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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!

ChatGPT can do magic, but doesn’t solve problems when extracting text from PDF 

August 2023 by PDF Association staff
PDF in the Wild


LLMs and generative artificial intelligence, as much (or more) than everything else computers can do, is subject to the iron law of GIGO (Garbage in, Garbage Out).

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July 2023 by Duff Johnson
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Overcoming ossification requires everyone to agree on the strategy and specific technical changes affecting all stakeholders.

Article

July 2023 by Peter Wyatt
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PDF Association members now have a new resource: advance previews of targeted test cases highlighting differences between implementations, including in-depth … Read more

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July 2023 by Matthew Hardy
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The PDF Association is proud to announce the release of “ISO/TS 32005 Document management – Portable Document Format – PDF … Read more

Article

July 2023 by Paul Rayius (Allyant)
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This update from the PDF/UA Processor LWG includes an example of its work mapping PDF’s structure types to web accessibility … Read more

Article

July 2023 by PDF Association staff
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The most recent specification of PDF doesn’t limit page size… at all. That’s up to the implementation.

PDF in the Wild

July 2023 by Thomas Zellmann
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Why PDF 2.0 is the definition of PDF every developer should use – even if your products don’t support PDF … Read more

Article

July 2023 by PDF Association staff
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As its members become more active in PDF Association communities we’ve taken new steps to ensure that easy access to … Read more

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July 2023 by PDF Association staff
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Leverage PDF Week Fall 2023 to highlight your support for standardized PDF technology!

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June 2023 by PDF Association staff
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Save October 16-20 for PDF Week Fall 2023 in San Francisco including an open Industry Symposium on Advancing PDF’s Imaging … Read more

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June 2023 by PDF Association staff
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DARPA recognizes the PDF Association’s contributions to its SafeDocs program.

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