PDF to PDF/A

How to use PDF to PDF/A

1. 1

   Upload the PDF you want to archive.

2. 2

   The tool embeds fonts and normalizes the file to the PDF/A standard.

3. 3

   Click Convert to create the archival version.

4. 4

   Download your PDF/A file.

What PDF/A is, and who asks for it

PDF/A is the ISO 19005 standard for PDFs meant to be readable decades from now. It takes the ordinary PDF format and forbids everything that could make a document depend on the outside world: fonts must be embedded rather than referenced, colours must be defined explicitly, and encryption, JavaScript, embedded audio and video and external links are out. The result is a self-contained file that renders identically on any conforming viewer, now or in thirty years.

That is why people search for pdf to pdf/a: courts, land registries, tax authorities, universities and public procurement portals require it for submissions, and records departments require it for anything going into a long-term archive. If a portal has rejected your PDF with a message about PDF/A conformance, this conversion is what it is asking for.

The conformance levels you will see quoted are PDF/A-1b, PDF/A-2b and PDF/A-3b. The b stands for basic visual conformance — the document must look the same forever — and 2b is the version most archives and authorities accept today.

What changes in the file during conversion

The visible content does not change; the internal structure does. Fonts that were only referenced are embedded, so the document no longer relies on the reader having them installed. Colour spaces are normalised and an output intent is declared so colours are unambiguous. Metadata is written in the XMP format the standard requires, and the file identifies itself as PDF/A so validators and archives can recognise it.

Features the standard forbids are removed or flattened. Encryption is stripped — a PDF/A file cannot be password-protected, by design. JavaScript and form actions are dropped. Transparency and layers are handled according to the conformance level; PDF/A-2b, the widely accepted target for archiving, permits transparency and JPEG 2000 compression that the older PDF/A-1b did not.

• Fonts embedded, colours declared, XMP metadata added.
• Encryption, scripts, multimedia and external references removed.
• The page looks the same; only the plumbing changes.

Before and after: getting a file that validates

Two things trip up conversions most often. A password-protected source must be unlocked first, because encryption cannot exist in the output — use the Unlock PDF tool. And a scanned document converts fine, but a scan with no text layer is an archive of pictures; run OCR PDF first if the archive should be searchable, then convert to PDF/A.

After conversion, do not edit the file with tools that are not PDF/A-aware: re-saving in a general editor can reintroduce forbidden features and silently break conformance. Keep the PDF/A as the final, untouched version, and keep your editable original separately. If a receiving system runs a validator such as veraPDF, it checks exactly these properties, and a file straight out of the converter is what it expects.

• Unlock protected files before converting.
• OCR scans first if the archive must be searchable.
• Do not re-save the PDF/A in a non-conformant editor.

Archival conversion without an upload

Every step runs inside your browser, using the WebAssembly and Canvas APIs your device already ships with. No file is uploaded, no copy is kept, and nothing sits in a queue on a server waiting to be deleted — which is also why the tool keeps working with the network disconnected.

The documents that need PDF/A are legal filings, contracts, deeds, official correspondence and records with retention obligations — precisely the material that should not pass through an anonymous conversion server. Converting on your own device, free and without an account, means the archive copy is created where the original already lives.

Frequently Asked Questions

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