Interview with Duff Johnson, CEO of PDF Association, about PDF Days Online 2021

Excerpt: Duff Johnson previews his introductory remarks at PDF Days Online 2021, coming this September 27 – October 25!


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Interview

July 26, 2021
by PDF Association staff


Duff Johnson

PDF Association: At the PDF Days Online 2021, you will be hosting a presentation titled “Where the PDF experts meet” – what’s that about?

Duff Johnson: Over the past year, the PDF Association has really focused on enhancing its technical resources to support our members – the vendors who drive the PDF industry –and the global community of consumers of technical information about PDF technology. This has come about in the confluence of several initiatives; a new responsibility to administer the standards program for ISO’s TC 171 SC 2, the developer of most ISO standards for PDF technology; a dramatic expansion and enhancement of web-based technical resources including on GitHub, and the addition of new projects to meet the needs of diverse groups such as the developers of LaTeX and 3D PDF technologies, among others. I plan to touch on these developments by way of updating members and attendees on the wide range of activities and resources the PDF Association enables.

PDF Association: Who is your presentation aimed at?

Duff Johnson: Those vendors, integrators, institutions and end-users with a degree of technical interest in Portable Document Format technology.

PDF Association: What will the people who attend your presentation be able to take away from it?

Duff Johnson: They will be updated on PDF Association initiatives over the last year and our plans for the future.

PDF Association: The PDF Days Europe 2021 has become the leading PDF event. What makes the PDF Days so unique in your mind?

Duff Johnson: There’s simply no other event that recognizes the extent of PDF technology as we do. PDF Days uniqueness is due in part to the breadth of applications for PDF and the industry’s resulting dedication to the principle of interoperability between vendors. Accordingly, Technical Days sessions are explicitly vendor-neutral, and without product-mentions; these sessions are selected by a Program Committee without reference to sponsorship. Our approach certainly isn’t academic in nature, but we are well-aware that as an industry we have a solemn responsibility to provide reliable and consistent digital document experiences for our users.

PDF Association: Thank you! We look forward to seeing you at the PDF Days Online 2021.

Check out the overall PDF Days agenda .