PDF Association logo

Discover pdfa.org

Key resources

Get involved

How do you find the right PDF technology vendor?
Use the Solution Agent to ask the entire PDF communuity!
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!

Get ready for U+32FF

November 2018 by PDF Association staff
News


Anticipating the new Japanese era name, the Unicode Consortium announced its reservation of U+32FF for this purpose. PDF developers should take note!

PDF Association logo
Visit PDF Association staff's profile.

November 2018 by PDF Association staff
PDF Association logo
Visit PDF Association staff‘s profile.

The PDF and the User survey is back for a fourth year. This survey is designed to capture the perceptions … Read more

News

October 2018 by Duff Johnson
Duff Johnson
Visit Duff Johnson‘s profile.

How do we gain insight into how users’ views of documents are shifting? Google Trends is an increasingly interesting source … Read more

Article

October 2018 by PDF Association staff
PDF Association logo
Visit PDF Association staff‘s profile.

This Application Note provides technical background to the definition of Associated Files in PDF 2.0. It is intended for developers … Read more

News

October 2018 by PDF Association staff
PDF Association logo
Visit PDF Association staff‘s profile.

The PDF Association has started to overhaul its website, with the first such change being a new search engine, installed … Read more

News, PDF Association news

October 2018 by PDF Association staff
PDF Association logo
Visit PDF Association staff‘s profile.

The PDF Techniques Accessibility Summit’s objective is to establish a broad-based understanding of how PDF files should be tagged for … Read more

Article

September 2018 by PDF Association staff
PDF Association logo
Visit PDF Association staff‘s profile.

The typical adoption curve for PDF technologies until approximately 2007 tended to track with that of the original PDF developer. … Read more

Article

September 2018 by PDF Association staff
PDF Association logo
Visit PDF Association staff‘s profile.

New in PDF 2.0, black point compensation (BPC) is a colour management technique allowing for the alignment of the darkest … Read more

News

September 2018 by PDF Association staff
PDF Association logo
Visit PDF Association staff‘s profile.

The industry-supported PDF/A validator created by an EU project, veraPDF is one of four finalists for the Digital Preservation Award … Read more

News

August 2018 by PDF Association staff
PDF Association logo
Visit PDF Association staff‘s profile.

PDF Processing Steps allows packaging and product developers and designers to specify post-print workflow components with a PDF file in … Read more

News

August 2018 by PDF Association staff
PDF Association logo
Visit PDF Association staff‘s profile.

The Future of Email Archives report calls for the development of email archiving specifications leveraging PDF.

News

Member News

WordPress Cookie Notice by Real Cookie Banner