April 28, 2020, Berlin. The PDF Association, a worldwide Berlin-based non-profit industry association, through its U.S. subsidiary PDF Association, Inc., is pleased to announce that it has been accredited by ANSI to serve as the U.S, Technical Advisory Group (TAG) Administrator for the U.S. TAG to ISO Technical Committee (TC) 171, Subcommittee (SC) 2, that focuses on the PDF file format, PDF subsets (including PDF/A and PDF/UA) and related file formats. The role was previously held from 2017-2020 by the 3D PDF Consortium.
The ANSI-Accredited U.S. TAG represents the United States at ISO meetings by developing and communicating votes on the activities and ballots of the ISO subcommittee’s working groups. In its new role as U.S. TAG Administrator and ISO committee manager on behalf of ANSI the PDF Association will execute the administrative and management functions required to operate the U.S. TAG and ISO working groups in accordance with the ANSI International Procedures and ISO’s rules.
“Aligning and integrating the standards development program for PDF and related technologies with the PDF Association’s own membership communities strengthens all the work that we are doing,” said Duff Johnson, CEO of the PDF Association. “We look forward to accelerating the refinement and extension of the family of PDF standards, driving new features that will enrich the format’s value for all users and industries across the entire economy.”
PDF Association Chairman Matt Kuznicki said, “The PDF Association already connects the industry to the ISO standards development process via its liaison relationship with ISO. Assuming management of the responsible TAG allows us to tighten our alignment with the standards development process and more fully integrates the PDF Association and its members with that process. This will serve to better drive innovation in the PDF ecosystem and ensure the continuing prominence of PDF as the leading digital document technology platform.”
“The current global pandemic underscores the importance of reliable and ubiquitous technologies that enable remote working,” said Leonard Rosenthol, a PDF Association Board Member, Adobe Senior Principal Scientist and the Chair of TC 171 SC 2. “The PDF Association’s enhanced role will help accelerate the pace of development in PDF technology.”
Adobe, a Partner member of the PDF Association, has enhanced its support to help launch the expanded organization via its Adobe Standards Support Endowment.
Although the PDF Association is a membership organization, the U.S. TAG is open, and not limited to PDF members and PDF work. Only participants that meet the definition of U.S. National Interested Party may participate on the U.S. TAG.