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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!

The carthorse method of automating transaction processing

January 2015 by PDF Association staff
Article


PDF files have long proven popular for invoices and other documents transacted during routine business. ZUGFeRD has the potential to take invoicing beyond the printed page and into an future.

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January 2015 by Output Management for SAP and PDF/A

SAP’s product range includes a powerful document management system (DMS). Its wide range of structuring options bring order to document-based … Read more

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January 2015 by PDF Association staff
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Industries which exchange large volumes of documents with their customers – financial services, insurance, energy and others – are currently … Read more

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January 2015 by PDF Association staff
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Although PDF technology has enormous potential in mobile devices, tagged PDF is still ignored by screen readers on every mobile … Read more

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December 2014 by PDF Association staff
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Naturally, many memory institutions use JHOVE’s PDF module on a daily basis for digital long term archiving. Learn about the … Read more

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December 2014 by PDF Association staff
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How can you benefit from PDF Day? Join IT managers and executives in Washington DC on December 10 and 11 … Read more

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November 2014 by PDF Association staff
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PDF is the big gun in the war on paper. It’s time the ECM industry gave up its TIFF based … Read more

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November 2014 by PDF Association staff
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With the PDF Days, taking place in the USA for the first time, the PDF Association is offering IT executives … Read more

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November 2014 by PDF Association staff
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As a fixed-format electronic record PDF has no real competition, but few law-firms systematically leverage PDF to reduce risks and … Read more

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November 2014 by PDF Association staff
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Although they are utterly reliant on PDF, modern financial services institutions still leverage only the most rudimentary fraction of PDF’s … Read more

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October 2014 by PDF Association staff
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Mere publication of a specification doesn’t make a standard: it takes a community. Of course, it also helps if the … Read more

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