Pdf so badly needs a standard open source reference implementation. the problem with java is that it isn’t easy to reuse in other programming environment... something in C, or anything that compiles through LLVM would probably be a better choice i think.
Similarly, I would like to see more attention given to PDF/A and high quality reference implementations and libraries targeting it. It solves many of the most common complaints here on HN about PDF: no audio / video, no javascript, no XML forms, all fonts have to be embedded, etc. - and it's an ISO standard.
We really need solid support for a document format that has readers that aren't constantly getting CVE'd from supporting too much of a bloated specification.