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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!

A new Competence Center for PDF/E

February 2016 by Duff Johnson
News


As with every other industry, the architectural, engineering and construction industries have been slowly transitioning from paper to electronic documentation and specifications. PDF/E is the ISO subset of PDF designed … Read more

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February 2016 by Duff Johnson
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PDF files can be hard to search with confidence. Here’s why it matters, how it happens, and what you can … Read more

Article

February 2016 by Duff Johnson
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Videos and presentations from the November, 2015 PDF Accessibility Days are now available!

News

February 2016 by Duff Johnson
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Now a Partner Organization, the 3D PDF Consortium will bring the experience of 3D PDF development and implementation to the … Read more

News

January 2016 by PDF Association staff
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An R&D engineer at heart and an active PDF software developer, Peter brings new energy to the Project Leader role.

Article

January 2016 by Matthias Wagner
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This is an incremental bugfix release based on the earlier 1.8.10 release. It contains a couple of fixes and small … Read more

News

January 2016 by PDF Association staff
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PDF/VT Application Notes available

Article

December 2015 by Duff Johnson
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veraPDF 0.8 includes several updated features and a variety of bug-fixes.

News

December 2015 by PDF Association staff
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Download the first public draft of the PDF Structure Elements Best Practice Guide today!

Article

December 2015 by PDF Association staff
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The coming year means more PDF files, more PDF creators supporting PDF/UA and leveraging PDF/A-3. The space continues to grow, … Read more

Article

December 2015 by Duff Johnson
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Videos from the PDF Technical Conference are now posted!

News

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