Free XMP Extension Schema templates
These free XMP Extension Schema templates support PDF documents that conform to multiple subset standards, including PDF/A, PDF/X, PDF/VT, and PDF Declarations.
The visual appearance of PDF pages gets the most attention. Even so, archivists must also consider preservation requirements for document metadata, which is also of vital importance in the long term. For this reason, the ISO standards for long-term preservation using PDF – ISO 19005 – include specific requirements and recommendations for XMP metadata.
A file depends on metadata for identification and description, as well as for describing appropriate technical and administrative matters. As a result, writers of conforming files possibly have to comply with various domain-specific metadata requirements defined external to this part of ISO 19005. This part of ISO 19005 outlines a structured, consistent framework that supports a broad variety of metadata requirements.(All parts of ISO 19005)
With the increasing emphasis on ensuring that documents are accessible to users who require AT in order to read and navigate documents, many applications are now exporting PDF files that comply with both PDF/A and PDF/UA, meeting both long-term preservation and accessibility requirements in a single file. If the document content also achieves, for example, WCAG 2.2 Level AA compliance, this fact may also be captured in the XMP Metadata using PDF Declarations.
PDF/A-1 (ISO 19005-1), PDF/A-2 (ISO 19005-2), and PDF/A-3 (ISO 19005-3) define and mandate the use of XMP Extension Schema for all XMP metadata not defined in the relevant version of ISO 19005. If the necessary XMP Extension Schema is missing or invalid, validators will fail PDF/A conformance.
PDF/A-4 (ISO 19005-4, based on PDF 2.0) recommends using an Associated File (a new PDF 2.0 feature adopted from PDF/A-3) with an AFRelationship value of Schema. The format of such schema files must conform with ISO 16684-2:2014 Graphic technology — Extensible metadata platform (XMP) — Part 2: Description of XMP schemas using RELAX NG (purchase here).
Responding to growing demand from application developers, the PDF Association is pleased to announce the availability of free XMP Extension Schema templates supporting PDF documents conforming to multiple subset standards, including PDF/A, PDF/X, PDF/VT, and PDF Declarations.
Application developers can now create PDF files that conform to one or more ISO subsets much more easily by adapting the templates to specific application needs.