Updates from the meeting place of the PDF industry.
Articles and industry news |
Two languages in one Alt? Try THAT with HTML! |
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Encoding multilingual content | The US Library of Congress recognizes individual PDF/A-4 conformance levels | “There was no book” | LibreOffice 25.8 brings PDF 2.0 creation to all platforms | Brotli compression benefits PDF – EPUB not so much | Business reasons to ensure PDFs are accessible: loyal customers | PDF is the format you are looking for | That Doesn’t Need to Be (Your Head on the Desk) | Color conferences | FOGRA summary of recent ISO TC 130 Meetings | The PDFacademicBot for August 2025 |
PDF Days Tuesday Keynote: Alexander Pfingstl |
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In the context of the European Accessibility Act (EAA), accessible PDFs are shifting from a “nice to have” to a legal requirement in many areas. Alexander Pfingstl’s keynote will address the implications for document creators, vendors, and institutions, and address the state of accessible PDF today. |
The PDF Association’s New Research Portal |
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The PDF Research Portal supports and encourages research into the PDF format and its broader role in modern economies. |
Google’s PDF preview fails, including with PDFs made by Google Docs! |
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We were asked to investigate non-functional internal document (intra-document) hyperlinks in PDFs stored on Google Drive and viewed with Google’s Preview. Here’s what we found. |
Browsers battle over PDF capabilities |
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Browsers battle over PDF capabilities | ISO’s “Publicly Available Standards” page is gone | PDF to Brainrot | JHOVE update supports PDF 2.0 | The US Library of Congress updates email collection guidance leveraging EA-PDF | PDF crosswords | Alberta aligns with PDF 2.0, drops XFA | A potted history of PDF | ISO standardizes HDR gain-maps | a new release of veraPDF | PDF = “poison dart frog”. |
FAQ on HDR in PDF |
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This initial FAQ focuses on HDR in the PDF/A and PDF/X contexts, to help stakeholders understand how high dynamic range content works with current-generation PDF specifications and technologies. |
Poster sessions at PDF Days! |
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The poster sessions are a great way to interact with each other at PDF Days Europe 2025! |
5 reasons to attend PDF Days in 2025 |
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Here’s what previous PDF Days attendees have told me about this event, and why attending is a good investment. |
Tagging Images in PDF/UA-1 and PDF/UA-2 |
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Experience since PDF/UA-1 was published has revealed that some rules were too prescriptive. In some situations the semantic significance of an image is due to its representation of text, and vice versa. PDF/UA-2 to the rescue. |
Continuously Scrollable Comics: ISO ad hoc report analyzes related standards |
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This recently published report from ISO/IEC JTC 1 SC 34 presents an analysis of related standards, the current status and size of the CSC industry, the cultural importance of continuously scrollable comics, and various technical challenges. |
Resources |
FAQ on HDR in PDF: Focus on PDF/A and PDF/X |
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This Application Note provides acceptable uses of HDR images and color data when using PDF/A and PDF/X standards. |
Conforming to both PDF/A and PDF/UA |
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This document provides guidance and recommendations for application developers who want to create PDF files that conform to more than one ISO-standardized subset of PDF, specifically PDF/A (ISO 19005) and PDF/UA (ISO 14289). |
XMP Extension Schema Templates |
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Free XMP Extension Schema templates that support compliance with ISO standards and specifications utilizing XMP. |
EA-PDF v1.0 Specification |
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Based on PDF/A, the EA-PDF specification defines a specification for a vendor- and platform- neutral format for the long-term preservation of email. |
Tools for Accessible PDF |
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Commercial and free PDF creation, viewing or validation software that exposes the relationship between a PDF’s page content and its tags tree. |
Techniques for Accessible PDF |
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These Techniques provide atomic example files and test procedures in a vendor-neutral manner, allowing PDF files to be precisely tested while ensuring software developers retain maximum flexibility and potential for innovation. |
PDF Cheat Sheets, 2nd edition |
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PDF cheat sheets are quick-reference tools to help developers work more efficiently while ensuring that their knowledge of PDF is technically correct. |
Understanding Private Data in PDF/A |
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Private data is everywhere is in almost every broadly-adopted file format. This Application Note answers questions about private data in PDF files. |
ISO 16684-4 |
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This document broadens the concept of XMP specified in ISO 16684-1 so that XMP can be used to describe a semantic unit (SU). |
ISO 16684-3 |
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This document defines how the XMP data model can be serialized to JSON-LD. |
Member news |
Back-to-School Made Easy with PDFelement |
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Get ready for a smoother, more productive semester with PDFelement. From AI-powered study tools to ready-to-use templates, discover how it can help teachers, students, and academic professionals work smarter with PDFs. |
UPDF Launches 2025 Back-to-School Campaign, Empowering Students and Educators |
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UPDF is revolutionizing education worldwide with its intuitive and AI-powered PDF tools. Trusted by over 10,000 students and 300 schools across nearly 200 countries, UPDF continues to drive productivity and innovation in classrooms and research environments. |
pdfRest Launches New Sign PDF API Tool for Legally Compliant Digital Signatures |
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pdfRest introduces its new Sign PDF API Tool, designed to apply legally compliant digital signatures to PDF documents. This new API empowers developers to seamlessly integrate secure signing capabilities into a wide range of applications and platforms. |
Watermarks, AI Scanning, Dark Theme – Enjoy an Even Simpler and More Secure Workflow With MobiPDF’s Latest Release |
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MobiPDF’s new version builds on its commitment to users by delivering features that address real-world challenges, such as custom watermarking, built-in digital signatures, and an AI-powered document scanner. |
pdfRest Launches New PDF to Markdown API Tool for LLM Training and Conversion to Web Content |
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pdfRest has introduced its new PDF to Markdown API Tool, designed to transform static PDF documents into clean, structured Markdown format. This new API allows for the seamless integration of PDF content into text-based systems and next-generation applications. |
PDFelement Online: Fast, Smart, and Free PDF Editing in Your Browser |
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Wondershare introduces PDFelement Online—a lightweight, cloud-based PDF editor equipped with intelligent features to help users read, rewrite, and manage documents more efficiently. |
Harness Enterprise-Scale PDF Processing with the pdfRest API Toolkit Container |
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Datalogics offers the pdfRest API Toolkit Container designed for seamless integration into on-premises or cloud-based infrastructure, this solution delivers PDF processing capabilities tailored to enterprise workflows. |
PoDoFo 1.0 released |
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PoDoFo PDF manipulation library hits a 1.0 release, delivering more advanced features and a modern C++17 API. |
BuildVu: Gains in Conversion Performance and Viewer Fixes in Latest Update |
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BuildVu’s July 2025 release delivers notable improvements in conversion performance with key bug fixes and viewer enhancements that improve reliability and output consistency. |
Save the date: axes4 Day 2026 |
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axes4 Day 2026 focuses on the world of document accessibility and learning together and from each other. |
New Auto-Glossary for interactive PDF and E-Books |
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The Auto-Glossary feature in Auto-Link adds tooltips for abbreviations and technical terms, offering instant explanations without requiring an internet connection. |
Datalogics Announces AI Assistant and Discord Server: Two New Ways to Connect |
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Two new initiatives aimed at improving support and connectivity for developers working with PDF technologies are being introduced by Datalogics. |
UPDF’s new “Paper Search” Empowers Academic Research with AI-powered access to 220 Million+ Papers |
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UPDF Launches New “Paper Search” Feature. |
iText Suite 9.2: .NET MAUI AOT, PDF/UA-2 Validation, and More! |
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This release of iText by Apryse brings support for .NET MAUI AOT compilation, and automated PDF/UA-2 validation during document creation. There’s also significant enhancement to PDF/UA creation and conversion from HTML, PDF optimization, and iText’s advanced typography features. |
Foxit Launches Agentic AI: Redefining PDF Intelligence for Knowledge Workers |
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Foxit announces Agentic AI, a suite of AI tools integrated into Foxit Editor, designed to transform how professionals engage with complex documents. Highlights include smarter document chat, real-time web search, and a research assistant that breaks down dense PDFs into structured insights. |
New products |
Wondershare PDFelement 11 |
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Wondershare PDFelement 11: Pioneering Smart PDF Solutio … Read more |
Wondershare PDFelement 10 |
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Wondershare PDFelement 10: Unlocking the Full Potential … Read more |
axesFlip |
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Automated creation of accessible high-volume documents: efficient and legally compliant. |
PoDoFo |
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A powerful open source C++ PDF manipulation library. |
PDF Usability Checker (PUC) |
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A free online tool to assess the accessibility tagging quality of PDF documents, based on PDF/UA. Designed for quick diagnostics and early-stage checks by non-specialists. |
ADEPT UA |
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ADEPT UA uses a flow-based, rules-driven engine to automate the the remediation of fully accessible PDF UA files from high-volume system output without templates or manual remediation. |
Foxit PDF Editor Cloud |
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Foxit PDF Editor Cloud provides users a cost-effective, … Read more |
UPDF 2.0 |
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– Edit text in PDF – Edit image in PDF – Edit or add links in PDF – Convert PDF to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Images, HTML, XML, PDF/A, Text , or CSV with OCR technology – Annotate PDF with highlights, underline, strike-though, stamps, stickers, text boxes, or draw on PDF – Organize PDF pages, such as delete, rearrange, rotate, extract, and replace pages – Protect PDF by adding open password or permission password – Share PDF via a link or through email – View PDF across all devices with dark mode – Support changing the background color of PDF – 1 license of UPDF on 4 devices (1 Windows + 1 macOS + 1 iOS + 1 Android) |
BFO Publisher |
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BFO Publisher converts HTML and XML+CSS to PDF. With su … Read more |
Auto-Link |
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File-Linker – The Plug-in automatically creates hyperlinks to other files on the basis of samples. These can be either file open or web links. Text-Linker – The function is responsible for the automatic creation of internal hyperlinks. It can be used to interactivate a table of contents, an index, footnotes or cross-references. Auto-Bookmarks – This register is an essential element for navigation within a large document. With the help of the new function, bookmarks can be generated automatically in any number based on typographical characteristics. Footnote-Linker – The Plug-in recognises the small superscript digit and creates hyperlink to the footnote in both direction. |
PDF4NET |
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PDF4NET is a .NET library for generating and importing PDF documents on the fly from any .NET application. The library does not rely on any Adobe products for creating and importing PDF files. It hides the complex structure of PDF files behind a simple object model that allows creation of complex PDF files or import of existing PDF files with a few lines of code. It supports a wide set of features, ranging from simple PDF creation to form filling, content redaction, complex color conversions or digital signatures. |
PDF Viewer |
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PDFViewer — enable seamless PDF viewing everywhere PDFV … Read more |
PDF Generator API |
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PDF Generator API allows you easily generate PDF docume … Read more |
DocBridge® Production Suite |
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Document Processing + Output Management The DocBridge® … Read more |
DocBridge® Communication Suite |
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DocBridge® Communication Suite provides you with a streamlined, lean and powerful solution to manage your high volume of customer communication efficiently and traceably. Thanks to a modern and intuitive user interface for document design and the management of all communication processes, you will always reach your customers with high-quality documents – on every physical and digital channel, according to your customers’ preferences. By using open standards and the cloud-native approach, the solution can be seamlessly integrated into existing and future systems, both in the cloud and on-premise. It adapts cost-efficiently and flexibly to your business requirements and helps you to optimize your workflows and increase productivity. |
Actino MakeAccessible |
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The Windows server application can be used to convert existing PDF automatically in standard compliant PDF/UA. The tool can be used as part of any workflow to process a high volume of documents without any user intervention or as part of a web service for on demand creation. |
AI Question Generator |
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Users can generate multiple-choice, true-or-false, or o … Read more |
Summarize PDF |
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Users can summarize PDFs and other file formats in seco … Read more |
Translate PDF |
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For those looking to translate PDF documents online for … Read more |
axesCheck |
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Check a PDF for accessibility online Is your PDF access … Read more |
Events |
PDF Workshops |
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A unique opportunity for library and application developers, computer scientists and technology researchers to engage in depth with the developer of the Arlington PDF Model. |
PDF Days Europe 2025 |
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Join us in Berlin for provocative presentations from the leaders in PDF technology! |
PDF Week Berlin 2025 |
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The PDF Association invites members and ISO TC 171 delegates to PDF Week Berlin 2025! |
New members |
Stirling PDF |
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Open core PDF manipulator focusing on Selfhosted on pre … Read more |
Iron Software |
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Iron Software is a leading provider of developer tools … Read more |
JLB Informatique |
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For over 40 years, JLB INFORMATIQUE has been a pioneeri … Read more |
Ian Curington |
PDF Guru |
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PDF Guru is an online platform that helps user manage P … Read more |
PDF-XChange Co. Ltd |
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Incorporated in 1997 to develop Imaging and PDF format … Read more |
National Information Standards Organization (NISO) |
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Based in Baltimore, MD, NISO’s mission is to build know … Read more |
Maryam Technologies GmbH |
Technology consulting for IT companies |
Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA) |
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The Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity ( … Read more |
Codegic |
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Codegic is a security provider specializing in innovati … Read more |