PDF/A is an ISO standard that was introduced in order to ensure long-term reproducibility of PDF files. ISO 19005-1 defines PDF/A as “a file format based on PDF, known as PDF/A, which 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 rending the files.” (From ISO 19005-1).

Some of the criteria for a PDF/A compliant document include:

1. No audio or video content is allowed
2. All the fonts should be embedded including the Base 14 fonts, which are
• Times (regular, italic, bold, and bold italic)
• Courier (regular, oblique, bold and bold oblique)
• Helvetica (regular, oblique, bold and bold oblique)
• Symbol
• Zapf Dingbats
3. Linking to JavaScript or other executable files is not allowed
4. The document should not be encrypted

There are different levels of compliance associated with PDF/A. The minimum compliance is PDF/A-1b which ensures that the document can be reproduced long-term.

The Graduate School strongly recommends that authors submit their ETDs as one PDF/A-1b compliant document.

Use the links below for tutorials to create a PDF/A-1b compliant document.

• PC Users
• Mac Users

URL: http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/pdfa.html

Last modified: 08/24/11 15:07:00GMc