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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!

Library of Congress blog post: PDF is here to stay

March 2020 by PDF Association staff
Article


The Signal, a Library of Congress blog, has a new post about archiving with PDF by the Library of Congress’ Kate Murray, the PDF Association’s Duff Johnson, and Kevin De … Read more

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February 2020 by Prof. Chris Prom
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Archives, libraries, and other memory institutions have experimented with PDF for archiving email, but have not widely implemented them as … Read more

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February 2020 by PDF Association staff (Adobe)
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The Standards Support Endowment allows the PDF Association to increase support for standards development, including a new PDF subset specification … Read more

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February 2020 by PDF Association staff
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The Hall of Fame is a permanent tribute on to the generous contributions of our events’ top-tier sponsors. These companies make … Read more

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February 2020 by Duff Johnson
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When people talk to me about PDF technology they are generally pretty happy about it. End users feel that they … Read more

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January 2020 by PDF Association staff
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The agenda of the PDF Days Europe 2020 shows “All dimensions of PDF”.

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January 2020 by Duff Johnson
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“I’m sorry, Derek, but, now that Kelsey has learned how to convert JPEGs into PDFs, we can’t justify keeping you … Read more

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January 2020 by PDF Association staff
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Visiting the No. 1 PDF event – the PDF Days Europe 2020 – in Berlin? Great! Here are some hotel … Read more

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December 2019 by PDF Association staff
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Are you a PDF end user with a message for the PDF community? Are you a PDF technology innovator with … Read more

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December 2019 by PDF Association staff
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The PDF Association’s case study and white paper archives are filled with stories and use cases to help users understand … Read more

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December 2019 by PDF Association staff
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We’re busy preparing for PDF Days Europe 2020 coming next April, but it’s already time to reward those who plan ahead! … Read more

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