Conference October 2017 📍 Chicago, Illinois, USA

PDF Days North America 2017 — Chicago: PDF 2.0 Pre-Publication, e-Invoicing, and Section 508 Refresh

PDF Days North America 2017 was held in Chicago in October 2017, weeks before the final publication of PDF 2.0 (ISO 32000-2:2017). The conference previewed the new standard for a North American audience, examined ZUGFeRD PDF/A-3 e-invoicing adoption from a US perspective, and discussed the finalised Section 508 refresh requirements for federal agencies.

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Key takeaways

PDF 2.0 was days from publication; the RC4 encryption deprecation and LTV digital signature improvements were the highest-priority changes for enterprise implementers.
Section 508 refresh created WCAG 2.0 AA requirements for all federal agency PDFs; the January 2018 compliance deadline was approaching.
XFA was effectively deprecated in PDF 2.0; organisations with XFA-based forms needed migration plans.
ZUGFeRD e-invoicing using PDF/A-3 was a European requirement that US multinationals with EU public sector customers needed to implement.

PDF Days North America 2017 was held in Chicago in October 2017, weeks before the final publication of PDF 2.0 (ISO 32000-2:2017). The timing was deliberate — the PDF Association wanted to give North American implementers a final preview of the new standard before publication, so they could begin planning their implementations. Chicago 2017 was a pivotal moment for the North American PDF community. The Section 508 refresh had been published in January 2017, aligning federal accessibility requirements with WCAG 2.0 for the first time and creating a compliance deadline that would apply to all federal agencies by January 2018. Meanwhile, ZUGFeRD e-invoicing — a European development — was gaining attention from US multinationals with EU operations. The conference brought together a mix of PDF software vendors, enterprise document managers, federal government technology officers, and standards experts in a pre-publication PDF 2.0 briefing that would not be repeated.

PDF 2.0 pre-publication briefing

The main event at Chicago 2017 was an authoritative preview of PDF 2.0 delivered by PDF Association members who had been directly involved in the specification development. Key items covered: What actually changed — A detailed walkthrough of the changes that implementers needed to prioritise: 1. Encryption: RC4 deprecated, AES-256 required with SHA-256 key derivation 2. Digital signatures: LTV (Long-Term Validation) requirements formalised in the spec rather than as an extension 3. Unassociated annotations: new annotation type for document-level notes 4. Page-level output intents: ICC colour profiles per page 5. Associated files: structured attachments with relationship metadata 6. New object stream compression types Backwards compatibility — A key concern for North American enterprise vendors was the backwards compatibility story. PDF 2.0 documents are backwards-incompatible with PDF 1.x in some respects (particularly the new encryption). Sessions covered the practical options: - Version negotiation in PDF readers - The recommended approach of producing PDF 1.7 output for maximum compatibility and reserving PDF 2.0 for new features that require it - The timeline for major PDF readers to add PDF 2.0 support XFA and its future — Adobe had been signalling the deprecation of XFA (XML Forms Architecture) for several years. Sessions confirmed that PDF 2.0 did not include XFA in the core specification. The implications for US government agencies and healthcare organisations that had deployed XFA-based dynamic forms were significant.

Section 508 refresh: the new requirements for PDF

The January 2017 Section 508 refresh was the most significant update to US federal accessibility law since the original 2001 rule. For PDF, the practical change was an alignment with WCAG 2.0 Level AA. Sessions at Chicago 2017 translated the WCAG 2.0 requirements into PDF-specific terms: Success Criteria 1.1.1 (Text Alternatives) — All images must have alternative text. In PDF, this means every figure element in the tag tree must have an /Alt attribute. Decorative images must be marked as artifacts. Success Criteria 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships) — Structure that can be programmatically determined. In PDF, this requires accurate tag tree with correct reading order, proper heading hierarchy, table row/column headers marked up, and list items correctly tagged. Success Criteria 2.4.3 (Focus Order) — Navigation order must be logical. In PDF forms, the Tab key order must match the visual reading order. Success Criteria 3.1.1 (Language of Page) — Page language must be set. In PDF, the document dictionary's /Lang attribute must be present and correct. The Section508.gov PDF guidance was referenced as the authoritative resource for federal agency PDF producers.

ZUGFeRD and North American e-invoicing landscape

ZUGFeRD — the German/EU hybrid PDF/XML e-invoicing standard — was presented to the North American audience for the first time at the Chicago conference. While the US had no equivalent mandatory e-invoicing standard at the time, the rapid growth of EU B2G e-invoicing requirements meant North American multinationals with EU revenue streams needed to understand the format. ZUGFeRD uses PDF/A-3 as its container format — the invoice is a human-readable PDF that also contains an embedded XML attachment carrying the same invoice data in machine-readable form. The EU standard for the XML is Cross Industry Invoice (CII). North American context for this was discussed: - The US had no federal mandate for e-invoicing, but US companies selling to EU public bodies needed to comply with EU Directive 2014/55/EU - ERP systems (SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics) had varying levels of ZUGFeRD/Factur-X support; the current state was assessed - The IRS had published guidance on electronic invoices but had not mandated a specific format - Canada was watching EU e-invoicing developments; provincial and federal e-procurement platforms were beginning to accept structured invoices Forecasts presented at the 2017 conference predicted a US B2B e-invoicing mandate within 5–7 years — a prediction that proved roughly correct with subsequent US e-invoicing regulatory activity.

Frequently asked questions

What was PDF Days North America 2017?

PDF Days North America 2017 was the annual PDF Association conference for the North American PDF community, held in Chicago in October 2017. The event focused on a pre-publication preview of PDF 2.0 (published weeks later as ISO 32000-2:2017), the Section 508 refresh accessibility requirements, and ZUGFeRD e-invoicing for US companies with EU operations.

What is XFA and why was it deprecated?

XFA (XML Forms Architecture) was an Adobe-developed technology embedded in PDF for creating dynamic forms that could change layout based on data — expanding sections, adding rows, and restructuring as users filled them in. It was primarily used in complex government and healthcare forms. Adobe deprecated XFA in favour of AcroForm because XFA had limited support outside Adobe products, was extremely complex, and had significant security issues. PDF 2.0 does not include XFA in the core specification. XFA Form glossary entry provides more detail.

What is the difference between Section 508 and WCAG?

Section 508 is a US federal law requiring federal agencies to make their electronic content accessible. WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) is an international technical standard developed by the W3C that defines specific testable accessibility criteria. The 2017 Section 508 refresh aligned the law's technical requirements with WCAG 2.0 Level AA — meaning Section 508 compliance now requires meeting the WCAG 2.0 AA success criteria. For PDFs, this practically means implementing PDF/UA requirements.

Does the US have an e-invoicing mandate?

As of 2017, the US did not have a federal e-invoicing mandate comparable to the EU's Directive 2014/55/EU. However, US companies selling to EU public sector bodies must issue EU-compliant e-invoices. US states have adopted various e-invoicing requirements for state procurement. Federal e-invoicing guidance from the US Treasury exists for federal suppliers through the Bureau of the Fiscal Service. The landscape has evolved significantly since 2017.

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