The Portable Document Format version 1.7 is set to become ISO Standard 32000 after the approval of the 32000 Draft International Standard. James C. King, a Principal Scientist at Adobe, has the details on his Inside PDF blog.
Earlier this year, Adobe announced that AIIM - The Enterprise Content Management Association was to facilitate ISO Standards Process for the format.
Adobe has taken an open approach to PDF since its initial release in 1993. This approach lead the format to become a de facto standard for document exchanges across a number of industries. The first standardized version of PDF came in 2001 when ISO adopted the ANSI PDF/X-1 standard.
With the move towards ISO standardization, Adobe does lose some control over the direction of the format. Responding to comments on his blog regarding control of the format, King says, "Believe me this is a serious thing for Adobe as we are giving up control of one of the companies real jewels. The ISO committees and organizations that Adobe has been associated with have been excellent and we have full confidence that this standardization of PDF will work out well for everyone. But it is a change for Adobe and we are in the process of adjusting lots of our procedures for developing software that deals with PDF to accommodate this new world."
