PDF compliance standards is a topic that not many know about, but one that is important to anyone wishing to work with PDF documents in any way. PDFs have to comply with these standards in order to perform all tasks, such as open documents, edit them, archiving and printing, to ensure that all users are able to perform the same task whilst working with PDF files.
So why did PDF compliance standards come about? PDF was originally created by Adobe in 1991 and in proprietary format controlled by the company until it was released in 2008 as an open standard by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), as ISO 32000-1:200.
There have been many editions of the PDF specification since the initial release of PDF by Adobe, and with that there are currently 5 standardized subsets of PDF that are either accepted as the current standard, or are in the process of. These are:
• PDF/X – standardized to aid in the process of graphics exchange within PDF files, comprising of a series of printing related requirements, and not applicable to standard PDFs
• PDF/A – primarily standardized for PDF files that will be archived, PDF/A specializes in the digital preservation of electronic documents
• PDF/E – this standard was defined for documents created for use in the engineering sector, such as manufacturing, construction and geospatial workflows. Interactive media is also supported by this specification, such as 3D and animation
• PDF/VT – published in 2010, PDF/VT was designed for PDFs used as exchange formats, optimised for transactional and variable (digital) printing.
• PDF/UA – this standard stands for PDF/Universal Accessibility and is intended for developers looking to implement PDF writing and processing software.
Unless PDF usage fits into one of the areas as outlined above, then the files in use must conform to ISO 32000-1:200.
Infix Compliance
Infix comes with built-in features that comply with current compliance standards and allow users to create and edit PDF files for any application that will comply with the standards required. Infix also features tools such as an industry standard color picker, immunity from all PDF viruses and allows the conversion of any file type to PDF using the Infix PDF Printer function.