What Agencies Should Know About PDF/A-1 April 6, 2006 Mark Giguere

Introduction Agenda Why long term preservation of PDF is an issue Overview of PDF/A-1 and the ISO Process Discussion of PDF/A-1 Standard and NARA’s Transfer Guidance for Permanent PDF records Roles of both PDF/A-1 and the NARA’s PDF Transfer Guidance in Federal recordkeeping Conclusion and Questions

Long-term preservation of PDF is an issue Wide use of PDF PDF is a ubiquitous open format for electronic documents –Proprietary, but with publicly available specification Much important information maintained in PDF –Permanent archival records, in some cases The feature-rich nature of PDF can complicate preservation efforts

PDF Not a Suitable Archival Format PDF itself is not suitable as an archival format –Some features not compatible with current archival requirements Not necessarily self-contained Encryption All PDFs are not created equal Long-term solution needed –Permanent archival records, in some cases –Administrative Office of U.S. Courts initiated idea for an ISO Standard based on PDF (PDF/A)

Overview of PDF/A-1 and the ISO Process Multi-part ISO International Standard –ISO :2005, Document management – Electronic document file format for long-term preservation – Part 1: Use of PDF 1.4 (PDF/A-1) –Part 2 ( ) intended to bring PDF/A into conformance with PDF 1.6 –Part 3 ( ) intended to address dynamic content (e.g., Java Script) –And additional future parts, as necessary

PDF/A-1 Approach PDF/A-1 specifies: –The subset of PDF components, from the PDF 1.4 Reference), that are either required, restricted, or prohibited, and –How these components may be used by software PDF/A PDF 1.4 Reference Specifies required features Specifies restricted features Specifies prohibited features

PDF/A-1 Requirements Disallows or limits features that could complicate long term preservation, and Maximizes: –Device independence Can be reliably and consistently rendered without regard to the hardware/software platform –Self-contained Contains all resources necessary for rendering –Self-documenting Contains its own description –Transparency Amenable to direct analysis with basic tools

PDF/A-1 Table of Contents 1 Scope 2 Normative References 3 Terms and Definitions 4 Notation 5 Conformance Levels 6 Technical Requirements –6.1 File Structure –6.2 Graphics –6.3 Fonts –6.4 Transparency –6.5 Annotations –6.6 Actions –6.7 Metadata –6.8 Logical Structure –6.9 Interactive Forms Informative annexes –Annex A - PDF/A-1 Conformance Summary –Annex B - Best Practices for PDF/A Bibliography

Two Conformance Levels Level A - Promotes the creation of PDF/A files with rich semantic and structural information, –Uses “Tagged PDF” and Unicode character maps Level B - Allows less complex files such as scanned images. –Includes all requirements of minimally necessary to preserve the visual appearance –Does not require users to define structure or other descriptive information.

Annexes of the Draft PDF/A Standard Informative Annexes provide supplemental information including: –Summary of the PDF structures and components disallowed, required, or limited –Best Practices for PDF/A-1 Guidelines for capturing or converting electronic documents to PDF/A-1 –To replicates the exact quality and content of source documents –Required for compliance with NARA’s PDF Transfer Guidance

PDF/A-1 Dos and Don’ts PDF/A-1 Dos: Embed fonts Device-independent color XMP metadata, Tagging PDF/A-1 Don’ts: Encryption LZW Compression Embedded files External content references Transparency Multi-media JavaScript

NARA’s Expectations for PDF/A –PDF/A-1 should address some of the PDF archival issues and enable PDF records to be maintained longer as PDF –Standard maintained by ISO, not just vendors –Agencies should implement PDF/A-1 along with records management policies and procedures Such as…. –NARA’s PDF Transfer Guidance –AOUSC’s document management program

How NARA is Addressing PDF Issued PDF Transfer Guidance –Allowing agencies to transfer permanent records to NARA in PDF In March of 2003, NARA Participating in PDF/A ISO Standard Development –To influence the process –To gain knowledge

Transfer Format versus File Format NARA’s transfer guidance and PDF/A-1 have a similar goal ….. to ensure that valuable electronic information in PDF is not lost. But different purposes: Transfer Format - NARA’s PDF Transfer Guidance –Specifies NARA transfer requirements –Applies to existing and future records in PDF File Format - The PDF/A ISO Standard (PDF/A-1) –Specifies a subset of the PDF file format –More format reliability/fewer in “bells & whistles” –PDF should be maintained longer as PDF (e.g., within agencies)

Scope and Usage NARA’s PDF Transfer Guidance Usage: Instructions on what is required to transfer existing permanent PDF records to NARA. Scope –Applies to permanent records –PDF –Addresses quality criteria, laws and regulations, transfer documentation, NARA contact information PDF/A-1 ISO Standard Usage: Programming specification to create and process the file format Scope –Applies to one aspect of long term preservation (i.e., file format) –PDF 1.4 –Addresses how to use the PDF 1.4 reference to create and process a flavor of PDF that is more amenable to long term preservation. –Should be used as one piece of the archival puzzle

Requirements - PDF/A and NARA’s PDF Transfer Guidance Embedded fonts PDF/A-1 and NARA’s PDF Transfer Guidance both require that fonts be embedded –NARA guidance phases in requirements for workstation resident fonts. Encryption PDF/A-1 and NARA’s PDF Transfer Guidance both prohibit encryption –NARA guidance phases in requirement as long as we can open, view and print

Special Features PDF/A-1 restricts special features –Embedded files, external links, Java Script –PDF/A-1 promotes tagged PDF as a higher level of conformance NARA evaluates special features on a case-by-case basis at the time of scheduling Metadata/Documentation PDF/A requires that embedded metadata must be in Adobe XMP NARA requires transfer documentation (e.g., SF-258), and would evaluate embedded metadata at the time of scheduling Requirements - PDF/A and NARA’s PDF Transfer Guidance

Quality Requirements PDF/A-1 as a file format does not address quality/creation requirements such as exact replication of source material –Informative Annex B - identifies recommended creation guidelines –Agencies must implement these guidelines to comply with NARA’s PDF transfer guidance NARA’s PDF Transfer Guidance includes –quality requirements regarding scanning quality, –lossy compression –substitution of characters with OCR’d text Requirements - PDF/A and NARA’s PDF Transfer Guidance

For records in PDF, agencies need to understand that: –PDF/A-1 is one option for long-term preservation of electronic documents –PDF/A-1, by itself, does not guarantee exact replication of source material –Agencies must implement PDF/A-1 in conjunction with additional requirements to meet NARA standards for transferring permanent records to NARA (i.e., NARA’s PDF Transfer Guidance) Take Away

More Information is Available More information on NARA’s PDF Transfer Guidance on NARA’s Web Site – More information on PDF/A on AIIM Web Site – Contact Susan Sullivan at

Questions/Discussion