What the PDF Association Does And What the Future Holds PDF Days Europe 2017 What the PDF Association Does And What the Future Holds Matt Kuznicki Chairman of the PDF Association Chief Technical Officer - Datalogics 1

What is the PDF Association? Our mission: To promote Open Standards-based electronic document implementations using PDF technology through education, expertise and shared experience for stakeholders worldwide.

Who is the PDF Association? The PDF Association is made up of our membership: 138 member companies across 25 countries on 5 continents PDF software toolkit creators Software application writers Document creators and workflow designers Information managers Technical users

What’s the PDF Association’s History? PDF Association was founded in 2005 founding as ADDS (Association for Digital Document Standards) PDF/A technical practitioners from 6 companies came together to discuss and refine PDF/A implementations Over time, became leading general technical PDF resource for practitioners Reached out to work with various industry organizations to advance the use of PDF First conference held in 2007 First conference was held in 2007 in Stuttgart The 1st International PDF/A Conference held in 2008. We held our first general PDF event, PDF Days, in 2012 – here we are together again!

What’s the PDF Association’s History? PDF Association was founded in 2005 founding as ADDS (Association for Digital Document Standards) Today the PDF Association remains the leading resource for PDF information and advocacy – while leading the future evolution of the file format

What Does the PDF Association Do? We serve the PDF community in many ways: Advancing PDF standards Providing technical resources for PDF implementers Collaborating with industry and trade associations to cooperate on meeting marketplace needs Marketing and advocacy of PDF as the leading technology to solve business document needs Bringing together the PDF implementer community

Advancing PDF Standards The PDF Association and our member companies actively advance PDF standards in several ways: Funding ISO project co-leadership role for PDF 2.0 and PDF/UA project leadership Participating in revising, updating and advancing the PDF standard and derivatives: PDF/A PDF/UA PDF/X PDF/E PDF/VT Note the various PDF standards: PDF/A for archiving and long-term preservation PDF/UA for universal accessibility PDF/X for graphic arts interchange PDF/E for engineering archiving and interchange PDF/VT for variable-data and transactional printing

Advancing PDF Standards PDF Association members also receive access to participate in the ISO standards process: Access to PDF standards drafts, working papers and committee reports A means to provide feedback on PDF standards to the ISO working groups Ability to register and attend ISO PDF standards meetings in-person Our liaison status with the ISO PDF working groups allows our members to participate – actively or passively – and to make suggestions for the direction of PDF as it evolves

PDF Association Technical Working Groups The PDF Association also sponsors and hosts Technical Working Groups (TWGs) to incubate ideas and advance PDF Next generation PDF TWG PDF/raster TWG PDF Validation TWG PDF Association members are welcome to propose new Technical Working Groups for proposing and refining suggestions for new features and standards PDF/Raster TWG a joint effort with the TWAIN industry association

Technical Resources For PDF Implementers The PDF Association provides a variety of resources: PDF competence centers – expert forums for discussing questions about PDF Best practices guides – guidance from experts for users, implementers and evaluators of PDF solutions Reference suites – vendor-neutral test and verification suites for PDF solution evaluation Technical and application notes – clarifications and updates to how the standards should be / are interpreted by the community PDF competence centers: mailing lists open to PDF Association members Reference suites: freely available to all. Includes: Matterhorn (PDF/UA conformance) developed by the PDF/UA competence center Isartor (PDF/A conformance) developed by the PDF/A competence center Hosting the Cal Poly graphic communications PDF/VT test file suite

Industry Collaboration and Cooperation The PDF Association works with industry and trade groups to provide information and thought leadership: Liaisons with 21 groups in many areas: Content and document management Electronic information transfer standards Information and records management Archives, libraries and digital preservation Graphic arts Accessibility Speaking engagements at liaison events Partner members are eligible to be recommended as speakers for events Electronic information transfer standards: Ferd (e-invoicing), ETSI (digital signatures) We provide PDF insight, market knowledge and thought leadership to our liaisons. For example, our working with TWAIN to establish the joint technical working group to create PDF/raster Liaison event speaker examples: Duff at CapServe 2017 Dietrich at Nestor 2017

PDF Advocacy and Marketing As PDF Association members, we understand the value that PDF brings – we seek to help others learn about this through: Marketing materials and white papers Industry articles and thought leadership pieces Government and trade advocacy PDF Association website Public relations efforts Materials and white papers: PDF format introduction pamphlets and “Nutshell” guides Advocacy includes testimony to the US library of congress, US department of justice; input to many other government agencies on the use and suitability of PDF

PDF Association Website A one-stop information and PDF solutions platform for our membership: PDF industry news and articles Member company information Member product overviews and information Hosted white papers and product information Webinars and presentation videos Member event listings Content is member provided and driven – we aim to be the source for information about our members’ offerings Members can list for free and in “self-service” mode – can post directly to the website – or we can help with posting

Bringing Together the PDF Community The PDF Association provides ways for the PDF community to come together: LinkedIn groups – question forums open to all PDF users regardless of affiliation PDF Association member country/region chapters PDF interoperability events PDF-focused events We’re always looking for suggestions on other ways we can come together! Country & regional chapters: 9 different ones, each with local companies and people to share knowledge and insights with Interoperability events: such as the PDF 2.0 interop events hosted by Global Graphics this year PDF-focused events such as PDF days – where solution providers and practitioners can come together, have interesting and productive discussions and all learn something new!

Where is the PDF Association Going? Increasing investment in standards and becoming the premier PDF Standards Development Organization Through continuing to evolve PDF and the PDF subset standards Through ongoing work on the Next Generation of PDF and the future of PDF Increasing investment in marketing PDF as a business document solution ecosystem Increasing advocacy for PDF to industry, trade and government organizations Increasing awareness of PDF’s strengths vs. other formats and technologies Continuing to provide opportunities for members to come together for collaboration and cooperation

How Can You Get Involved? Bring your ideas and proposals Working groups, best practices, etc. spring from interested groups of volunteers The employees and board use your input to guide our activities and mission You and your company can volunteer to help Writing guides, white papers, case studies, etc. Translating existing documents to reach new audiences Volunteer to join the board and help drive the Association activities (partner members) Bring your knowledge and insight You have key knowledge that can help us understand how to promote the whole PDF ecosystem

How Can You Get Involved? Keep in touch with us - let us know how we're doing We exist in service of our members - so let us know what helps you!

To Summarize Starting from a small collection of PDF/A practitioners The PDF Association has grown to be a worldwide association of PDF users and implementers Bringing together the best minds in the field Advancing the use of PDF throughout business, throughout the world

Thank you! Any questions? PDF Days Europe 2017 Thank you! Any questions? Get in touch: matt.kuznicki@pdfa.org Web site: www.pdfa.org Twitter: PDFassocation 19