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March 2024 by Peter Wyatt (PDF Association)

Does the PDF version actually matter?

A key finding of recent research: at least 20% of PDF files on the web have an “invalid” PDF version!

However, as our experience with everyday PDF files appears to be unhampered by these inaccurate version numbers the answer to the question, generally speaking, is “no”. 

One important explanation for why the file’s stated version number lacks relevance is that most PDF features are designed to be backward-compatible. There is no need for general PDF software to fail on a document or warn users when it encounters a minor mis-versioned feature – either the software is coded to understand the feature or it ignores the effectively unknown feature(s) that it doesn’t understand. This is today’s experience with most PDF software.

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Discovering PDF metadata

March 2024 by Peter Wyatt (PDF Association)
Article


Peter Wyatt shares his custom metadata panels – very useful for discovering ISO standards and PDF Declarations metadata! (until vendors catch up!)

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February 2024 by Duff Johnson (PDF Association)
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It’s time for AI integrators to help authors make semantically rich documents… and step up their game on PDF inputs.

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January 2024 by PDF Association staff (PDF Association)
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A major focus of the PDF Association’s work is to increase awareness and adoption of standards and best practices for … Read more

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January 2024 by PDF Association staff (PDF Association)
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The PDF, ICC, NITF and video datasets used in SafeDocs’ performer hackathons and evaluations are now available for download from … Read more

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December 2023 by PDF Association staff (PDF Association)
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In 2023, the volunteers and staff of the PDF Association were busier than ever, with new working groups, resources, and … Read more

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December 2023 by Duff Johnson (PDF Association)
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It’s difficult to find other search terms that share PDF’s continuous upwards trend. Few technologies show this resilience, especially over … Read more

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December 2023 by PDF Association staff (PDF Association)
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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

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December 2023 by PDF Association staff (PDF Association)
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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

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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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October 2023 by Peter Wyatt (PDF Association)
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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

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October 2023 by PDF Association staff (PDF Association)
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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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