January 11, 2024
It wasn't a pompous birthday with God. There was no lavish party, no presents, and no birthday cake was baked. Quietly and quietly, the “Twen” became a “Dirty Thirty”. Judging by his significance, the birthday boy would have deserved a shrill party. The birthday girl: The PDF document.
It's hard to believe, but in 2023, the Portable Document Format (PDF) turned 30 years old. Since it was introduced by Adobe in 1993, the PDF format has fundamentally changed the way we handle business documents.
Of course, there is a connection between company size and degree of digitization. That was the only comforting explanation for the disastrous figures in the survey: over 90 percent of the companies surveyed were small and micro enterprises. A sole trader who receives 10 invoices per month will have little motivation for digital optimization. The printed PDF is “good enough”. Even if there were many good arguments that a completely digitized workflow would make sense in these cases too; you would save yourself a few working hours per month; in addition, there would be perfect documentation, transparency, traceability and a number of other benefits.
The PDF documents that can be found on the Internet show how important they are for the Internet. The PDF document is the second most important format on the Internet — far ahead of.jpg, .xml or plain text.
Originally designed to solve the challenges of printing across various devices and platforms, the PDF has quickly established itself as an indispensable tool in the modern working world.
Over time, Adobe has constantly developed the format. Security features, comment functions, search functions, and digital signatures have been added to improve usability and strengthen trust in the format.
A decisive milestone in 2008 was the transfer of the PDF format to the International Organization of Standardization (ISO). Since then, the PDF has been established as ISO standard 32000.
Adobe hasn't stopped innovating the format. By integrating image and video content and developing new encryption technologies, digital signatures and editing options, the company has ensured that the PDF remains relevant in today's digital and mobile world.
For companies, the PDF is now more than just a file format. It is a central component of environmentally friendly, digital document management. In combination with our Semadox data extraction software, PDF is also an uncomplicated, secure and inexpensive format for data transfer. Find out more about the many benefits of Semadox here.
As a manager or decision maker in your company, you shouldn't underestimate the benefits of the PDF format. It not only provides reliability and security, but is also a key element for an efficient, digital work environment.
Even in 2024, the reality of data transfers in many business processes is still the PDF document. Invoices, orders, order confirmations or delivery notes are often sent by email as a PDF. The interface for data transfer is very common among people: Employees type the relevant data into software such as ERP systems for further processing. The number of documents often amounts to hundreds, even thousands of files per month — an effort that should no longer be underestimated. Not to mention boring work for valuable employees and a comparatively high incidence of errors.
Remedy here Semadox: In combination with our data extraction software In addition to the advantages already mentioned, PDF documents are transformed into an uncomplicated, secure and inexpensive format for data transfer.
Image source: Semadox
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