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PDF 2.0 examples now available

The PDF Association is proud to present the first PDF 2.0 example files made available to the public. Created and donated to the PDF Association by Datalogics, this initial set of PDF 2.0 examples were crafted by hand and intentionally made simple in construction to serve as teaching tools for learning PDF file structure and syntax.
About the author: Matt Kuznicki has been actively involved with PDF products and technologies since 2000. He is a recognized expert in technical PDF and imaging matters and an active participant in PDF … Read more
Matt Kuznicki

Matt Kuznicki
August 3, 2017

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PDF 2.0In conjunction with the publication of PDF 2.0, the PDF Association is proud to present the first full PDF 2.0 example files available to the public.

Created and donated to the PDF Association by Datalogics, these PDF 2.0 example files were crafted by hand and intentionally made simple in construction, to serve as teaching tools to those who want to learn about PDF file structure and syntax. These examples contain commentary inside that we encourage you to read and use to learn about how PDF files work "under the hood". Unlike the example PDF syntax in the PDF 2.0 standard, these are fully-formed PDF files and show all of the PDF objects and syntax needed to show the features and concepts demonstrated by these samples.

There are some important concepts and new PDF 2.0 constructs demonstrated in these samples, including:

  • Files where the PDF data does not start at the beginning of the file
  • A PDF 1.7 file that is incrementally updated to a PDF 2.0 file
  • Simple text and vector art placement
  • Simple image and calibrated color space usage

These samples also demonstrating new PDF 2.0 features including:

  • Page-level output intent specification
  • Black point specification in a graphic state dictionary
  • Use of UTF-8 for strings in PDF strings

You may download these examples from the PDF Association public Github repository. These files are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) license. What this means is that you may use, modify and redistribute these files free of charge. If you share or redistribute these files, you need to credit the PDF Association. If you modify these samples and then redistribute those derivative works, you must redistribute them under this same license. You may find further details on the Creative Commons webpage for this license.

One thing those who are familiar with PDF will notice is that these PDF 2.0 files look very much like PDF 1.7 files. PDF 2.0 is an evolution in the PDF family, one that maintains backwards compatibility to the strongest degree possible. You might not even notice the PDF 2.0 specific features in these files without looking in the file comments!

Do you have your own PDF 2.0 examples that you'd like to share with the world? We encourage you to provide a Github pull request with your own donation of PDF 2.0 examples. We hope this marks just the start of a comprehensive collection of PDF 2.0 examples!

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