This site describes PDF/raster, a strict subset of the PDF file format, for storing and transporting multipage raster image documents, especially scanned documents. PDF/raster provides the portability of PDF while offering the core functionality of TIFF. Bitonal, grayscale and truecolor images are supported. Compression options include uncompressed, JPEG, and lossless CCITT Group 4 Fax.
PDF/raster is intended to be a standard format for storing, transporting and exchanging scanned documents. As a subset of PDF, it takes advantage of the widespread support for viewing, printing and processing PDF files. As a narrowly restricted subset of PDF, it is much simpler to generate and interpret, allowing it to replace the TIFF and JPEG file formats for capture and delivery of scanner output.
OF NOTE: Security researchers recently published a detailed explanation of vulnerabilities they identified in PDF consumer applications relevant to signature validation in digitally signed PDF documents. The vulnerabilities are relevant only to such digitally signed documents, and not to PDF in general. We advise you study the industry best practices when implementing code dealing with digital signature validation:
View a presentation from Jon Harju, TWAIN Working Group Chair and Visioneer, Inc. CTO, about PDF/raster
