– ISO 19005-1:2005 standard:
Published in 2005. It has been developed for more than 3 years. Many companies and organizations from all over the world were involved in the process.
-Defines PDF/A file format, which is based on PDF 1.4 of Adobe Systems
– Uniform file format
Established electronic document file formats vary in the different countries, government institutions and companies. Traditional old methods like the paper and microfilm archiving are not suitable and technologically backward. Large documents are not easy to transfer from one location to another in the modern world. It is extremely difficult to look for specific information in huge documents.
– Requirements
PDF/A documents should contain all required meta data for reliable long-term data visualization. The meta data should be independent of the utilities and systems on/through which the content is visualized. The format should contain structured objects: text, vector graphics, raster images.
– Compatibility
PDF/A-1b – robust document visualization.
PDF/A-1a – like PDF/A-1b, but does not contain document structure meta data.
– Document validation
It is possible to check if document conforms to the PDF/A file format through specialized tools
– Facts
New file format versions are under development. Backward compatibility to the current format/version is guaranteed. Latest software releases of popular office packages support PDF/A file format (both reading and saving documents).
