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How to read ISO publications about PDF

April 2024 by Peter Wyatt (PDF Association)

ISO standards are not tailored to their domain; the same set of rules applies to all ISO standards, regardless of industry or subject.

For those unfamiliar with “ISO-ese” nuances are easily overlooked, which can result in malformed files, erroneous implementations, and problems with interoperability.

Many sentences in ISO-standardized PDF specifications are carefully crafted in an attempt to accurately communicate a very specific meaning. These nuances may be difficult to recognize if the reader does not have a good understanding of how ISO standards are written.

It is therefore important that developers engaging with ISO standards – especially those developers for whom English is not a primary language – understand how to interpret “ISO-ese”.

This article provides some basic information about ISO’s language and offers a short list of things to remember when reviewing ISO standards for PDF.

European Accessibility Act and its importance for PDF accessibility

April 2024 by axes4 GmbH
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Accessibility is vital for ensuring that everyone, regardless of their abilities, can fully participate in society. This article delves into the key aspects of this legislation and its impact on … Read more

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March 2024 by Peter Wyatt (PDF Association)
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How meaningful is PDF’s version number? SafeDocs’ research reveals that 20% of extant files contain features that exceed the stated … Read more

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March 2024 by Peter Wyatt (PDF Association)
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Peter Wyatt shares his custom metadata panels – very useful for discovering ISO standards and PDF Declarations metadata! (until vendors … Read more

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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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