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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.

PDF on the web, then and now

July 2019 by Roman Toda (Normex)
Article, For members only


Users printing to PDF are throwing away information that could be reused by downstream applications. Find out how “Deriving HTML from PDF” addresses this issue by leveraging tagged PDF.

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July 2019 by Frode Hegland
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The Visual-Meta approach take the metadata out of of the document internals and presents it as an appendix at the … Read more

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July 2019 by Duff Johnson
Duff Johnson
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What are the essential characteristics and optimal functional requirements of email messages and necessary related information in a PDF technology-based … Read more

Article, PDF Association news

June 2019 by Dietrich von Seggern (callas software GmbH)
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Dietrich von Seggern from callas software is just back from Electronic Document Conference (EDC) in Seattle. His short summary: It … Read more

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June 2019 by Duff Johnson
Duff Johnson
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The US Access Board who sets policy for US federal agencies and contractor’s deliverables has agreed to require PDF/UA.

Article

June 2019 by PDF Association staff
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We interviewed Kenny Swope about his keynote session at the Electronic Document Conference in Seattle, and asked him some questions … Read more

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May 2019 by Duff Johnson
Duff Johnson
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How do you redact content in HTML? The format doesn’t really include that concept. In both principle and practice, committing … Read more

Article

May 2019 by Dietrich von Seggern (callas software GmbH)
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The question of data exchange between print data creators and processors has been answered with PDF for the entire graphic … Read more

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April 2019 by Duff Johnson
Duff Johnson
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As reported within hours by Quartz, four days after its initial release and fanfare-free, the US Department of Justice re-posted … Read more

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April 2019 by Duff Johnson
Duff Johnson
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On April 19 we published an analysis of the Mueller report PDF released by the US Department of Justice. Further analysis … Read more

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April 2019 by Duff Johnson
Duff Johnson
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It’s too bad that such important historical documents are nonetheless posted as such low-quality PDF files. We provide commentary.

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