PDF Association logo

Discover pdfa.org

Key resources

Get involved

How do you find the right PDF technology vendor?
Use the Solution Agent to ask the entire PDF communuity!
The PDF Association celebrates its members’ public statements
of support
for ISO-standardized PDF technology.

Member Area

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.

The new PDF 2.0 and subset standards

December 2020 by PDF Association staff
News


A brief survey of ISO 32000-2:2020 and its associated subset standards for archiving, print, transactional and variable print and raster imaging.

PDF Association logo
Visit PDF Association staff's profile.

December 2020 by PDF Association staff
PDF Association logo
Visit PDF Association staff‘s profile.

The 2020 edition includes a number of critical updates to normative references as well as other corrections and clarifications. It … Read more

News

December 2020 by PDF Association staff
PDF Association logo
Visit PDF Association staff‘s profile.

The US National Archives and Records Administration’s new proposal for standardization of digitization of permanent federal records is available for … Read more

News

November 2020 by PDF Association staff
PDF Association logo
Visit PDF Association staff‘s profile.

OctoberPDFest recordings are now available! 31 videos offer a wide variety of perspectives on our favorite format.

News

July 2020 by Ferass Elrayes
Ferass Elrayes
Visit Ferass Elrayes‘s profile.

Google’s Chrome browser now creates tagged PDF files when the “Save as PDF” option is selected (Control / Command-P).

News

May 2020 by PDF Association staff
PDF Association logo
Visit PDF Association staff‘s profile.

The latest release of the industry-supported PDF/A validator has been released. An open source project developed by the Open Preservation … Read more

News

May 2020 by PDF Association staff
PDF Association logo
Visit PDF Association staff‘s profile.

The PDF Association and the 3D PDF Consortium have partnered to develop a high-level introduction to the role and capabilities … Read more

News

May 2020 by PDF Association staff
PDF Association logo
Visit PDF Association staff‘s profile.

The objective of the draft report on archiving email with PDF is to describe how advanced PDF-based capture, preservation, rendering, … Read more

News

March 2020 by Peter Wyatt
Peter Wyatt
Visit Peter Wyatt‘s profile.

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

October 2019 by PDF Association staff
PDF Association logo
Visit PDF Association staff‘s profile.

In the late 1990s Karl’s ‘Planet PDF’ created a worldwide PDF community and went on to found successful companies leveraging … Read more

News

October 2019 by PDF Association staff
PDF Association logo
Visit PDF Association staff‘s profile.

These vulnerabilities require an attacker to modify an encrypted PDF file, potentially leading to the exfiltration of the document’s contents … Read more

News

Member News

WordPress Cookie Notice by Real Cookie Banner