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

Member Area

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!

FaaS – Small Is Beautiful

March 2022 by François Charette (Compart GmbH)
Article


Function as a Service (FaaS) as a relatively new cloud model is also an attractive option in document and output management. But for which processes is FaaS suitable? The advantages … Read more

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March 2022 by Thomas Zellmann
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This post provides users with a quick overview of PDF/A explaining what it is, why it should be used, what … Read more

Article

February 2022 by PDF Association staff
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Set aside September 12-13 2022 for PDF Days Europe 2022, in-person in Berlin and live-streamed online! PDF developers should consider … Read more

PDF Association news

February 2022 by Duff Johnson
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This Global Information Governance Day it’s time to focus on how better PDF = better IG. #GIGD

Article

February 2022 by Is the role of encryption key for information governance?
Computer storage devices and a shield.

It is essential to understand that with long term storage secure formats does not in themselves prevent user error or … Read more

Article

February 2022 by PDF Association staff
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The Standards Support Endowment supplements PDF Association membership dues to support administration of ISO TC 171 SC 2 and the … Read more

PDF Association news

January 2022 by PDF Association staff
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The latest veraPDF adds support for PDF/A-4, the archival subset specification for PDF 2.0.

PDF Association news

January 2022 by Carsten Luedtge (Compart GmbH)
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In fact, it’s about up-valuing content and documents to intelligent information media. In the final analysis, data is the raw … Read more

Article

January 2022 by Peter Wyatt
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PDF Association’s CTO, Peter Wyatt discusses text strings in PDF.

Article

December 2021 by PDF Association staff
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This summary recalls developments in 2021 and looks forward to PDF Association activities in 2022.

PDF Association news

December 2021 by PDF Association staff
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The PDF Association now hosts 3D PDF demonstration files provided by PDF Association members.

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