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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.

Participating in the PDF Techniques Accessibility Summit

October 2018 by PDF Association staff
Article


The PDF Techniques Accessibility Summit’s objective is to establish a broad-based understanding of how PDF files should be tagged for accessibilty. It’s an opportunity to focus on establishing a common … Read more

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September 2018 by PDF Association staff
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The typical adoption curve for PDF technologies until approximately 2007 tended to track with that of the original PDF developer. … Read more

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August 2018 by PDF Association staff
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The PDF Techniques Accessibility Summit will identify best-practices in tagging various cases in PDF documents. Questions to be addressed will … Read more

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July 2018 by Duff Johnson
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My hospital emailed me a medical records release form as a PDF. They told me to print it, fill it, … Read more

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June 2018 by PDF Association staff
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You missed the PDF Days Europe 2018? Never mind! Here you can find the slides and video recordings of all … Read more

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June 2018 by Duff Johnson
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PDF/UA, like PDF itself, is internally complex, but used correctly, actually makes things easier.

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May 2018 by PDF Association staff
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Richard Cohn, Principal Scientist at Adobe and the co-author of PDF 1.0, gave the opening keynote at the PDF Days … Read more

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April 2018 by PDF Association staff
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Our Executive Director Duff Johnson gives some personally information about his experience with the “PDF universe” and much more.

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April 2018 by Duff Johnson
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In a recent article I discussed using PDF as a container to organize, transport and archive collections of content. Since then … Read more

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April 2018 by PDF Association staff
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Here are five reasons why industry professionals in marketing, business development and sales should attend at PDF Days Europe 2018.

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April 2018 by PDF Association staff
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To maximize both the opportunities and the benefits of testing, the third PDF 2.0 interop workshop makes it possible for … Read more

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