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!

PDF Days Europe underscores the importance of PDF as a key component of business processes

June 2017 by PDF Association staff
Article


2017 marks a record number of attendees / Experts shared fully-grounded wisdom on PDF standards across the two-day event Berlin. With over 200 attendees, this year’s PDF Days Europe in … Read more

PDF Association logo
Visit PDF Association staff's profile.

June 2017 by PDF Association staff
PDF Association logo
Visit PDF Association staff‘s profile.

Version 1.6 features the ability to check for updated software, among other enhancements and corrections.

News

June 2017 by PDF Association staff
PDF Association logo
Visit PDF Association staff‘s profile.

Australia adopts the complete set of PDF standards as Australian National Standards.

News

May 2017 by Alexandra Oettler
Visit Alexandra Oettler‘s profile.

The new PDF Association publication PDF/X in a Nutshell is available online.

News

May 2017 by PDF Association staff
PDF Association logo
Visit PDF Association staff‘s profile.

With more than 200 participants, this year’s PDF Days Europe was the largest to-date. Early feedback from attendees makes clear … Read more

PDF Association news

May 2017 by PDF Association staff
PDF Association logo
Visit PDF Association staff‘s profile.

More than 150 attendees have registered for the PDF Days Europe 2017 so far!

PDF Association news

May 2017 by Dietrich von Seggern
Visit Dietrich von Seggern‘s profile.

by Dietrich von Seggern Specialized ISO standards based on the Portable Document Format are available for a wide range of … Read more

Article

May 2017 by Stephan Jaeggi
Visit Stephan Jaeggi‘s profile.

by Stephan Jaeggi PDF/X only defines the general requirements for a reliable exchange of prepress data; the ISO standard itself … Read more

Article

May 2017 by Andrew Bailes-Collins
Visit Andrew Bailes-Collins‘s profile.

by Andrew Bailes-Collins PDF/X Tools The good news for anybody wishing to start working with PDF/X standards, is that there … Read more

Article

May 2017 by Andrew Bailes-Collins
Visit Andrew Bailes-Collins‘s profile.

by Andrew Bailes-Collins Where do all these different flavors of PDF/X fit, and for anybody wanting to use PDF/X, which … Read more

Article

May 2017 by Dietrich von Seggern
Visit Dietrich von Seggern‘s profile.

by Dietrich von Seggern PDF/X was the first ISO standard based on PDF technology. A subset of the PDF specification, … Read more

Article

Member News

WordPress Cookie Notice by Real Cookie Banner