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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!

FAQ on HDR in PDF

July 2025 by PDF Association staff
PDF Association news


This initial FAQ focuses on HDR in the PDF/A and PDF/X contexts, to help stakeholders understand how high dynamic range content works with current-generation PDF specifications and technologies.

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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!

PDF Association news

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

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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

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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

June 2025 by PDF Association staff
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Berlin ist calling! Are you ready for the big city?

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June 2025 by Patrick Gallot (Datalogics)
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This article explains the options in allowing, limiting, and/or preventing data scraping from occurring when AI and text data mining … Read more

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June 2025 by PDF Association staff
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This document provides essential guidance and recommendations for those aiming to create PDF files that adhere to multiple ISO-standardized subsets … Read more

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June 2025 by PDF Association staff
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In support of the International Archives Week theme and its four subthemes, the PDF Association is announcing its forthcoming Best … Read more

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