PDF (Portable Document Format) was introduced by Adobe Systems Incorporated (San Jose, CA, US) in 1993 as a document format that is independent of both application software and hardware. It is intended to enable the exchange, transfer, and view of electronic documents regardless of which environments documents were created, viewed, or printed. In 2007, the PDF format was released into the care of ISO (The International Organization of Standardization). Since then, ISO has controlled PDF specification with technical input and advice from industry, delivering ISO (32000) standard; ISO (32000-1) in 2008, and ISO (32000-2) recently released in July 2017; the ISO (32000) standard provides the base specifications for conforming PDF.
The wide spread use of PDF in both government and industry over the past ten years could be attributed to two key capabilities; portability and compliance. Portability helps maintain the seamless and reliable sharing of PDF documents, while compliance to industry standards helps ensure the preservation of the static visual presentation of these documents over time. Library and Archives Canada (LAC), in their guidelines on file formats for transferring Information Resources of Enduring Value (IREV), has listed PDF, PDF/A, and PDF/E as either “preferred” or “acceptable” formats within content categories related to Text, Presentation, Scanned Text, and CAD formats.
Shared Services Canada (SSC), driven by its mandate to provide services for the Government of Canada (GC) departments and agencies related to the acquisition and provision of software for end user devices, has started an initiative to establish how PDF technology is used within GC departments, and assess its requirements. In addition to portability SSC has recognized, through this initiative, the need within the GC for additional sophisticated and specialized requirements for managing, manipulating, and interacting with PDF documents. It is this initiative that prompted the need to streamline the procurement process for PDF products by developing and releasing this document to industry in the form of a Request for Standing Offer (RFSO).
The main objectives of this initiative are to achieve competitive pricing, efficient license utilization, and adherence to GC guidelines and procurement governance for competing technologies used within the GC.
Through this Standing Offer (SO), SSC is looking at competing capabilities of PDF solutions and verify how these solutions handle the full cycle of creating, editing, viewing, and printing PDF documents while maintaining portability and long-term preservation.
