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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.

Australia adopts ISO standards for PDF

June 2017 by PDF Association staff
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Australia adopts the complete set of PDF standards as Australian National Standards.

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May 2017 by Alexandra Oettler
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The new PDF Association publication PDF/X in a Nutshell is available online.

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May 2017 by PDF Association staff
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With more than 200 participants, this year’s PDF Days Europe was the largest to-date. Early feedback from attendees makes clear … Read more

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May 2017 by PDF Association staff
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More than 150 attendees have registered for the PDF Days Europe 2017 so far!

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May 2017 by Dietrich von Seggern
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by Dietrich von Seggern Specialized ISO standards based on the Portable Document Format are available for a wide range of … Read more

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May 2017 by Stephan Jaeggi
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by Stephan Jaeggi PDF/X only defines the general requirements for a reliable exchange of prepress data; the ISO standard itself … Read more

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May 2017 by Andrew Bailes-Collins
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by Andrew Bailes-Collins PDF/X Tools The good news for anybody wishing to start working with PDF/X standards, is that there … Read more

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May 2017 by Andrew Bailes-Collins
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by Andrew Bailes-Collins Where do all these different flavors of PDF/X fit, and for anybody wanting to use PDF/X, which … Read more

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May 2017 by Dietrich von Seggern
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by Dietrich von Seggern PDF/X was the first ISO standard based on PDF technology. A subset of the PDF specification, … Read more

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May 2017 by Peter De Bruyne
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Even as the first part of PDF/X was published as ISO 15930-1 in 2001, others were already in development. PDF/X … Read more

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May 2017 by Dietrich von Seggern
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PDF/X is a subset of PDF – see “Technical side and requirements of PDF/X” for an overview. As such, conforming … Read more

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