scope:

This International Standard specifies a digital form for representing electronic documents to enable users to exchange and view electronic documents independent of the environment in which they were created or the environment in which they are viewed or printed. It is intended for the developer of software that creates PDF files (PDF writers), software that reads existing PDF files and (usually) interprets their contents for display (PDF readers), software that reads and displays PDF contents and interacts with the computer users to possibly modify and save the PDF file (interactive PDF processors) and PDF products that read and/or write PDF files for a variety of other purposes (PDF processors). (PDF writers and PDF readers are more specialized classifications of interactive PDF processors and all are PDF processors.) This standard does not specify the following: - specific processes for converting paper or electronic documents to the PDF format; - specific technical design, user interface or implementation or operational details of rendering; - specific physical methods of storing these documents such as media and storage conditions; - methods for validating the conformance of PDF files or PDF processors; - required computer hardware and/or operating system. The primary purpose of this standard is to define well-formed PDF documents (conforming PDF files). PDF documents serve as a communications channel between an author who creates PDF documents, typically with the help of software applications, and the person consuming the PDF document, typically using software applications to view it on display screens, to print it to paper or for some other function. PDF documents serve a producer/consumer paradigm. In carefully specifying what constitutes a well-defined PDF document, it is natural to describe why a particular feature is to be included in the file and what effect it is designed to have on PDF processing software. So, although the primary objective of this standard is to describe the content of conforming PDF documents, it also serves secondary purposes of defining conformance for PDF processors, defining exactly how a PDF component shall be constructed, suggesting why a producer may choose to use the various PDF constructs, as well as what behaviour it shall elicit from software consuming that PDF file. Conformance for PDF processors is a conditional conformance requirement. Basically, if a processor supports a feature, it shall do so in a manner that conforms to this standard, but the choice of which specific set of features a particular PDF processor supports is not specified. PDF files represent electronic documents and, over the years since 1993, it has been natural to add features that take advantage of PDF's electronic nature and the power of computer viewing devices. The size of the PDF documentation has more than tripled since its first introduction and the number of features that a PDF processor is expected to support has grown to be large. This reduces the appropriateness of requiring processors to support all features.