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PDF/A and external references

November 2025 by Peter Wyatt

PDF/A ensures reliable long-term rendering by embedding fonts, images, and color profiles, but URLs can still appear in text, hyperlinks, bookmarks, annotations, metadata, and embedded files.

Link annotations and URI Actions define clickable destinations, but PDF/A restricts certain action types to prevent external dependencies.

Guided by clear policies, comprehensive audits of both visible and hidden references help maintain authenticity, accessibility, and long-term integrity of PDF/A documents and digital collections.

PDF/A ensures reliable long-term rendering by embedding fonts, images, and color profiles, but URLs can still appear in text, hyperlinks, bookmarks, annotations, metadata, and embedded files.

Link annotations and URI Actions define clickable destinations, but PDF/A restricts certain action types to prevent external dependencies.

Guided by clear policies, comprehensive audits of both visible and hidden references help maintain authenticity, accessibility, and long-term integrity of PDF/A documents and digital collections.

Is manual accessibility validation required for automated PDF document generation?

September 2020 by Paul Rayius (CommonLook)
Article


While testing and verification is never a bad idea, the advantages of automation include speeding up processes and removing human error. Manually validating each generated PDF would be counterproductive. There … Read more

Paul Rayius
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September 2020 by Peter Wyatt
Peter Wyatt
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Interoperability is the core value proposition of the PDF file format. Although interoperability comes from sharing a clear and precise … Read more

Article

September 2020 by Dietrich von Seggern (callas software GmbH)
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Dietrich von Seggern talks about an example in which the internet community came up with a smart solution for a … Read more

Article

August 2020 by Dietrich von Seggern (callas software GmbH)
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Ensuring maximum success in RPA processes requires uniformity (standardization) in inputs. That’s where PDF can help.

Article

April 2020 by Peter Wyatt
Peter Wyatt
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Although less than a year into the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)-funded Safe Documents (SafeDocs) fundamental research program, from … Read more

Article

March 2020 by Duff Johnson
Duff Johnson
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A new resource collating all ISO groups and currently active work items related to PDF has been developed. Based on … Read more

Article

March 2020 by Dietrich von Seggern (callas software GmbH)
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More and more, magazines are available on tablets or other mobile platforms. The subscriber uses the respective app to view … Read more

Article

March 2020 by Peter Wyatt
Peter Wyatt
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Now available from ISO: the Draft International Standard (DIS) version of the latest ISO 32000-2 (PDF 2.0) standard is ready … Read more

Article, News

March 2020 by Peter Wyatt
Peter Wyatt
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Ailing economies around the world need every advantage in these difficult times. On the other side of today’s crisis a … Read more

Article

March 2020 by PDF Association staff
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The Signal, a Library of Congress blog, has a new post about archiving with PDF by the Library of Congress’ … Read more

Article

February 2020 by Prof. Chris Prom
Chris Prom
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Archives, libraries, and other memory institutions have experimented with PDF for archiving email, but have not widely implemented them as … Read more

Article

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