and the recent Section 508 refresh NPRM.

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April 2015 by PDF Association staff
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Following a successful premiere in 2014, the second edition of PDF Days Europe is about to start. On the 8th … Read more

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March 2015 by PDF Association staff
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Can’t get enough of PDF? – Stay in Cologne!

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March 2015 by PDF Association staff
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A biplane is less complex than an airliner, but that’s not a good reason to travel by Sopwith Camel! So … Read more

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March 2015 by PDF Association staff
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Building on the previous success of last year’s event, PDF Days Europe 2015 will begin with “Educational Day”. Assemble your … Read more

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March 2015 by PDF Association staff
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Videos from the December, 2014 PDF Day events in Washington DC and New York City.

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March 2015 by PDF Association staff
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Nitro partnered with the PDF Association to conduct a survey of 1,200+ knowledge workers to learn more about the ways … Read more

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January 2015 by PDF Association staff
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The ability to embed any file format into a PDF/A-3 file makes use of PDF’s ‘container’ principle. This feature also … Read more

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January 2015 by PDF Association staff
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The main challenge when archiving emails is the absolute menagerie of different file formats a business has to deal with.

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