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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.

Five reasons developers should participate in PDF Days Europe

March 2018 by PDF Association staff
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PDF Days Europe, the annual PDF technology education event, will take place from 14 to 16 May 2018 in Berlin at the Hotel Steglitz International. Of the many good reasons … Read more

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March 2018 by PDF Association staff
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PDF Days Europe, the annual PDF technology education event, will take place from 14 to 16 May 2018 in Berlin … Read more

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February 2018 by PDF Association staff
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Following the success of our previous interop workshops in Cambridge, England and Boston, Massachusetts, the 3rd PDF 2.0 Interop Workshop … Read more

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February 2018 by PDF Association staff
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Fittingly for the tenth anniversary of PDF’ becoming an ISO standard, standardization will play a significant role this year. The … Read more

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February 2018 by PDF Association staff
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Richard Cohn, Principal Scientist at Adobe, one of the two co-authors of the original PDF specification in the era of … Read more

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February 2018 by Duff Johnson
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Introduction PDF technology profiles can be leveraged to provide trusted, predictable containers for record types that often present workflow and … Read more

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January 2018 by PDF Association staff
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The PDF Association returns to Washington DC next Monday, January 29, 2018 for PDF Day DC, a single day packed … Read more

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December 2017 by Duff Johnson
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PDF files deliver a complete package of information that defines a document; everything that’s needed to represent the text, graphics … Read more

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December 2017 by Duff Johnson
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What is a “document”? A document is a record of some (typically written) content – a publication, a contract, a … Read more

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November 2017 by Duff Johnson
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It’s a question that vexes vendors of web-based solutions everywhere: why do people still insist on PDF files? And why … Read more

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November 2017 by PDF Association staff
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PDF is PDF because files produced with one vendor’s software can be read using a different vendor’s software with no … Read more

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