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The PDF Association celebrates its members’ public statements
of support
for ISO-standardized PDF technology.

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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!

Liaison with TC 42 brings HDR closer

September 2024 by PDF Association staff
Article, For members only


PDF Association members – especially those working on PDF’s imaging model – can now access TC 42 WG 23 resources directly from pdfa.org.

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August 2024 by Peter Wyatt
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Does your PDF viewer fully support page labels? Does your PDF authoring software? Support for page labels can be a … Read more

Article

August 2024 by PDF Association staff
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The third PDF Week of 2024 will be hosted by Charles University in the beautiful city of Prague, in the … Read more

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August 2024 by PDF Association staff
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Devs must VALIDATE before applying ISO-standardized subset metadata to PDFs! | PDF Week Prague accommodations | OPF patches JHOVE | … Read more

PDF in the Wild

August 2024 by PDF Association staff
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Starting today, PDF users everywhere can leverage ISO-standardized accessibility requirements for content in PDF.

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July 2024 by PDF Association staff
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Wired likes PDF/A, Google and Apple do PDF creation from phone cameras, EA-PDF is already in the wild, the latest … Read more

PDF in the Wild

July 2024 by PDF Association staff
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The latest PDF 2.0 Errata Collection 2 is a complete update and replacement for the previous no-cost sponsored edition of … Read more

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July 2024 by Peter Wyatt
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To avoid confusing and frustrating users, applications can and should be robustly prepared for significant changes to PDF – with … Read more

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July 2024 by Peter Wyatt
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These synthetic files are intended for user experience and human-computer interaction (HCI) specialists to assess the behavior of their current … Read more

Article

June 2024 by PDF Association staff
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This members-only technical resource lists PDF-aware forensic tools that allow technical examination, editing, and/ or low-level technical analysis of general … Read more

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June 2024 by PDF Association staff
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A new members-only resource supports forensic experts tasks with examination of PDF files.

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