PDF Association publishes Technical Note 0010 to resolve PDF/A concerns

The PDF Association (Boston, MA), a not-for-profit organization fostering universal public standards for PDF technology, has announced the publication of Technical Note 0010, a set of 29 exhaustively researched and peer-reviewed resolutions to a variety of ambiguities in the PDF/A specifications. Technical Note 0010 will help vendors ensure they share a common understanding of PDF/A. Users of document management systems will benefit from streamlined workflows and improved support for PDF/A functionality and features. This latest Technical Note was produced by the PDF Association’s PDF Validation Technical Working Group (TWG). The TWG developed this content via an in-depth review of existing ISO 19005 (PDF/A) specifications conducted between October, 2014, and December, 2016, for the purpose of developing the open-source veraPDF test suite and veraPDF validation software. Ambiguities in PDF/A were identified by: formally analyzing the PDF/A specifications in the process of implementing veraPDF; reviewing the performance of existing PDF/A validators; discussing the questions posted to the TWG mailing list; and resolving controversial questions via a ballot.

Boris Doubrov, PDF Association Board member and the technical lead on development of the veraPDF test suite added: “The veraPDF corpus continues the work of the PDF/A Competence Center’s Isartor Test Suite, but in a more comprehensive manner, and with complete coverage of all three current parts of PDF/A.” Carl Wilson, Technical Lead for the Open Preservation Foundation, which led the veraPDF effort in collaboration with the PDF Association, said: “We’ve already seen rapid adoption of veraPDF. We fully expect to see the veraPDF software, which reflects the findings documented in TechNote 0010, used in most memory institutions handling electronic documents worldwide.”
First established as the PDF/A Competence Center in 2006, today the PDF Association is an international organization promoting awareness and adoption of open standards in digital document applications using PDF technology. The association facilitates education, networking and communication, and the sharing of expertise and experience with interested parties worldwide. The current membership includes over 100 companies and numerous individual subject-matter experts from more than 20 countries. The Management Board includes industry leaders from Adlib Information Systems, Adobe Systems, Callas Software GmbH, Datalogics, Dual Lab, Foxit Europe GmbH, Intarsys Consulting GmbH, Levigo Solutions GmbH, Nitro Software and Satz-Rechen-Zentrum (SRZ). The association’s chairman is Matt Kuznicki, Chief Technical Officer (CTO) of Datalogics. The Executive Director is Duff Johnson, independent consultant and ISO Project Leader of ISO 32000 and ISO 14289.