| To
address the growing need for a standard electronic document
format, the International Organization of Standardization agreed
that PDF/A would be the format of choice for long-term preservation
and archive of documents. This 2002 initiative to create a uniform
electronic format to archive documents was approved in June
2005. The PDF/A project was a joint sponsorship between AIIM
and NPES. A group composed of librarians, archivists, PDF software
developers, image experts, government agencies, and others collaborated
to develop PDF/A.
According
to ISO 19005-1, PDF/A "provides a mechanism for representing
electronic documents in a manner that preserves their visual
appearance over time, independent of the tools and systems
used for creating, storing or rendering the files."
The
PDF, or Portable Document Format, was first launched by Adobe
in 1993. The format grew in popularity based on universal
readability and has become a staple in viewing files online
or at work. PDF/A holds various modifications to traditional
PDFs that enable preservation. Traditional PDFs are feature-rich
in nature, this characteristic disallows them to preserve
information over time. PDF documents are also not necessarily
self-contained; as technology evolves and time passes the
PDF document is susceptible to having information and content
within the document lost. Everyday, companies from all over
the world trust PDFs to save and preserve documents; PDF/A
was created to ensure the long-term accessibility and value
of these documents.
PDF/A
is a modification of Adobe’s PDF Reference 1.4. PDF/A
files have the feel of a typical PDF, however, PDF/A omits
features of traditional PDFs not befitting to long-term preservation
including encryption, embedded files, external content references,
PDF Transparency, multi-media, and JavaScript. In certain
sectors of the document management industry, the PDF/A restrictions
may prove tricky to comply with. For example, in the financial
services and investment banking industries there may be a
need to restrict view and/or print access to sensitive documents.
This can often be achieved easily utilizing the native PDF-supported
RC4-based encryption. With the PDF/A specifications, such
document encryption would be disallowed.
PDF/A
will maintain the static visual appearance of electronic documents
over time, while maintaining the capacity for metadata. Metadata
is essential in long-term preservation because it allows users
to insert identifiable information regarding the details of
a document such as author, date, subject, keywords, and more.
Metadata insertion adds to the portability of a database as
information about a document is kept both at the database
level and at the document level itself.
PDF/A
files are designed to be self-contained, self describing,
and more device-independent than traditional PDF files. As
a self-contained file, PDF/A possesses everything that is
necessary to render or print the PDF/A contained within the
file including fonts used for rendering content. By requiring
that the fonts be embedded in the file, PDF/A ensures that
the fonts required to render the document are available to
the PDF reader.
PDF/A
tools and products are expected to make their way to the market
shortly; however, it may take some time prior to widespread
use. Considering the current buzz and archival advantages,
in time PDF/A should become prevalent within document management
initiatives.
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