PDF/A is a new standard for long term archiving, approved by the International Standards Organisation.

pdfFactoryPro now supports PDF/A-1b format.

Each new version of the PDF standard has enriched the format with new features and updated some of the older features. Certain restrictions and amendments had to be incorporated and it was therefore necessary to define a stable derivative of this format that could be internationally accepted as a standard for long-term electronic archiving. PDF/A is the result.

Archiving methods:

Paper & microfilm/microfiche: Reproduceable, but large documents cannot be quickly sent to their destination. Very difficult to search for specific content.

TIFF files: Reproduceable and easy to transmit, but not easy to search. TIFFS must be scanned with optical character recognition before they can be searched. File size can be relatively large.

PDF: Reproduceable, easy to transmit, easily searched for specific content. Files are more compact than TIFF files and often of better quality. Information such as author, creation date etc. (metadata) can be embedded and files can be classified based on metadata without requiring human intervention.

PDF/A These files are independent of the tools and systems used for creating, storing or rending the files. The documents are 100% self-contained. All the information necessary for displaying the document in the same manner every time is embedded in the file, it is not reliant on any information from any other external source.