PDF 2.0 heralds a new generation of PDF. And yet the printing industry is not too keen on celebrating this new platform-independent file format, despite the many promising features it has to offer.

After years of development PDF 2.0 is now ready to go. It has been 20 years since Adobe Systems released the Portable Document Format. Much has happened in the world of digital publishing since that time, whereby PDF has remain what it was always designed to be: a format for electronic documents that always faithfully reproduces these regardless of the operating system being used.

Modern document management for transparent and leaner processes in municipalities and local government bodies​

Germany's E-Government Act took effect on 1 August 2013. This law, which promotes electronic access, record keeping and administration, seems to offer a sensible and timely enhancement to the way procedures are carried out and with it the information technology assets used in government offices. This development is, however, a thorn in the side of the very people in local agencies whose daily work it promises to make leaner and more efficient. Besides the age-old routine of handling and filing documents in paper form, it is the fear of losing one's job that is the biggest contributor to apprehension on the part of government workers. And yet no modern document management system (DMS) can function without people. Fortunately, everyone involved is gradually coming to the realization that this relatively new law and the related software pose no threat to their livelihoods, but instead are capable of making life easier for the administrators and citizenry alike.

Reliable long-term archiving is one of the great challenges of digital correspondence. With PDF 2.0, which is subject to the strict guidelines of ISO, this is easier to manage.