In today’s digital era, ensuring long-term storage and completeness of important documents becomes essential. The standard PDF can't always meet long-term storage needs, whether legal contracts, financial records, or government documents. That’s the value of PDF/A, which is a document format designed for long-term document preservation and regulatory compliance.
So, what is PDF/A? How does it ensure the long-term readability and compliance of documents? What are the different types of PDF/A? What are its applications in actual industries? All your questions will be answered in this blog!
What is PDF/A?
PDF/A (Portable Document Format for Archiving) is a file format that is based on an ISO-standardized, and designed for long-term preservation of electronic documents. Unlike regular PDFs, PDF/A follows strict rules to ensure documents remain consistent and compatible across any software and operating systems. It can still be opened and displayed for years or even decades, whether fonts, colors, hyperlinks, or layouts accurately. Preventing content loss or formatting issues caused by software updates, missing fonts, or external dependencies.
Due to its unique design, PDF/A is widely used in industries like legal, finance, and government, especially in cases requiring long-term storage and compliance. It offers a reliable guarantee for the readability of electronic documents.
Why Use PDF/A Format?
Be it an entrepreneur, a university student, or a growing business, it will offer many benefits to save files in PDF/A format.
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Assure Long-term Accessibility: Whatever happens with software or hardware evolution over time, the document will be displayed in its original format when it has been created. What's more, the PDF/A standards also include readability, which ensures people with disabilities can also access and read the documents without barriers.
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Enhance Searchability: It will enable easier retrieval, referencing, or searching text in the future because PDF/A documents can be indexed and searched.
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Reduce Risks: PDF/A embeds all necessary elements into files, such as fonts, color profiles, images, and so on. This eliminates the dependence on external resources, reduces the risks caused by font substitution or font loss, helps prevent layout corruption, moderates the possibility of data loss for organizations, and ensures continuity and compliance for business.
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Legal Compliance: PDF/A is a globally recognized ISO standard format. It ensures the document meets legal and regulatory requirements for long-term storage. Moreover, helps companies achieve legal compliance.
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Ensure Document Integrity: PDF/A prohibits dynamic content that may become obsolete or incompatible as time goes by, such as audio, video, JavaScript, or other content. It keeps the consistency of content and formatting, thus avoiding layout issues.
In summary, PDF/A enhances the long-term usability and security of your documents such that it ensures compliance reduces future risks, and provides comprehensive protection for your documents.
What Are Different Types of PDF/A?
PDF/A develops into 4 versions by combining different standards and levels of consistency to meet constantly evolving technical needs and application scenarios. Following the updation of standards, it becomes more flexible and powerful, not only ensuring long-term archiving reliability but also supporting richer documentation features.
1. PDF/A-1: Most Basic and Stringent Archiving Standard
PDF/A-1 is the first version of PDF/A. It emphasizes the long-term visual integrity of documents and adds the most strict limitations. It does not support JPEG2000, layers, or attachments to ensure the document works without compatibility issues caused by external reliability in the future.
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PDF/A-1a(Enhance accessibility): Ensure the text and structure information in files can be accessed by assistive technology, for example, screen readers. Make people with disability read and understand the document's content.
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PDF/A-1b(Basic archiving): More focus on visual consistency to ensure the documents can display an identical appearance when the original documents are created in any case. It is a strict subset of ISO PDF standards.
2. PDF/A-2：Enhanced Compatibility & Flexibility
Based on PDF/A-1, PDF/A-2 allows using more advanced PDF features, including supporting JPEG 2000, opacity, layers, and embedded attachments. Nonetheless, PDF/A-2 has not replaced PDF/A-1, instead provides broader applicability.
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PDF/A-2a(Enhance accessibility): Based on the structure labels of PDF/A-2u, make searching and reusing document content become easier, while supporting assistive technology access.
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PDF/A-2b(Basic archiving): Ensure the document’s visual representations remain consistent with when it was created to meet the essential compliance standards.
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PDF/A-2u(Unicode compatible): Based on b-level consistency, it requires all text to have a Unicode equivalent to ensure the content can be indexed and accurately displayed.
3. PDF/A-3: Support Broader Document Integration
PDF/A-3 has been further expanded that is based on PDF/A-2. It allows all file types as an attachment, such as XML, CSV, CAD, electronic table, word processing document, and more. This feature greatly improves the applicability of PDF/A, allowing it to carry data related to the original document.
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PDF/A-3a: Similar to PDF/A-2a, enhancing accessibility, and making assistive technologies like screen readers parse document content smoothly.
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PDF/A-3b: Make sure the visual representation is consistent with the original document while meeting the minimum achieving standards.
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PDF/A-3u: Supports searching and copying text, suitable for scanned documents processed by OCR and digitally generated PDF.
4. PDF/A-4: Modernized Long-term Archiving Standards
PDF/A-4 uses the PDF 2.0 standard, which offers more enhanced support for modernized archiving. It cancels the previous a, b, and u levels consistency while introducing new e and f levels consistency.
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PDF/A-4e: It is designed for engineering documents. Supports 3D annotations, rich media content, and embeds files to meet the industries' requirements like CAD and BIM(Building Information Modeling).
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PDF/A-4f: Allows embedding of no-PDF/A attachments. Similar to PDF/A-3, improves the compatibility and flexibility for archiving.
PDF/A has developed from the initial PDF/A-1 to the latest PDF/A-4, gradually enhancing its adaptability for archiving requirements. Whether in terms of accessibility, visual consistency, or support for file embedding and AEC industry document storage, PDF/A is constantly being updated to ensure the stability and reliability of document long-term archiving.
How is PDF/A Used in Industries?
PDF/A has found extensive application in the use of a wide range of industries for long-term storage, legal adherence, and credible digital archiving. Herein, we present the list of some industries that use PDF/A:
1. Legal: Ensure contracts, cases, and court documents are consistent with the original. Meeting legal requirements and preventing any content changes.
2. Government: Storing official documents in PDF/A for availability, keeping them legally admissible, and promoting information transparency.
3. Finance & Banking: Long-term storage of financial documents. Ensuring compliance and supporting reliable retrieval.
4. Healthcare: Achieve health records, meeting the HIPAA and PDF standards and ensuring electronic health record(EHR) security.
5. Education & Research: Storage of academic papers and research findings, ensuring long-term access and improving searching efficiency.
6. Engineering & Manufacturing: Archive CAD drawings and technical files in PDF/A format, supporting 3D models and reducing risks of outdated format.
7. Publishing & Media: Keep digital publishing and history documents, ensuring the original format remains intact while enhancing searchability.
8. Insurance: Archive policy and claim records, preventing content from changing and meeting compliance requirements, facilitating future audits.
PDF/A is an ideal format to ensure that documents remain secure, compliant, and accessible over the long term.
Final Words
In short words, as a critical electronic document format, PDF/A plays a unique function in all industries and ensures its long-term readability, completability of data, and compliance.
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