PDF/A

Create reports, invoices, and records designed for long-term preservation. PDF/A is the ISO standard for preserving a PDF’s visual appearance over time, independently of the software and systems used to create it.

PrecisionPDF embeds fonts and rendering resources, includes a color profile, and records archival metadata in the PDF. PDF/A output is included in Professional.

Supported features

All six supported variants preserve the document’s visual appearance, embed fonts, and support transparency. PDF/A-2 and PDF/A-3 use PDF 1.7; PDF/A-4 uses PDF 2.0.

¹ PDF/A-1a, PDF/A-1b, PDF/A-2a, PDF/A-3a, and PDF/A-4e are not supported.

Preserve text and source files

PDF/A-2u and PDF/A-3u require Unicode mappings for every used text character code. These mappings let software interpret the text for copying, extraction, and search. PDF/A-4 and PDF/A-4f do not require the same complete mapping coverage.

Unicode text mapping and PDF/UA accessibility are separate capabilities. PDF/A conformance alone does not establish accessible document structure or reading order.

PDF/A-3b, PDF/A-3u, and PDF/A-4f can keep source files and supporting data alongside the rendered pages. Attached files retain their original formats; embedding a file does not make it independently archival. PrecisionPDF’s PDF/A-2b, PDF/A-2u, and base PDF/A-4 output is attachment-free.

Generate a PDF/A document

These examples generate a PDF/A-2u document with Professional. Save your HTML as document.html, or use the getting-started example.

precisionpdf --pdf-profile pdf/a-2u document.html document.pdf

from precisionpdf import HTML

HTML(filename="document.html").write_pdf(
    "document.pdf", pdf_variant="pdf/a-2u"
)