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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!

What does “support PDF” really mean?

June 2016 by PDF Association staff
Article


Browsers are taking over document viewing. Even so, minimum support for PDF viewing should mean full support for PDF rendering

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June 2016 by PDF Association staff
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For those unable to come to Berlin to attend the «PDF Days Europe 2016», several sessions of the event will … Read more

Article

June 2016 by PDF Association staff
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PDF 2.0 is nearly finished. Now is an excellent time to help the ISO committee understand your ideas for the … Read more

Article

June 2016 by Duff Johnson
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The veraPDF purpose-built validator for PDF/A now covers all parts and conformance levels of PDF/A.

News

May 2016 by PDF Association staff
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Many organizations use PDF merely to offload printing to end-users. They miss out, because not only does PDF offer a … Read more

Article

May 2016 by PDF Association staff
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The variety in screen sizes and shapes is a challenge for web technology in general, and for PDF in particular. … Read more

Article

May 2016 by Alexandra Oettler
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At drupa 2016, the world’s leading trade show for graphic and industrial print as well as media and multichannel, PDF … Read more

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May 2016 by PDF Association staff
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PDF and EPUB meet different needs in different ways. Neither can replace the other.

Article

May 2016 by PDF Association staff
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The Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM) has awarded its Thomas Bagg Standards Award to Duff Johnson.

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May 2016 by Duff Johnson
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Apple’s latest tablet brings ColorSync functionality to iOS.

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May 2016 by Duff Johnson
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Along with 65 new atomic test suite files, the 0.14 release features validation of all parts and conformance levels of … Read more

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