PDF Format - Different Versions, History of PDF

Portable Document Format, commonly known as PDF, is useful for people who need to save documents that are secure and cannot be modified but are easy to share and print. No one can change the format without the use of special software. Due to these unique features, almost everyone today uses a version of PDF. The invention of PDF was inspired by the need to maintain fixed formatting when sharing documents.

The History of PDF

Adobe Systems formally introduced the Portable Document Format in January 1993. Until 2008, when the company published the first version as an open standard, PDF was a proprietary format. Led by Adobe System’s co-founder, John Warnock, Camelot, a research and development team, developed PDF to make the sharing of various forms of documents among computer users with no compatible software possible. PDF’s early adoption was incredibly low partly since the early versions did not support external hyperlinks and required longer download times. Moreover, the suite for reading and creating the documents was available at a fee. Adobe Systems distributed the Adobe Reader, currently known as Acrobat Reader, for free from PDF version 2.0 and has continued to date. Besides, the company continues to support the original PDF. Presently, almost all industries and individuals use the portable format to share and merge various file forms.

Different PDF Versions

PDF 1.0

PDF 1.0 was published in 1993. This first PDF version introduced the following new features:

Bookmarks
Pages
Text
Images
Hypertext links
Thumbnail sketches

PDF 1.1

This version was a revision of the first edition and was published in 1994. It introduced these new features:

Article threads
External links
Security features (passwords)
Device-independence color
Notes

PDF 1.2

Version 1.2 also revised the first edition. It was released in 1996. Its new features include:

Multimedia features like mouse events
Enhanced color support
Forms that allow users to add data or used DPF’s electronic form
Halftone functions
Unicode

PDF 1.3

Version 1.3 was the second edition, and Adobe released it in 2000. Its new features are:

2-byte CID fonts
Digital signatures
JavaScript actions
RC4 encryption
Support for OPI 2.0
ICC-base colors support
Annotations
Smooth shading

PDF 1.4

PDF 1.4 was published in 2001. It is the third PDF edition. It introduced the following new features:

Transparency
128-bit RC4 encryption
Support for Tagged PDF
Enhanced support for JavaScript

PDF 1.5

Adobe published this fourth edition in 2003. It introduced:

Support for layers
Improved XRef table
Enhanced compression techniques
12 additional transitions during presentations

PDF 1.6

Adobe published this fifth edition in 2004. It introduced the following new features:

AES encryption
XML forms
NChannel
Improvements to tagging and annotations
Embedding 3D data
Direct OpenType fonts embedding

PDF 1.7

This ISO 32000-1:2008, version 1.7 is the sixth ODF edition and was published in 2006. Its new features include:

Enhanced commenting and security support
Great control over 3D animations
Embed default printer settings

Conclusion

After the ISO organization received the PDF standard, it cannot release more versions of the format. But it added custom features to the file format that allowed their software to earn the right to extend it. Adobe has released several extensions after that. The 2017 PDF version, PDF 2.0 (ISO 32000-2), introduced many more features. However, these are considered not to be part of the PDF standard.

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