adoc Studio 4: First Native Mac App to Export PDF/UA-Compliant Documents

The AsciiDoc writing environment delivers PDF/UA-compliant documents without Word, Acrobat, or export plug-ins, reducing the effort needed to produce accessible documents in daily editorial work.

Melle, Germany, 21 April 2026

ProjectWizards GmbH today releases adoc Studio 4. The writing environment for Mac, iPad, and iPhone exports documents as accessible PDFs compliant with the PDF/UA standard (ISO 14289) for the first time, without additional export plug-ins and without manual post-processing
in Adobe Acrobat. Companies subject to the European Accessibility Act (EAA), enforceable across the EU since 28 June 2025, gain an alternative to the conventional tool chain of Word, export plug-ins, and validation tools.

The scope is broad: the EAA applies to all companies offering digital products or services to consumers, with only micro-enterprises (fewer than ten employees and under two million euros annual turnover) exempt. Enforcement varies by EU member state; in Germany, the Federal Network
Agency may impose fines of up to 100,000 euros per individual violation under the national implementation (BFSG).

ACCESSIBLE PDFs: COMPLEX, ERROR-PRONE, TOOL-HEAVY

The PDF/UA standard requires a complete tag structure, a logical reading order, and alternative text for every non-textual element. Existing workflows typically require several tools: a source document in Word or InDesign, an export plug-in such as axesWord or MadeToTag, validation
with the PDF Accessibility Checker (PAC), and manual corrections in Adobe Acrobat Pro. The process is time-consuming, prone to error, and assumes expertise that many editorial teams do not have. The scale of
the problem is evident from a recent analysis: in a sample of 62 technical industrial documents from eight regulated sectors, none met the PDF/UA standard as of March 2026.
Source: www.adoc-studio.app/studies/pdfua-2026

PDF/UA FROM THE FIRST KEYSTROKE

adoc Studio takes a different approach. The app is built on AsciiDoc, a markup language that encodes structure and semantics directly in the source text: headings, lists, tables, image descriptions, and language tags are embedded in the text itself, not added after the fact. On export, adoc Studio 4 translates this structure automatically into a fully tagged PDF/UA document. No post-processing in external tools is
required.

Output is controlled through a CSS stylesheet. Font sizes, color contrast, and page margins can be defined and changed centrally without touching the content itself. Teams can produce consistent accessible documents at scale, from technical manuals to annual reports.

QUOTE

"Accessible PDFs don't fail today for lack of intent, they fail at the tool seams. If you write in Word, you need a plug-in for export, a checker for validation, and Acrobat for corrections. We wanted a path where accessibility emerges from the text structure itself, not from post-processing."

Frank Blome, CEO of ProjectWizards GmbH

REGULATORY CONTEXT: EN 301 549 AS THE BENCHMARK

The European Accessibility Act (Directive EU 2019/882) is transposed into national law across EU member states. For technical documentation, product information, and customer communication, this means: PDF documents published after the enforcement date must meet the requirements of EN 301 549, which in practice amounts to PDF/UA compliance.

AVAILABILITY AND PRICING

adoc Studio 4 is available today on the Apple App Store for Mac, iPad, and iPhone. The Community Edition, with AsciiDoc editor, HTML export, and project management, remains free permanently. The Pro Edition, with PDF/UA export, translation management, and AI integration, costs 249.99 US dollars per year or 24.99 US dollars per month.

More information: www.adoc-studio.app

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PRESS CONTACT
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Marvin Blome
Marketing Manager at ProjectWizards
Email: press@projectwizards.net
Web: www.adoc-studio.app/press

ProjectWizards GmbH
Lichtenrader Straße 11
49324 Melle
Germany

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ABOUT PROJECTWIZARDS
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ProjectWizards GmbH, headquartered in Melle, Germany, has been
developing productivity software for Apple platforms since 2004. Its
core product, Merlin Project, is a hybrid project management tool for
Mac, iPad, and iPhone. adoc Studio, launched in 2024, is an integrated
writing environment for technical documentation based on AsciiDoc.
ProjectWizards is a member of tekom, the German Society for Technical
Communication.

More information: www.projectwizards.net

This release was published on openPR.