Overview:

Adobe participates widely in standards forums: both those that are formal and governmentally recognized, such as the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), and in consortia, such as World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).

Adobe's participation in standards is driven by the business needs of our customers. When there is a significant customer requirement expressed to Adobe through the sales force, through customer feedback, or through other market mechanisms we will do whatever is necessary to meet the needs and requirements of our customers.

There are two common and underlying themes in all of Adobe's engagements: promoting the interoperability of information through the use of standards, and engaging in standardization to allow the use and display of information in formats that allow users the ability to choose and use the standards, technology, and attributes which they prefer.

Participation:

Adobe participates heavily in multiple committees of the ISO, including TC 42, ISO/IEC JTC1, TC 130, and TC 171. It is in ISO that Adobe has chosen to standardize PDF and XMP, and is where much of the standardization for image technology occurs.

In regional standards bodies, Adobe participates in ETSI, where we were participants in the development of ETSI Technical Specification (TS) 102 778, also known as the PAdES. We also watch activities in the Committee for European Standardization (CEN) and work with industry partners to share our views on policy activities in standards in Europe.

In national bodies within the US, Adobe is active in Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM), the International Committee for Information Technology Standardization (INCITS), and various other formal bodies that are part of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) process. Adobe is also represented in many ISO related national standards bodies in areas that touch upon its core businesses of information management.

Adobe also plays widely in consortia concerned with information display, sharing, and management. The organizations run the gamut from the W3C, OASIS, the IETF, and the Unicode Consortium to more specialized organizations such as International Digital Publishing Forum, ECMA, to the International Imaging Industry Association, and the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization.