PDF/A

ISO 19005-1:2005 is an ISO Standard that was published on October 1, 2005:

* Document Management - Electronic document file format for long term preservation - Part 1: Use of
PDF 1.4 (PDF/A-1)

This standard defines a format (PDF/A) for the long-term archiving of electronic documents and is based
on the PDF Reference Version 1.4 from Adobe Systems Inc. (implemented in Adobe Acrobat 5).

PDF/A is in fact a subset of PDF, leaving out PDF features not suited to long-term archiving. This is
similar to the definition of the PDF/X subset for the printing and graphic arts.

In addition, the standard places requirements on software products that read PDF/A files. A "conforming
reader" must follow certain rules including following color management guidelines, using embedded fonts
for rendering, and making annotation content available to users.

Description

The Standard does not define an archiving strategy or the goals of an archiving system. It identifies a
"profile" for electronic documents that ensures the documents can be reproduced the exact same way in
years to come. A key element to this reproducibility is the requirement for PDF/A documents to be 100 %
self-contained. All of the information necessary for displaying the document in the same manner every
time is embedded in the file. This includes, but is not limited to, all content (text, raster images and vector
graphics), fonts, and color information. A PDF/A document is not permitted to be reliant on information
from external sources (e.g. font programs and hyperlinks).

Other key elements to PDF/A compatibility include:

* Audio and video content are forbidden.

* JavaScript and executable file launches are prohibited.
* All fonts must be embedded and also must be legally embeddable for unlimited, universal rendering.
This also applies to the so-called PostScript standard fonts such as Times or Helvetica.
* Colorspaces specified in a device-independent manner.
* Encryption is disallowed.
* Use of standards-based metadata is mandated.

Conformance levels and versions

The standard specifies two levels of compliance for PDF files:

* PDF/A-1a - Level A compliance in Part 1

* PDF/A-1b - Level B compliance in Part 1

PDF/A-1b has the objective of ensuring reliable reproduction of the visual appearance of the document.
PDF/A-1a includes all the requirements of PDF/A-1b and additionally requires that document structure be
included (also known as being "tagged"), with the objective of ensuring that document content can be
searched and repurposed.

A new version "PDF/A-2" is currently being worked on. It is expected to be based on the PDF Reference
Version 1.6.

Identification

A PDF/A document can be identified as such through PDF/A-specific metadata located in the
"http://www.aiim.org/pdfa/ns/id/" namespace. However, claiming to be PDF/A and being so are not
necessarily the same

* A PDF document can be PDF/A-compliant, except for its lack of PDF/A metadata. This may happen
for instance with documents that were generated before the definition of the PDF/A standard, by authors
aware of features that present long-term preservation issues.

* A PDF document can be identified as PDF/A, but may incorrectly contain PDF features not allowed in
PDF/A; hence, documents which claim to be PDF/A-compliant should be tested for PDF/A compliance.

Drawbacks

As a PDF/A document must embed all fonts that it uses, a PDF/A file will often be bigger than an
equivalent PDF file that does not have the fonts embedded. This may be undesirable when archiving
large numbers of small files that all use the same fonts, since a separate copy of each font will be
embedded in each file.

The majority of PDF generation tools that allow for PDF/A document compliance, such as the PDF export
tool in Microsoft Office 2007 suites, will also make any transparent images in a given document non-
transparent.

Background

PDF/A was originally a new joint activity between NPES - The Association for Suppliers of Printing,
Publishing and Converting Technologies, and the Association for Information and Image Management,
International (AIIM International) to develop an International standard that defines the use of the Portable
Document Format (PDF) for archiving and preserving documents. The goal was to address the growing
need to electronically archive documents in a way that will ensure preservation of their contents over an
extended period of time, and will further ensure that those documents will be able to be retrieved and
rendered with a consistent and predictable result in the future. This need exists in a growing number of
international government and industry segments, including legal systems, libraries, newspapers,
regulated industries, and others.