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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!

Making PDF/A conversion easier

March 2023 by Dietrich von Seggern (callas software GmbH)
Article


PDF/A – the ISO standard for long-term archiving – now has four sub-standards. This raises an obvious question: which one should businesses use for document conversion and archival? Dietrich von … Read more

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March 2023 by Patrick Gallot
Patrick Gallot
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The 3D and RichMedia Technical Working Groups will be combining for an in-person session during PDF Week 2023 Paris to … Read more

Article

March 2023 by Matthias Valvekens
Matthias Valvekens
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The Digital Signature Technical Working Group chair lays out the work to be discussed at PDF Week Paris 2023.

Article

February 2023 by Paul Rayius (Allyant)
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The PDF/UA Processor LWG will continue the work of developing a processor and AT specification to help drive better accessible … Read more

Article

February 2023 by Peter Wyatt
Peter Wyatt
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The joint Australian and New Zealand national committee on Records and Document Management Systems recommendation to both Standards Australia and … Read more

Article

January 2023 by Peter Wyatt
Peter Wyatt
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Adobe engineers have formally added support for Unicode 15 to the CMap resources for both Adobe-Japan1-7 and Adobe-KR-9 in the … Read more

Article

January 2023 by Peter Wyatt
Peter Wyatt
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How ISO 19445 might be used with PDF 2.0 and related technology updates relevant to the graphic arts industry.

Article

January 2023 by Peter Wyatt
Peter Wyatt
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CTO Peter Wyatt summarizes key takeaways from the first two years of the PDF specification’s public errata process.

Article

January 2023 by Peter Wyatt
Peter Wyatt
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ISO TC 171 SC 2 is publishing new extensions and clarifications to PDF 2.0 in support of advanced cryptography.

Article

December 2022 by Matthias Valvekens (Matthias Valvekens)
Matthias Valvekens
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A commentary on the interoperability of encrypting PDF documents with public-key cryptography.

Article

December 2022 by Matthias Valvekens (Matthias Valvekens)
Matthias Valvekens
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Identifying the signer’s key in a PDF signature: how does that work?

Article

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