2016-09-09

This educational event is designed to help CIOs, document management experts and electronic content policy-makers come to grips with ISO-standardized PDF technology.

With special focus on archiving and accessibility, PDF Day Australia is a unique opportunity for those in the Asia / Pacific region to engage with the world’s leading PDF technology experts on a broad range of subjects.

Hosted by ISO 32000 (PDF) committee co-chairman Peter Wyatt of Australia’s CiSRA and Matt Kuznicki, Chairman of the PDF Association, this event offers strategic perspective on what PDF is, where it’s going and how organisations can better leverage the technology to solve business problems.

Comprising 17 sessions in 2 tracks, PDF Day Australia is packed with practical, actionable information for CIOs, CTOs, regulators, ICT leaders, archivists and accessibility experts. All sessions are educational, not sales pitches, and are reviewed by the PDF Association’s Program Committee for quality and appropriateness of content.

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PDF Day Australia - Program

09:00

Welcome!
Matt Kuznicki and Peter Wyatt

09:15

2 minutes with a PDF standard

09:30

A few words from our sponsors

09:45

Coffee break

The document of record

The accessible document

10:00

An introduction to PDF/A
Leonard Rosenthol, Adobe Systems

PDF and HTML: can't we all get along?
Adam Spencer, Accessibil-IT

10:45

The state of PDF support
Matt Kuznicki, Datalogics

An introduction to PDF/UA
Olaf Drümmer, callas software

11:30

veraPDF - industry supported open source PDF/A validation
Boris Doubrov, Dual Lab

Author vs. software in creating accessible PDF documents
Matthew Hardy, Adobe Systems

12:15

Lunch

13:00

How PDF is revolutionizing rich records retention
Leonard Rosenthol / Adobe Systems & Olaf Drümmer / callas software

Order and Semantics
Ferass ElRayes, NetCentric Technologies

13:45

What's coming in PDF 2.0
Peter Wyatt, CiSRA

PDF and AT today and tomorrow
James Teh, NV access

14:30

Coffee break

14:45

Engineering documents and 3D PDF
Leonard Rosenthol, Adobe Systems

Accessibility in practice
Raf Hens, iText

15:30

Preparing and exchanging printing data using PDF/X
Olaf Drümmer / callas software & Leonard Rosenthol / Adobe Systems

PDF accessibility features HTML cannot match
Matthew Hardy, Adobe Systems

16:15

Capture and scan to archival-quality PDF
Rowan Hanna / Foxit

tbd

17:00

End of the event

17:20

Drinks at a local bar

2 minutes with an ISO standard for PDF

A traditional opening session at PDF technology conferences, we begin with a fun, fast-paced summary of each of the major ISO standards for PDF technology, PDF/X, PDF/A, PDF/UA, PDF/E, PDF/VT and of course, ISO 32000 (PDF) itself. This is the short version – under two minutes per ISO standard, guaranteed!

A few minutes with our sponsors

Each Gold and Silver sponsor gets just a couple of minutes to explain what they do.

Track A: the document of record

Intro to archival-quality PDF

Leonard Rosenthol / Adobe Systems

The ISO Project Leader for ISO 19005 (PDF/A) explains the origins and discusses the functionality and significance of the world’s chosen final-form electronic document format. The session will also include a look forwards to what’s coming in PDF/A-4.

The state of PDF support

Matt Kuznicki / Datalogics & PDF Association Chairman

As ubiquitous as PDF files have become, so too have different systems for viewing and working with PDF files. This session will review the current state of PDF support: what reliably works across different systems and devices, what should be avoided, and what might not work as expected.

Industry-supported, open-source PDF/A validation

Boris Doubrov / Dual Lab

This session introduces the open-source veraPDF PDF/A validator as a final product, with focus on:

its open source nature: grammar-based validation with open profile syntax, ease to customize the integration interfaces and extend the tool beyond PDF/A

the combined effort of the PDF industry to resolve ambiguities in the specifications and reach consensus in technical interpretation of the PDF/A standard

The session will also discuss how this technology may be extended towards validation of other PDF standards.

How PDF is revolutionizing rich records retention

Leonard Rosenthol / Adobe Systems & Olaf Drümmer / callas software

PDF/A-3 makes just one change compared to PDF/A-2: PDF/A-3 allows the embedding of any type of file while requiring a declaration of the semantic relationship between the attached file and the “container” PDF/A-3 document. The possibilities for workflows are profound, as ZUGFeRD alone shows. This session explores PDF/A-3’s significance to digital archiving. As a means of packaging an authoritative, archival-quality rendering with associated machine-readable data or other content, PDF/A-3 enables new ways of thinking about sharing and using electronic documents.

What’s coming in PDF 2.0

Peter Wyatt / CiSRA (and ISO 32000 co-chair)

One of the two Project Leaders of the ISO committee developing ISO 32000-2 (PDF 2.0) will provide an overview of the enhancements, additions, deprecations, clarifications and other changes in the first fully post-Adobe specification for PDF, and what these changes mean for those working with electronic documents.

Engineering documents and 3D PDF

Leonard Rosenthol / Adobe Systems

This session reviews uses for 3D data in the PDF context and discusses the limitless future of 3D-enabled electronic documents. From aerospace to manufacturing, from civil engineering to training and documentation, the ISO Project Leader of the soon-to-be published part 2 of the PDF/Engineering specification disucsses the introduction of interactive 3D to the world of fixed-layout portable – and archivable – documents.

Preparing and exchanging printing data using PDF/X

Olaf Drümmer / callas software & Leonard Rosenthol / Adobe Systems

As prepress went more and more digital twenty years ago the need for a standardized all digital approach to printing data preparation and print file exchange became apparent. This need was successfully addressed by the PDF/X standard, with its first version published as PDF/X-1a in 2001. As technologies matured, additional version of the PDF/X standard followed. Currently PDF/X-4 and PDF/X-5 are the latest versions, but PDF/X-6 is already looming around the corner. At the same time the recent trend towards digital printing processes increases the pressure on getting print file preparation right in an efficient manner, especially with regard to an ever growing variety of substrates, inks and multi-ink output systems.

Capture and scan to archival-quality PDF

Rowan Hanna / Foxit

Document scanning is familiar to records-managers, but many systems are still TIFF or even paper-based and don’t yet leverage the power of PDF, or more specifically, PDF/A, to provide archival solutions for electronic documents including those produced from scanning systems. From enterprise requirements to mobile capture, this session will focus on the advantages PDF/A brings to capture processes across many types of workflows.

Track B: the accessible document

PDF and HTML – can’t we all just get along?

Adam Spencer / Accessibil-IT

As organisations have tried to develop their approach to ensuring all their digital content is accessible, many have made extreme – and too often, ill-considered – decisions. The war of HTML vs. PDF vs. Source Format Accessibility has gotten out of control. Too many organisations and government agencies have made unidirectional choices which are expensive, unsustainable, and don’t actually deliver content the way that people expect. Based on the experience of working with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), the most sweeping accessibility legislation in the world, this session will explore how these decisions have impacted the overall accessibility of content, and how they reduce accessibility in government and industry.

Intro to accessible PDF and PDF/UA

Olaf Drümmer / callas software

This session explains the challenges and opportunities PDF presents to accessibility, the means by which PDF documents are made accessible and the role of PDF/UA. Additionally this session provides a preview of tagged PDF in the forthcoming PDF 2.0, and what that means for PDF/UA-2.

Author vs. software in creating accessible PDF documents

Matthew Hardy / Adobe Systems

Who is responsible for making accessible documents, the author or the software developer? How do their responsibilities break down? Do decision-makers need to understand PDF/UA? What do organizations need to do beyond buying PDF/UA software? Do they need training in both WCAG 2.0 and PDF/UA? This session provides the background for addressing these questions on an organizational and use-case basis.

Order and Semantics

Ferass ElRayes / NetCentric Technologies

Accessible PDF starts from a very different place than HTML. HTML content is ordered and tagged “naturally” – the main concern is ensuring that styling doesn’t alter the semantics. PDF, on the other hand, is a picture of a page – ordering and tagging the content is our first concern. This session will help attendees understand what’s critical to PDF accessibility, and the keys to efficient production of accessible PDF files across the organization’s document production systems.

PDF and assistive technology, today and tomorrow

James Teh / NV access

Brisbane-based NV access has developed NVDA into the world’s favorite open source screen reader for Windows. NVDA is highly capable with respect to PDF files, but it doesn’t yet support all aspects of tagged PDF. Two blind developers can’t do it all – they need the commercial software developers to do their part. In this session, Jamie will talk about what NVDA can do today, what it can’t, and hopes for the APIs of the future that will allow NVDA to present all the semantic choices possible in PDF files to visually-impaired users. NOTE: Any proceeds beyond expenses raised by this event will be donated to NV access to help them further develop NVDA’s support for accessible PDF.

Accessibility in practice

Raf Hens / iText

Making your documents PDF/UA compliant opens up access to documents for more of the population, and now it’s required by law in an increasing number of areas. This talk will cover the accessibility features of PDF, focusing on how real life organizations and people use and benefit from this technology.

PDF accessibility features that HTML can’t match

Matthew Hardy / Adobe Systems

The differences between structure elements in PDF and HTML’s tags are subtle, but worth understanding, as they reveal part of what makes PDF uniquely capable of representing real-world documents to impaired users. This session will touch on ActualText, List elements, discontinuous content, heading level 7 and other quirks of accessible PDF that make it an extremely flexible accessible format.

About the speakers

Adam Spencer, Accessibil-IT

Adam Spencer is the Head of Document Accessibility Services for Accessibil-IT Inc, the global leader in PDF accessibility services.

As an active member on a number of ISO Committees for PDF and PDF accessibility, Adam is also an active contributor to the development of the new international standards including PDF/UA to ensure the accessibility and usability of PDF and adaptive technologies.

Boris Doubrov, Dual Lab

Boris Doubrov is a CEO of Dual Lab, a member of the veraPDF consortium implementing an open-source PDF/A validation tool under the EU-funded PREFORMA project. He participates in ISO standards development for PDF Technologies via the PDF Association.

Boris holds a PhD in Mathematics from the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium and has been working for more than 15 years in PDF technologies as a software developer, project manager and business owner.

Ferass ElRayes, NetCentric Technologies

Ferass Elrayes leads software development for NetCentric Technologies and represents Canada at ISO TC 171 meetings on the ISO 14289 (PDF/UA), ISO 32000 (PDF) and ISO 19005 (PDF/A) Committees and is the Chair of the Canadian Advisory Committee (CAC) on TC171 and TC 171/SC2.

Ferass has spent over 15 years as a software architect, line developer and project leader. First outside Adobe Systems to develop PDF accessibility technology, Ferass is the architect of NetCentric’s products including CommonLook Office, CommonLook PDF and CommonLook Clarity.

James Teh, NV access

Together with Michael Curran, James Teh is NV access, Together these two fully blind men founded their not-for-profit organisation in 2006 to support the development of the NVDA screen reader.

NVDA is open source software, which means the code is accessible to anyone. This enables translators and developers around the world to continually contribute to its expansion and improvement. NVDA has been translated by volunteers into more than 43 languages, is used by people in more than 120 countries and has won multiple awards.

Through their work on NVDA, Michael and James have gained extensive expertise in software accessibility. Through their relationships with companies such as Mozilla, Microsoft, IBM, Adobe and Yahoo!, they have contributed to the accessibility of many commercial products.

Leonard Rosenthol, Adobe Systems

Leonard Rosenthol is a Principal Scientist and the PDF Architect for Adobe Systems, having been involved with PDF technology for more than 15 years.

He represents Adobe on various international standards bodies including the ISO (where he is the Project Editor for PDF/A and PDF/E), W3C and ETSI/ESI (where he authored the PDF Electronic Signature standard, PAdES). P

Prior to re-joining Adobe in 2006, Leonard worked as the Director of Software Development for Appligent, and the Chief Innovation Officer for Apago, while also running the successful consulting business of PDF Sages. Before becoming involved in PDF, Leonard was the Director of Advanced Technology for Aladdin Systems and responsible for the development of the StuffIt line of products.

Matthew Hardy, Adobe Systems

An expert C++ developer with over 10 years of experience writing enterprise level software and services, Matthew Hardy has worked extensively with PDF technology and on Adobe Acrobat.

Matthew represents Adobe Systems as a US representative in the US Technical Advisory Group for ISO TC 171, and participates as a subject-matter experts in various PDF technical committees at the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

Matt Kuznicki, Datalogics

The Chief Technical Officer of Datalogics and current Chairman of the Board of the PDF Association, Matt has been actively involved with PDF products and technologies since 2000.

He is a recognized expert in technical PDF and imaging matters and an active participant in PDF standards activities as well as the application of PDF and other document technologies to solve a variety of business problems.

Olaf Drümmer, callas software

Olaf Drümmer is founder and managing director of callas software, a Berlin/Germany based company specializing in PDF analysis and processing.

Having first been involved in the development of PDF related standard in 1999, he has since actively participated in the development of the PDF/X (ISO 15930), PDF/A (ISO 19005), PDF/E (ISO 24517), PDF/UA (ISO 14289) and PPML/VDX resp. PDF/VT (ISO 16612) standards series, as well as the PDF standard itself (ISO 32000). callas software was among the first vendors to offer support for PDF/X and PDF/A. In addition, Olaf Drümmer is founder and managing director of axaio software, a Berlin/Germany based company specializing in development of software extensions for Adobe InDesign, Adobe InCopy, Adobe Illustrator, QuarkXPress, QuarkCopyDesk, Quark Publishing System (QPS), WoodWing Enterprise and vjoon K4. Olaf Drümmer is also Chairman of the European Color Initiative (ECI).

Peter Wyatt, CiSRA

An engineer and computer scientist by training, Peter Wyatt is R&D General Manager at Canon Information Systems Research Australia (CiSRA), and is one of two ISO Project Leaders for ISO 32000, the PDF specification. He has watched the PDF specification evolve into the ubiquitous and advanced format it is today, and has developed PDF technologies from low-cost embedded to modern cloud and mobile platforms.

Peter’s current role is to oversee research and development of printing, display rendering and document format technologies at CiSRA. His global experience provides in-depth technical expertise on the issues that a reliable, vendor-neutral and implementation-independent electronic document format must resolve for all consumers and businesses.

Raf Hens, iText

Raf Hens is the Director of Engineering for iText and has been an integral part of iText’s success. Raf has been able to help guide PDF technology both internally at iText by leading product roadmaps and externally as a member of both the ISO Committee and PDF Association.

When he is not developing, Raf spends much of his time with his wife and two daughters.

Rowan Hanna, Foxit

Rowan Hanna is VP of SDK Products and Solutions at Foxit Software. He has been working in the PDF software industry for 15 years — beginning at Nitro PDF, then co-founding Debenu and subsequently joining Foxit through acquisition — with broad experience derived from working in a range of roles from customer service and sales to product development and management, he has a unique insight into customer needs. In his current role Rowan is growing and renewing Foxit’s range of SDK products and solutions.

In order to register please visit: https://en.xing-events.com/PDFday-Australia.html

Program Committee

Matt Kuznicki, Datalogics CTO & Chairman, PDF Association

Duff Johnson, PDF Association, Executive Director & Project Leader for ISO 32000 (PDF)

Peter Wyatt, CiSRA Engineering Manager & Project Leader for ISO 32000 (PDF)

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