Motherboard: “PDF is secretly the world’s most important file format”

Motherboard, which "...travels the world to uncover the tech and science stories that define what's coming next for this quickly-evolving planet of ours." has noticed that PDF is everywhere... and may be the world's "most important" file format.

For sheer pervasiveness, it's hard to disagree. PDF really is everywhere. Users can - and do - replace paper, and paper workflows with PDF everyday. It's happening.

The article provides a potted history of the world's favorite electronic document format, including an amusing video highlighting certain shortcomings of office-worker life in the early 1990s - the world before PDF.

It really is quite surreal to notice how many routine tasks PDF has touched - and changed - since 1993.

The article highlights the significance of published standards as a key feature of PDF's success, but also: "Let’s just admit something straight out: Standardization is boring." Sure, it's not for everyone, but in a file format as complex and feature-rich as PDF, enabling common understandings of the specification is in everyone's interest. That's where the PDF Association comes in.

As Motherboard points out: "...PDF still has a story, and that story is that of a format that promises to be even more valuable in the decades to come." Oh, we agree.

Read "Why the PDF is Secretly the World's Most Important File Format" on Motherboard.