My 7 Key takeaways from PDF Paris Conference 2023

Last week I was in Paris for the PDF Days conference to talk about PDF files…

The PDF file format is an open (and actively developed) ISO standard which is looked after by the PDF Association. Anyone can be a member of the association and it includes individuals and many Companies ranging from small ones like IDRsolutions to huge organisations such as Boeing and Adobe. If you have an interest in PDF files, you should be a member too!

The purpose of the PDF conference, aside from networking and a lot of fun (we had a dinner cruise down the Seine to celebrate 30 years of PDF and several private tours of some sites), is to provide lots of technical sessions to spread information and also discuss ideas to evolve the specification.

Here are my key takeaways from the event:-

PDF as a file format is more popular than ever
The PDF File format is now free to download from the PDF Association website so there there is no excuse for creating bad PDF files.
The PDF Association is also trying to improve the quality of the PDF files created with lots of free resources and tools. The Arlington model is particularly exciting for us
About 20% of PDF files are currently tagged. It should be your default setting to have this switched on as it makes file reuse and processing MUCH easier.
There is a new version for forms (Forms.next) being developed which will extend AcroForms and remove the use of JavaScript. A draft specification is already available.
In an age of ChatGPT and deep fakes, there are some really interesting ideas being developed to validate file authenticity such as C2PA.
The PDF Association is actively working to improve the PDF file format in lots of open discussions. If PDF is important to you, this is your chance to get your say.

There will be another conference later in the year and the discussions about PDF are happening remotely on an ongoing basis.