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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!

Video recordings from the PDF Technical Conference 2015

December 2015 by PDF Association staff
Article


These videos total over 20 hours of high-quality technical education and perspective, from panel sessions to technical deep-dives.

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December 2015 by PDF Association staff
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The popular PDF Days Europe will be even more attractive. It’s not just the new location in the metropolis of … Read more

Article

December 2015 by Matthias Wagner
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Matt Kuznicki is elected Vice Chairman of the PDF Association’s Board of Directors on November 23, 2015.

News

December 2015 by Duff Johnson
Duff Johnson
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Google’s latest release of Chrome includes updated support for PDF viewing.

News

December 2015 by Duff Johnson
Duff Johnson
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Karlen Communications is surveying users with disabilities to better understand the end user experience of PDF documents within that population.

News

December 2015 by PDF Association staff
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Use our new express form to publish your posts on pdfa.org.

Article

December 2015 by Duff Johnson
Duff Johnson
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SD Times talks PDF with a number of developers in the electronic document field, including several PDF Association members.

News

November 2015 by Duff Johnson
Duff Johnson
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The amended Transparency Directive will require public company annual financial reports in an ESEF beginning January 1, 2020.

News

November 2015 by Duff Johnson
Duff Johnson
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The veraPDF consortium has announced the 0.6 release of the veraPDF PDF/A validation software and test-suite. This release features validation … Read more

News

October 2015 by Duff Johnson
Duff Johnson
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The European Disability Forum reports that European Commissioner Thyssen has confirmed that the European Accessibility Act, under development since 2012, … Read more

News

October 2015 by PDF Association staff
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The TWAIN Working Group (TWG) announced its partnership with the PDF Association.

Article

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