What is an OFD file

The OFD train slowly entered the
station, carrying the long journey of electronic document management
covered with morning light and full of hope -
driving on Yangguan Avenue, where national format documents are standardized.

1. What is OFD
OFD is the English abbreviation of Open Fixed-layout Document, which is China's national format standard-GB/T 33190-2016 Electronic File Storage and Exchange Format-Format Document.
What is a format document? A format document is a format document that is independent, has a fixed layout, and is presented in a solid manner, as opposed to a stream document such as Word(doc, docx). Layout documents are not easy to modify, and the display effect remains unchanged in different devices, while streaming documents will change according to the device layout display.

For example
, a doc format Word document is opened by Word and WPS, which is prone to layout changes and content rearrangement. The same Word document will also be opened in different versions of Office. The layout document is not affected by the device, and the layout is fixed. It is completely consistent with paper documents in terms of layout, layout, font, font size, etc. The characteristics of the format document format make it an ideal document format for serious electronic document publishing, digital information dissemination and archiving. The representative of
format documents is PDF documents that we are very familiar with in our work and life, while OFD documents are the format standards of format documents independently developed and formulated by our country. On the basis of PDF, many application scenario functions based on the needs of China's social development have been added. It can be said that OFD and PDF positioning are the same, and they are both in the format of the document, but OFD is post-developed and blue.

2. The research and development process and significance of OFD

in 2009, led by the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the General Office of the State Council, the National Development and Reform Commission and other nine departments jointly established an inter-ministerial joint meeting on the management of electronic documents, which was responsible for organizing and coordinating the management of electronic documents across the country, and issued the "Interim Measures for the Management of Electronic Documents."
In November 2010, the joint meeting commissioned the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to take the lead in forming a working group on electronic file storage and exchange format standards, and began the preparation of my country's independent format document standards.
In August 2011, the compilation team completed the draft standard content of the "Electronic Document Storage and Exchange Format Document" (OFD Standard), and conducted a pilot trial in multi-industry fields across the country.
In October 2016, OFD was officially released as a national standard (GB/T 33190-2016). The "Format Specification for Electronic Official Documents of Party and Government Organs" issued by
in December 2016 clearly requires that "the bearing format of electronic official documents is OFD". The National Standards for Electronic License Series issued by the
in November 2018 clearly stipulate that "electronic licenses use the OFD format". In
's Announcement on Comprehensive Service Platform for VAT Invoices and Other Matters in 2020 (State Administration of Taxation Announcement No. 1 of 2020), it is clearly pointed out that "the format of VAT electronic general invoice format is OFD format"
"Why should China establish OFD format standards after PDF?"
First of all, from the application level, there was no uniform standard for format documents in the past, and the domestic application situation was very chaotic. The format standards of more than ten different manufacturers such as CEB and SEP. The format is not uniform, the access interfaces are inconsistent, and the support for application requirements is incomplete, resulting in difficult communication and long-term archiving. However, the application demand of format documents in China is very urgent. The situation requires the development of a unified document format standard that meets the needs of domestic applications.
Secondly, from a technical point of view, OFD has a series of technical advantages. First, OFD is based on XML technology to describe document data. It is compact in size, open in format, easy to understand, and long-term readable and usable. Second, OFD expands its characteristics according to the characteristics of various fields in our country, which more deeply meets the application requirements. Third, the OFD standard can support domestic cryptographic algorithms, which is a strong guarantee for document security and a basic condition for documents to have legal effect. The fourth and, the OFD standard is autonomous and controllable. When the country needs to expand the OFD mentioned above, especially in the application field of serious documents of the party, government and army in our country, we can not be controlled by external manufacturers. We have our own standard discourse power. These advantages are not available in PDF or the private document format of some domestic manufacturers in the past.

3. Current and Future
of OFD Before the OFD standard was compiled and released, the format had been applied on a pilot basis in the Ministry of Land and Resources, the National Audit Office, the Patent Office of the State Intellectual Property Office, the Central Archives, Tianjin Archives and Beijing Archives. In 2015, it was also applied in the electronic document projects of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the International Liaison Department of the CPC Central Committee, Dalian, Chifeng.
with the official release of the standard, the next thing to do is to implement my country's self-developed technical standard into the software development and more applications of the electronic file industry. In 2016, the Electronic Document Management Promotion Alliance was established in Beijing. More than 60 enterprises or institutions became the first members of the alliance. Among them, many enterprises such as Shuke and Fuxin are developing products that meet or support OFD standards. The product form covers terminals and servers. The supported systems include Windows, Linux and mobile platforms. With the further extension of OFD market, more and more enterprises will participate in the development and application of OFD format documents.
The OFD electronic document series standard was released in 2016, the OFD electronic license standard was issued in 2018, the unified format of the announcement electronic invoice issued in 2020 is OFD, and the relevant technical specifications for archiving of OFD are also under planning. After the initial application of electronic documents, archives and other fields, the follow-up will be quickly promoted to electronic bills, electronic contracts, electronic medical records and other fields.
OFD format document format integrates the country's high-quality industrial resources, which is conducive to the final formation of a competitive advantage over PDF and other related foreign standards, and helps to promote the sound development of China's format-related technologies and industries. At present, major domestic office software manufacturers and format manufacturers have supported the standard and developed various products for Windows, Linux and mobile platforms. With the advent of the 5G era, the new base