Adobe hands over copyright to PDF format

PDFs will soon become the international standard for electronic documents after Adobe relinquished control of the copyright to ISO.

The move is part of Adobe’s plans to make such movement of files more open, and as the most popular standard, PDFs will now be even easier to create and move.

“By releasing the full PDF specification for ISO standardization, we are reinforcing our commitment to openness”, says Kevin Lynch, CTO at Adobe.

“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.”

Greater literacy

Most businesses use PDFs as the main way of transitioning from paper to electronic documentation, and now a slew of new readers, writers and development tools for the format will likely be unveiled in the near future thanks to the move.

For more information on the thrilling ins and outs of the deal, take a gander at the ISO website for the full press release.

Source: TechRadar