Last updated on February 16, 2019

Rich PDF is a PDF document which can be opened and read in a regular PDF reader but which also has further meta-information so that the Rich PDF document can be shared with confidence that it will be readable by any PDF reader but that it will also provide richer interactions for those readers who can access the additional rich-formats:

Augmented Internal Data

• PDF readable output which can be accessed through any legacy PDF reader software
• A compressed and embedded copy of the original document which the original software can open and retain full interactivity (with the author’s ability to restrict output)
• An XML version of the original which can be used by Rich PDF aware applications to make more useful interactive information available
• An ePub version

Augmented Platform Specific Meta-information

On macOS would be what you find in the ‘Get Info’ window

• Author name(s)
• Title
• Date
• Publisher
• etc.

Augmented Interactions

Suggested interactions include:

• Mouse-Over citations in-document for References sheets with all citation information, which can be clicked on to jump to source
• ‘Copy’ to include full citation information so that when the copy is Pasted it will paste as a full citation