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

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PDF Champion 2025

October 2025 by PDF Association staff

This year’s PDF Champion is the man who, as much or more than anyone else, is responsible for launching the institutions that undergird the modern PDF technology industry: Thomas Zellmann.

Thomas has been a steady, energizing presence from the earliest days of the PDF/A Competence Center, which he helped to found in 2006. That organization is now today’s PDF Association thanks a large part to his committment.

In the Competence Centre era Thomas was one of the most visible ambassadors of that mission, speaking and teaching across Europe to help make long-term digital preservation a practical reality for institutions and enterprises. Thomas championed “anything to PDF/A” workflows and promoted archival quality as a first-class requirement, not an afterthought. Our community is stronger because of his work.

On this basis, and as approved by the Board of Directors of the PDF Association, we send our congratulations – and a cube of engraved aluminum – to Thomas Zellmann, PDF Champion for 2025!

This year’s PDF Champion is the man who, as much or more than anyone else, is responsible for launching the institutions that undergird the modern PDF technology industry: Thomas Zellmann.

Thomas has been a steady, energizing presence from the earliest days of the PDF/A Competence Center, which he helped to found in 2006. That organization is now today’s PDF Association thanks a large part to his committment.

In the Competence Centre era Thomas was one of the most visible ambassadors of that mission, speaking and teaching across Europe to help make long-term digital preservation a practical reality for institutions and enterprises. Thomas championed “anything to PDF/A” workflows and promoted archival quality as a first-class requirement, not an afterthought. Our community is stronger because of his work.

On this basis, and as approved by the Board of Directors of the PDF Association, we send our congratulations – and a cube of engraved aluminum – to Thomas Zellmann, PDF Champion for 2025!

PDF Days Tuesday Keynote: Alexander Pfingstl

August 2025 by PDF Association staff
PDF Association news


In the context of the European Accessibility Act (EAA), accessible PDFs are shifting from a “nice to have” to a legal requirement in many areas. Alexander Pfingstl’s keynote will address … Read more

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August 2025 by PDF Association staff
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The PDF Research Portal supports and encourages research into the PDF format and its broader role in modern economies.

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July 2025 by Peter Wyatt
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We were asked to investigate non-functional internal document (intra-document) hyperlinks in PDFs stored on Google Drive and viewed with Google’s … Read more

Article

July 2025 by PDF Association staff
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Browsers battle over PDF capabilities | ISO’s “Publicly Available Standards” page is gone | PDF to Brainrot | JHOVE update … Read more

PDF in the Wild

July 2025 by PDF Association staff
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This initial FAQ focuses on HDR in the PDF/A and PDF/X contexts, to help stakeholders understand how high dynamic range … Read more

PDF Association news

July 2025 by PDF Association staff
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The poster sessions are a great way to interact with each other at PDF Days Europe 2025!

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July 2025 by Duff Johnson
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Here’s what previous PDF Days attendees have told me about this event, and why attending is a good investment.

PDF Association news

July 2025 by Paul Rayius (Allyant)
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Experience since PDF/UA-1 was published has revealed that some rules were too prescriptive. In some situations the semantic significance of … Read more

Article

July 2025 by PDF Association staff
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This recently published report from ISO/IEC JTC 1 SC 34 presents an analysis of related standards, the current status and … Read more

For members only

June 2025 by Patrick Gallot (Datalogics)
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PDF has long relied on Flate for general-purpose data compression. Today, Brotli has emerged as a promising new approach that … Read more

Article

June 2025 by PDF Association staff
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If you use a word processor creating Tagged PDF is your default. | FOGRA’s summary of developments in print | … Read more

PDF in the Wild

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