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New Application Note Illuminates PDF’s Flexible Options for Custom Metadata

October 2025 by PDF Association staff

The PDF Association has released a new Application Note titled “Including Custom Metadata Structures in PDF.”

This document addresses the need for organizations to use custom metadata beyond standard XMP schemas in their PDF workflows. It provides guidance on designing custom metadata schemas, embedding them interoperably, best practices for versioning and extensibility, and strategies for exposing metadata to applications and tools.

The document’s objective is to enhance interoperability and efficiency by allowing custom metadata to travel seamlessly within PDF documents, eliminating the need for separate “sidecar files.”

The Note is now available on the PDF Association website.

The PDF Association has released a new Application Note titled “Including Custom Metadata Structures in PDF.”

This document addresses the need for organizations to use custom metadata beyond standard XMP schemas in their PDF workflows. It provides guidance on designing custom metadata schemas, embedding them interoperably, best practices for versioning and extensibility, and strategies for exposing metadata to applications and tools.

The document’s objective is to enhance interoperability and efficiency by allowing custom metadata to travel seamlessly within PDF documents, eliminating the need for separate “sidecar files.”

The Note is now available on the PDF Association website.

How Google Trends saw “PDF” in 2023

December 2023 by Duff Johnson
Article


It’s difficult to find other search terms that share PDF’s continuous upwards trend. Few technologies show this resilience, especially over such a long period of time.

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December 2023 by PDF Association staff
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Verizon is tricked by a fraudulent PDF, a family tree of PDF specifications, veraPDF is tops for the Open Preservation … Read more

PDF in the Wild

December 2023 by PDF Association staff
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Join this webinar to learn why PDF/X-1a was a good idea 20 years ago, but no longer today and find … Read more

Article

December 2023 by PDF Association staff
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The Imaging Model Technical Working Group (TWG) will now focus on the research, specification, and prototyping at the very core … Read more

Article

November 2023 by PDF Association staff
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The new VSCode extension by the PDF Association provides PDF syntax awareness to this popular editor, and is designed to … Read more

PDF Association news

November 2023 by Peter Wyatt
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The PDF Association’s unique Visual Studio Code “pdf-cos-syntax” extension is now available for immediate download.

PDF Association news

November 2023 by PDF Association staff (PDF Association, Inc.)
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The PDF technical community will hold a series of online meetings during February 2024 to continue advancing the PDF file … Read more

PDF Association news

November 2023 by Dietrich von Seggern (callas software GmbH)
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Callas software’s Dietrich von Seggern describes a few of the innovative technologies under consideration for PDF as discussed at the … Read more

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November 2023 by PDF Association staff
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We wanted to know how well ChatGPT processes PDF files. So we signed up for ChatGPT 4.0, the paid version, … Read more

PDF in the Wild

October 2023 by Peter Wyatt
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Although PDF is commonly understood as a single holistic file format, in reality, PDF comprises a number of distinct dialects, … Read more

Article

October 2023 by PDF Association staff
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5 years ago the PDF Accessibility LWG began a project to develop a set of accessibility techniques for PDF files. … Read more

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