Introducing the PDF Reuse Technical Working Group
The PDF Reuse TWG is facilitating the reuse of document content and semantics on a diverse set of devices and in a broad range of applications. This work also facilitates the accessibility of the PDF document.
PDF is the world’s chosen final-form digital document format. Today, consumers of PDF documents can choose from a variety of screens which presents real challenges to authors of fixed layout documents. Beyond use on diverse displays users increasingly want their PDF documents to work well with technologies that depend less on the page’s layout but more on the content, including search engines, text-to-speech solutions, translation engines, 3D, video and other features increasingly used to enhance digital document content.
The PDF Reuse Technical Working Group (TWG) is a new interest community within the PDF Association dedicated to exploring the technologies and practices that facilitate reliable reuse of document content and semantics on diverse devices and the broadest-possible range of applications.
Enabling reliable reuse of PDF content as HTML is a key target for the PDF Reuse TWG, whose work will complement continued development of the derivation algorithm specified in the PDF Association’s Deriving HTML from PDF, as well as other projects occurring in the Deriving HTML from PDF TWG. A key initial project will be to develop a specification for “well-tagged PDF” (WTPDF), that is, PDF documents designed for reuse. PDF Association members are encouraged to join this TWG to assist in the rapid development and publication of this new subset specification for using ISO 32000-2.
Accessibility is a subset of reuse; accordingly the PDF Reuse TWG expects to work in close coordination with the PDF/UA TWG, including mirroring equivalent provisions of PDF/UA-2 to ensure continuity between these specifications.
I’m delighted to have been appointed by the Board of Directors to serve as the first chair of the PDF Reuse TWG!