The 20th anniversary of the first ISO PDF/X standard in early 2021 is a good opportunity to take a closer look at the development of PDF/X. What did the path to today’s PDF/X standard look like, and what influenced the development of other PDF-based standards?
With the publication of PDF 2.0 in 2017 (first revision in 2020), new parts of the standard were introduced. These concern the formats PDF/A, PDF/VT, PDF/R and PDF/X. They were improved and adapted. Since 2020, PDF/X-6 has been recommended as the successor to PDF/X-4 for professional printing. PDF/X-5 was based on PDF 1.6 and additionally allowed multi-channel ICC profiles, but this version has not seen broad adoption.
From the very beginning, PDF technology has evolved through continuous development and adaptation, affecting media designers, creatives, and the printing industry alike. This is a factor that should not be underestimated, especially today. One example is the use of transparencies: