New Standard Addresses Growing Importance to Electronically Archive Documents to Ensure Preservation of Content for an Extended Time Period RESTON, Va. & SILVER SPRING, Md.--Aug. 26, 2002-- A new joint activity has been initiated between NPES The Association for Suppliers of Printing, Publishing and Converting Technologies, and the Association for Information and Image Management, International (AIIM International) to develop an international standard that defines the use of the Portable Document Format (PDF) for archiving and preserving documents. The project, currently referred to as PDF/A, will address the growing need to electronically archive documents in a way that will ensure preservation of their contents over an extended period of time, and will further ensure that those documents will be able to be retrieved and rendered with a consistent and predictable result in the future. This need exists in a growing number of international government and industry segments, including legal systems, libraries, newspapers, regulated industries, and others. The work will address the use of PDF for multi-page documents that may contain a mixture of text, raster images and vector graphics. It will also address the features and requirements that must be supported by reading devices that will be used to retrieve and render the archived documents. This joint committee formed under AIIM and NPES will identify issues to be addressed, as well as proposed solutions, and will develop a draft document that will then be presented to a Joint Working Group of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) for development and approval as an International Standard. Anyone having an interest in this work, and able to contribute technical expertise, is both invited and encouraged to actively participate in this work. Interested persons can register to participate on the committee at http://www.aiim.org/pdf_a. AIIM International AIIM International, the global authority on Enterprise Content Management (ECM), is leading the way to the understanding, adoption and use of ECM technologies. These technologies, tools and methods are used to capture, manage, store, preserve, and deliver content across an enterprise in support of business processes. As a non-profit association for more than 50 years, AIIM provides news, information and resources through its industry web portal and ongoing education through programs that include market analysis, industry standards development, publications, chapters and regional events. Complete information about the Association, is available on the Web at http://www.aiim.org. NPES The Association for Suppliers of Printing, Publishing and Converting Technologies NPES, a U.S. non-profit trade association for 70 years, represents more than 450 companies engaged in manufacturing and importing for sale or distribution of machinery, equipment, systems, software and supplies used in every printing, publishing and converting process from desktop design and image generation and processing to multiple output options and targeted dissemination systems. As one of its many programs, NPES administers ANSI- and ISO-accredited committees developing standards of interest to the graphic technology industry. Complete information about the Association, its programs and its member companies is available on the World Wide Web at http://www.npes.org, by e-mail at [email protected], by telephone at 703/264-7200, or by fax at 703/620-0994.