Archival PDF
This page gathers content regarding archival PDF from across pdfa.org.
- ISO standards for archival PDF
- Industry specifications on archival PDF
- Other PDF industry publications related to archiving
- Member communities related to archiving
- Articles on archival PDF
- PDF Days presentations on archival PDF
- Members' products & services supporting PDF/A
ISO standards for archivable PDF
The PDF Association is ISO's and ANSI's committee manager for ISO TC 171 SC 2, publisher of all ISO standards for PDF technology with the exception of ISO 15930 (PDF/X), which is developed under the auspices of ISO TC 130.

ISO 19005-4, known as PDF/A-4, defines a subset of PDF 2.0 for representing electronic documents … Read more

This International Standard specifies the AFP document architecture by defining a subset appropriate for long-term … Read more

ISO 19005, known as PDF/A-3, is equivalent to PDF/A-2, but with the addition of the … Read more
Industry specifications on archiving
These formal industry publications define the interoperable use of PDF technology for archival purposes. All are freely available. Some are also published as ISO standards.

Based on PDF/A, the EA-PDF specification defines a specification for a vendor- and platform- neutral … Read more

TechNote 0010 offers ISO TC 171 SC 2 WG 5-reviewed and industry-supported clarifications of ISO … Read more

Prior to development of the Isartor Test Suite, the PDF/A Competence Center Technical Working Group … Read more

This TechNote explains how to construct an XMP extension schema for PDF/A-1.
Other PDF industry publications related to archiving
In keeping with the spirit of the original PDF Reference, all PDF Association publications are freely available.

This Application Note provides acceptable uses of HDR images and color data when using PDF/A … Read more

This document provides guidance and recommendations for application developers who want to create PDF files … Read more

Private data is everywhere is in almost every broadly-adopted file format. This Application Note answers … Read more
Member communities related to archiving
The PDF Association's volunteer communities represent the organization's true purpose and most important feature. Their primary purpose is to develop and obtain consensus on PDF specifications, test-suites, technical and application notes, best practices and other formal industry guidance. Many of these products are eventually submitted for ISO standardization via ISO TC 171 SC 2.
Archiving is the direct or indirect focus of the following communities:
Developing common understandings and a standard reference model for the … Read more


Archival and long-term preservation of PDF, including ISO 19005 and … Read more


Articles on archiving
PDF Association members can post non-commercial educational content on pdfa.org.
November 2025 by Peter Wyatt

Understanding how URLs can exist and behave in PDF/A files is critical to preservationists who need to identify, audit, and … Read more
February 2023 by Peter Wyatt

The joint Australian and New Zealand national committee on Records and Document Management Systems recommendation to both Standards Australia and … Read more
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PDF Days presentations on archiving
These educational presentations were presented at PDF Days events by a wide range of industry experts. Since 2022 PDF Days has been replaced with the PDF Week series of technical conferences.
Apache Tika is widely used as a critical enabling technology for search in Apache Solr and other search systems. This open source library performs text and metadata extraction from numerous … Read more
Cette présentation vous aide à identifier des opportunités concrètes : Réduire les couts liés au stockage et colportage des images issus des processus de dématérialisation par une compression d’image avancée Harmoniser … Read more
Most office files are created with Microsoft Office and quality of conversion is defined by the degree to which it is the similar to what this suite creates – at … Read more
In this presentation you’ll learn about migrating content into cloud based repositories and ECM systems, based on hard facts and ECM market data. Many cloud migration projects failed, due to … Read more
In today’s digital world, PDF has become the most widely used format for customer communications management (CCM). Many organisations are struggling to achieve successful workflow management, production processing, streamlining access, … Read more
PDF/R – the new ISO 23504-1:2020 standard for raster image data interchange. This session offers a summary and discusses how PDF/R can help modernize and secure scanned image data transfer, … Read more
Members' products & services supporting PDF/A
PDF Association members are entitled to post their products and services in the product showcase. The members' posting the products listed below are claiming that the product supports PDF/A. The PDF Association is not responsible for members' representation of their products or services.







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