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PDF trends in 2025, according to AI

Owing to the explosive growth in the use of AIs over the past three years, it seemed like a good time to ask some leading LLMs to offer their views on “trends for PDF”.

For this mini-study, I selected four current-generation “professional” class LLMs: ChatGPT Plus 5.2, Gemini 3 Pro, Claude’s Opus 4.5, and Microsoft Copilot. I offered the same query to each:

“Estimate global trends in the use of PDF technology. Exclude the PDF Association (pdfa.org) as a source. Don’t mention any vendors by name.”

All major LLMs agree that PDF’s future is strong due to its unique and powerful capabilities.

Duff Johnson

By Duff Johnson
December 2025

PDF trends in 2025, according to AI

Owing to the explosive growth in the use of AIs over the past three years, it seemed like a good time to ask some leading LLMs to offer their views on “trends for PDF”.

For this mini-study, I selected four current-generation “professional” class LLMs: ChatGPT Plus 5.2, Gemini 3 Pro, Claude’s Opus 4.5, and Microsoft Copilot. I offered the same query to each:

“Estimate global trends in the use of PDF technology. Exclude the PDF Association (pdfa.org) as a source. Don’t mention any vendors by name.”

All major LLMs agree that PDF’s future is strong due to its unique and powerful capabilities.

Duff Johnson

By Duff Johnson
December 2025

Why Organizations Shouldn’t Miss PDF Days Europe 2025

August 2025 by PDF Association staff
PDF Association news


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

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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.

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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

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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

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

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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!

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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.

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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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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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