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ISO standards, test suites, best-practice guides…

The PDF Association publishes a variety of documents and other resources for those interested in leveraging PDF technology, and as of Q4 2021, also sells the ISO standards relating to PDF technology as developed by ISO TC 171 SC 2.

In addition to formal ISO standards many PDF Association publications developed through our publications process are freely available.

PDF Association members may access process documents and drafts of upcoming ISO standards via the Member Area.


These print workflow and metadata standards specify the intended appearance, processing steps, or job tickets … Read more

Technical Data Package hierarchy chart

The US DoD MIL-STD-31000 standard describes requirements for preparing technical data packages (TDPs) which can … Read more

ISO 32000 is the family of ISO standards that defines the core PDF specification for … Read more

PDF/VCR enables variable data printing applications using PDF template-based variable content substitution and a framework … Read more

The ISO 16612 family of standards defines PDF/VT for supporting variable data and high-volume transactional … Read more

The ISO 15930 family of standards define PDF/X, which support the graphic arts and professional … Read more

RFC 8118 defines the application/pdf Media Type and provides an overview of PDF fragment identifiers.

Covers of 3D format standards used in PDF.

PDF 1.7 introduced interactive 3D support using the U3D file format. PDF 2.0 expanded 3D … Read more

ISO 16684 is the ISO family of standards that defines XMP (eXtensible metadata platform) for … Read more

ISO 19444 specifies an XML format for representing forms data and annotations in ISO 32000-2 … Read more

ISO 21757-1 defines the ECMAScript API for automating and interacting with the 2D and 3D … Read more

PDF/R defines a small subset of ISO 32000 suitable for storage, transport and exchange of … Read more

The Matterhorn Protocol, a free publication, identifies all possible ways to fail PDF/UA-1.

This free application note summarizes precisely where PDF creators should add XMP metadata to PDF … Read more

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Understanding the problems faced by diverse parsers can be a great learning experience. The “Issue … Read more

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The PDF/UA Reference Suite is a resource for software developers and practitioners interested in best-practices … Read more

PDF in Manufacturing includes a high-level introduction to the wide range of manufacturing-relevant technologies built … Read more

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To help implementers locate the latest information, the PDF Association maintains a page of links … Read more

PDF Declarations facilitate a machine-readable notification that a PDF file (and/or its contents) conform to … Read more

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Videos from the Electronic Document Conference 2019, held in Seattle, WA. The videos are posted … Read more

This document provides guidance on the use of blockchain for information governance professionals responsible for … Read more

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