Adobe today confirmed that it will be sharing the full specifications of its PDF software with the Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM) .
Adobe hopes to have its PDF format recognised as an international standard by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) .
Nothing to do with Vista
He stressed that the timing of the announcement of Adobe's move had nothing to do with Microsoft's PDF competitor, XPS (XML Paper Specification) print path , which will be available in Windows Vista due to launch tomorrow.
Once branded a 'PDF killer', XPS appears as a printer tool dubbed 'XPS Document Writer' in Windows Vista. If a user sends a file to this 'printer', it will save the file as an XPS document. XPS is also supported by Microsoft Office 2007 which, interestingly enough, is also released tomorrow.
Since Adobe started publishing its PDF application in 1993, PDF has become a global de facto standard for secure and dependable exchange of information and document storage.
It could take up to three years before PDF 1.7 becomes an ISO standard. Changes to the specification can be made at any point during the proceedings, according to Adobe.