PDF/A Compliance

Create an Adobe PDF/A archive file from any document

Print2PDF can easily create an Adobe PDF/A-1b electronic archive file from a Microsoft Word .doc. Creating a PDF/A compliant file from any application is very simple using the included built-in profile. This feature is great for archiving important documents, e-mail, invoices and more.

What is PDF/A?

PDF/A is an ISO standard (19005-1:2005) that defines a document format for long-term archiving of electronic documents and is based on the PDF Reference Version 1.4 from Adobe Systems Inc. The main focus of this standard is for documents to be 100% self-contained. List of PDF/A limitations:

  • Audio and video content is not allowed
  • Javascript and executable file launches are prohibited
  • All fonts must be embedded
  • Colorspaces specified in a device-independent manner
  • Encryption is not allowed
  • Use of metadata is required

Learn more about PDF/A from Wikipedia.

PDF/A conversion from Microsoft Word

Open the document you would like to convert in Word. Once the document is opened you have two ways to perform document conversion to PDF/A. Method #1 is to use the Print2PDF macro that you can find on the Word toolbar. This will convert all heading and hyperlinks to the PDF format. Method #2 is to use the normal way of printing the document to the Print2PDF printer (File - Print - Print2PDF).

Once the conversion process is started using one of the above methods, the Save PDF File As dialog will appear. Just select the Archive (PDF/A-1b) profile and click Save.

Save As PDF

Validating PDF/A compliance with Adobe Acrobat

Validating the created PDF/A file with Adobe Acrobat yields no problems found:

Adobe Acrobat Preflight PDF/A

Screenshots
  • Digital Time Stamp Support
  • User-friendly PDF conversion from any windows application
  • Easy PDF pages insertion, extraction and deletion
  • Multliple Digital Signatures support
  • PDF Conversion from watched folders and emails
  • Service Manager (PDF conversion from emails and folders)
  • PDF/A conversion
  • Merge multiple documents into one PDF
  • Image compression and quality options
  • Batch convert multiple documents to PDFs
  • Security Features and Encryption
  • Network PDF Creation and Conversion Profiles