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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 Days Europe 2015 established as Europe’s leading PDF standards event

June 2015 by PDF Association staff
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2015’s PDF Days Europe in Cologne has proved a complete success for another year running

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June 2015 by Duff Johnson
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The latest version of the Unicode Standard adds 7,716 new characters and six new scripts. New additions range from emoji characters (including … Read more

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June 2015 by Duff Johnson
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PDF/A adoption remains slow, even in European academic archives.

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June 2015 by Duff Johnson
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Will PDF/UA be an option or a requirement for PDF documents in the coming refresh of Section 508? Duff Johnson … Read more

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May 2015 by Duff Johnson
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EU policy-makers reconsider application of WCAG 2.0-based regulations to non-web content.

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May 2015 by Duff Johnson
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The PDF Technical Conference 2015 in San Jose, California this coming October offers a unique collection of developer-oriented resources to … Read more

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May 2015 by Boris Doubrov
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How veraPDF’s purpose-built validation model addresses the challenge of PDF/A validation and opens the door to a generalized model for … Read more

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May 2015 by Duff Johnson
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The first set of 49 candidate test suite files has been loaded to veraPDF’s public Github repository.

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May 2015 by PDF Association staff
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The Document Strategy Forum 2015 is all about electronic documents, but not so much about PDF.

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April 2015 by Duff Johnson
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Following 24 hours of teleconference meetings ISO committee delegates and PDF Association members gather in San Jose.

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April 2015 by Duff Johnson
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In essence, Xplor is about doing clever things with PDF files.

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