PDF

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* [http://www.portico.org/digital-preservation/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/TheNetworkIsTheFormat.pdf The Network is the Format: PDF and the Long-term Use of Digital Content] Article by Sheila Morrissey of ITHAKA on the challenges of preserving PDF files based on experience.  She illustrates the challenge of defining a "sufficient sub-graph of the network of information about a digital object, for effective future use."
 
* [http://www.portico.org/digital-preservation/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/TheNetworkIsTheFormat.pdf The Network is the Format: PDF and the Long-term Use of Digital Content] Article by Sheila Morrissey of ITHAKA on the challenges of preserving PDF files based on experience.  She illustrates the challenge of defining a "sufficient sub-graph of the network of information about a digital object, for effective future use."
 
* [http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/formats/fdd/fdd000030.shtml PDF (Portable Document Format) from Library of Congress resource on Sustainability of Digital Formats] Links to individual pages for Adobe chronological versions 1.3 through 1.7 and for several versions approved as ISO standards.
 
* [http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/formats/fdd/fdd000030.shtml PDF (Portable Document Format) from Library of Congress resource on Sustainability of Digital Formats] Links to individual pages for Adobe chronological versions 1.3 through 1.7 and for several versions approved as ISO standards.
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*[http://acroeng.adobe.com/wp/ Adobe Acrobat Engineering site] - Dedicated Adobe site with lots of technical information, including a history of PDF and Acrobat, conforming viewers and test files. 
  
 
[[Category:Page description languages]]
 
[[Category:Page description languages]]

Revision as of 16:29, 4 February 2013

File Format
Name PDF
Ontology
Extension(s) .pdf

PDF, portable document format, based on PostScript and originally from Adobe, has many subsets.

As well as the 'full function' ISO 32000-1:2008 (or PDF 1.7), there are also PDF/X, PDF/A, PDF/E, PDF/VT and PDF/UA, all of which are ISO specifications.

PDF profiles (formalized subsets) include the following:

  • PDF/A (optimized for preservation)
    • PDF/A-1 (ISO 19005-1:2005)
    • PDF/A-2 (ISO 19005-2:2011)
    • PDF/A-3 (ISO 19005-3:2012) (extends PDF/A-2 by allowing embedded files of any type)
  • PDF/E (ISO 24517-1:2008) (for engineering workflows)
  • PDF/UA (ISO 14289-1) (making documents accessible through assistive technologies)
  • PDF/VT (ISO 16612-2) (support for variable document printing)
  • PDF/X (support for prepress graphics exchange)
    • PDF/X-1 (ISO 15930-1:2001)
    • PDF/X-1a (ISO 15930-4:2003)
    • PDF/X-2 (ISO 15930-5:2003)
    • PDF/X-3 (ISO 15930-6:2003)
  • Tagged PDF

Also see: extension PDF

Identification

The majority of PDF files can be identified by a fixed header e.g. "%PDF-1.4", however, older documents have a number of variations.

  • Some can start with "%!PS-Adobe-N.n PDF-M.m" instead, as described here.
  • Since PDF 1.7, the major and minor version numbers have been fixed. i.e. the public version from Adobe after 1.7 was "1.7 Adobe Extension Level 3".
  • For the PDF/A families of formats, their conformance is declared via an embedded (XMP) metadata fragment.
  • Some older files from Mac OS may be wrapped up in the AppleSingle/AppleDouble formats. This is a general issue, so should perhaps be documented elsewhere. For more information, see:

Sample files

References

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