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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!

Future-proofing XMP identification schema

September 2025 by Peter Wyatt
Article


ISO standardized subsets of PDF, such as PDF/UA, enable files to claim conformance to a specific version of PDF/UA using XMP-based PDF/UA identification metadata. As a result of changes in … Read more

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September 2025 by PDF Association staff
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According to Board chair Raf Hens: “The event showcased what makes the PDF ecosystem unique: a standards-driven, industry-wide collaboration where … Read more

Article

September 2025 by PDF Association staff
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Communities shaping the future of PDF.

PDF Association news

September 2025 by PDF Association staff
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We’re proud to celebrate the PDF Association members who help make ISO standards for PDF available at no cost!

PDF Association news

August 2025 by Jacob Mellor (Iron Software)
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This article is written from my perspective as a lifelong software engineer and current CTO who codes differently – first … Read more

Article

August 2025 by PDF Association staff
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For organizations that depend on trust, efficiency, and long-term information integrity, PDF Days Europe is a strategic investment.

PDF Association news

August 2025 by PDF Association staff
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Encoding multilingual content | The US Library of Congress recognizes individual PDF/A-4 conformance levels | “There was no book” | … Read more

PDF in the Wild

August 2025 by PDF Association staff
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In the context of the European Accessibility Act (EAA), accessible PDFs are shifting from a “nice to have” to a … Read more

PDF Association news

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.

PDF Association news

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

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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

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