Datalogics adds Expanded QR Code Generation and PDF/A-3 Compliance in Adobe PDF Library

We’ve added a couple of new capabilities with the newest Adobe PDF Library release that give developers more control over how content is added to and described inside a PDF.

First, if you’re working in .NET or Java, there’s now an expanded version of the AddQRBarcode() method in the Page class. In the C++ Library, there is a new PDPageAddQRBarcodeEx() function. In practical terms, this gives you more flexibility when placing QRCodes on a PDF page, adding support for the Error level, the Quiet zone and the color for the barcode and background, making it easier to place, configure, or generate QR barcodes directly as part of your document workflow.

On the standards side, we’ve improved support for PDF/A-3 and embedded files. PDF/A-3 introduced the AFRelationship entry, which defines how an embedded file relates to the PDF itself (for example, whether it’s source data, supplementary material, or an alternative representation). That same concept was later adopted into the PDF 2.0 standard.

Now, instead of that relationship being implicit or hard to manage, you can explicitly set and retrieve it in code. This means:

• Better standards compliance for PDF/A-3 documents
• Clearer, machine-readable metadata about how embedded files relate to the PDF
• More control when working with associated files like XML, spreadsheets, or other supporting content

To support this, new functions have been added in the C/C++ APIs to get and set the AFRelationship on file attachments. And if you’re using .NET or Java, the FileAttachment class now includes an AFRelationship member, so you can work with this information directly in your application.

In short: it’s now easier to generate QR codes in PDFs and to clearly define how embedded files are meant to be understood, both of which help make PDFs more functional, compliant, and future proof.

See the release notes here for more information.