The Portable Document Format (PDF), undeniably one of the most commonly used formats for electronic documents, is now accessible as an ISO International Standard – ISO 32000-1. This move follows a decision by Adobe Systems Incorporated, original developer and copyright owner of the format, to relinquish control to ISO, who is now in charge of publishing the specifications for the current version (1.7) and for updating and developing future versions.
“By releasing the full PDF specification for ISO standardization, we are reinforcing our commitment to openness”, says Kevin Lynch, Chief Technology Officer at Adobe, in the press release. “As governments and organizations increasingly request open formats, maintenance of the PDF specification by an external and participatory organization will help continue to drive innovation and expand the rich PDF ecosystem that has evolved over the past 15 years.”
PDF, a digital form used to represent electronic documents, allows users to exchange and view the documents easily and reliably, independent of the environments in which they are created, viewed and printed, while preserving their content and visual appearance.
With the explosive growth of the Internet, PDF has become one of the most common formats for document exchange, widely used in all professional and personal contexts. The format enables:
• preservation of document fidelity independent of device or platform
• merging of content from diverse sources
• collaborative editing of documents using multiple platforms
• digital signatures for authenticity
• security and permissions to preserve control over content
• accessibility of content to those with disabilities
• extraction and reuse of content for use with other file formats, and
• gathering data and integrating it with business systems using PDF forms.
Major corporations, government agencies and educational institutions use PDF to streamline their operations by replacing paper documentation with electronic exchange. Already, over 2 000 PDF product developers use this standard for their products and billons of PDF files are in existence today.
ISO Secretary-General Alan Bryden comments: “As an ISO standard, we can ensure that this useful and widely popular format is easily available to all interested stakeholders. The standard will benefit both software developers and users by encouraging the propagation and dissemination of a common technology that cuts across systems and is designed for long term survival.”
The new standard, ISO 32000-1, Document management – Portable document format – Part 1: PDF 1.7, is based on the PDF version 1.7 developed by Adobe. This International Standard supplies the essential information needed by developers of software that create PDF files (conforming writers), software that reads existing PDF files and interprets their contents for display and interaction (conforming readers), and PDF products that read and/or write PDF files for a variety of other purposes (conforming products).
Future versions of the format will be published as subsequent parts of the standard by the ISO subcommittee in charge of its maintenance and development (SC 2, Application issues, of ISO technical committee ISO/TC 171, Document management applications).
Source: ISO (International Organization for Standardization)
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Adam W.” for the heads up.]
Ahem…Ralph M:
Originally developed by Apple as a competitor to PostScript, TrueType was later licensed by Microsoft for Windows. It was included with Apple’s operating system starting with Mac OS 7 in 1991 and Windows 3.1 in 1992. TrueType fonts have been widely used in all successive versions of each OS.
Back in the late 1980s, Apple and Microsoft each were seeking ways to avoid paying royalties to Adobe for PostScript fonts. Microsoft attempted to develop a companion printing rendering engine called TrueImage, but this was not successful.
I believe that Apple later turned over all development rights to Microsoft as a part of some technology exchange. Microsoft later created the newer OpenType version of TrueType. Today, both companies now include a basic set of TrueType fonts in their respective operating systems.
@HD Boy
Thanks for setting the record straight. I considered doing it yesterday but then 5 o’clock rolled around…
Ralph M, here’s a link on the history of TrueType:
http://www.truetype-typography.com/tthist.htm
Off Topic.
HD Boy sez: “I believe that Apple later turned over all development rights to Microsoft as a part of some technology exchange.”
Yes. It was part of the API sharing agreement with MS after they were caught red-handed stealing QuickTime code and refused to return it. This was in 1997. Rather than get their rectum’s sued off, Bill Gates agreed to an arrangement created by Steve Jobs whereby MS would buy and hold onto non-voting Apple stock for five years. MS would pay an undisclosed amount of money to Apple for damages. MS would continue developing Office for Mac for five years. Bill Gates would show up at MacWorld 1998 on a big screen just like the Big Brother face in Apple’s 1984 Macintosh ad (which was utterly hilarious and Gates never got the joke). AND Apple and MS would open their APIs to their technology to each other for five years. (Yes folks, all of the above is verifiable fact. Do your own homework).
A friend of mine speculates that the APIs agreement is one reason why Apple was able to successfully create BootCamp for Leopard.