Adobe released its PDF 1.7 specification to AIIM in January 2007 in response to continued pressure from Microsoft's XPS format, open-source format ODF and corporate and government organisations clamouring for standardisation.
The deal to make PDF into an open standard means Adobe has to relinquish control to ISO, who are now responsible for updating the standard, publishing information about it and developing future versions.
Kevin Lynch, chief technology officer at Adobe, said: "Maintenance of the PDF specification by an external and participatory organisation will help continue to drive innovation and expand the rich PDF ecosystem that has evolved over the past 15 years."
The new open standard is called ISO 32000-1, Document management - Portable document format - Part 1: PDF 1.7.
Adobe's PDF gains acceptance as ISO standard
Adobe's ubiquitous Portable Document Format (PDF) has become an ISO standard, some 18 months after Adobe released its PDF 1.7 specification to AIIM, the enterprise content management association.
