# Presentation: 331841

## What Agencies Should Know About PDF/A

**What Agencies Should Know About PDF/A**

- September 20, 2005
- Susan J. Sullivan, CRM
**susan.sullivan@nara.gov**

## Introduction

- Agenda
- Why long term preservation of PDF is an issue
- Discussion of PDF/A Standard and NARA’s Transfer Guidance for Permanent PDF records
- Roles of both PDF/A and the NARA’s PDF Transfer Guidance in Federal recordkeeping
- Overview of PDF/A and the ISO Process
- Conclusion and Questions

## Wide Use of PDF

- PDF is a ubiquitous open format for electronic documents
- Proprietary, but with publicly available specification
- The feature-rich nature of PDF can  complicate preservation efforts
- All PDFs not created equal
- Much important information maintained in PDF
- Permanent archival records, in some cases.

## PDF Not a Suitable Archival Format

- PDF itself is not suitable as an archival format.
- Some Features not compatible with current archival requirements
- Not necessarily self-contained
- All PDFs are not created equal
- Long-term solution needed
- Permanent archival records, in some cases
- Administrative Office of U.S. Courts initiated idea for an ISO Standard based on PDF (PDF/A)

**Notes:**
PDF itself is not suitable as an archival format. 
Adobe may not continue to publish the PDF specification for future versions
Can include features not compatible with current archival requirements
Encryption
Embedded files
PDF documents are not necessarily self-contained
Can depend on system fonts and other content drawn from outside the file
Multiple PDF development tools on the market 
all PDFs are not created equal
Long-term solution needed to ensure that digital PDF documents can be used for long periods of time 
Permanent archival records, in some cases
Administrative Office of U.S. Courts initiated idea for an ISO Standard based on PDF (PDF/A)

## How NARA is Addressing PDF 

**Issued PDF Transfer Guidance**
- Allowing agencies to transfer permanent records to NARA in PDF In March of 2003, NARA
**Participating in PDF/A ISO Standard Development**
- To influence the process
- To gain knowledge

## Transfer Format versus File Format

**NARA’s transfer guidance and PDF/A have a similar goal.....**to ensure that valuable electronic information in PDF is not lost
**But different purposes:**
**Transfer Format** - NARA’s PDF Transfer Guidance
- Specifies NARA _transfer_ requirements
- Applies to _existing_ and future records in PDF
**File Format** - The PDF/A ISO Standard (PDF/A)
- Specifies a subset of the PDF file format
- More format reliability/fewer in “bells & whistles”
- PDF should be maintained longer as PDF (e.g., within agencies)

**Notes:**
The Goal of both NARA’s transfer guidance and PDF/A 
To ensure that valuable electronic information in PDF is not lost 

Purpose:
NARA’s PDF Transfer Guidance - Transfer Format 
Specifies requirements for transferring permanent PDF records to NARA
Applies to existing and future records in PDF so that NARA can accept and process these records
The PDF/A ISO Standard (PDF/A) - File Format 
Specifies a subset of the PDF file format that is more suitable for long term preservation 
Will allow PDF records to be maintained longer as PDF (e.g., within agencies)

## Scope and Usage 

**NARA’s PDF Transfer Guidance**
- Usage: Transfer existing permanent PDF records to NARA Permanent PDF Records
- Scope
- Applies to permanent records
- PDF 1.0 - 1.4
- Quality criteria, laws and regulations, transfer documentation, NARA contact information
**PDF/A ISO Standard **
- Usage: Programming Specification
- Scope
- Addresses one aspect of long term preservation (i.e., file format)
- Should be used as one piece of the archival puzzle

**Notes:**
NARA’s PDF Transfer Guidance
Applies to records in PDF scheduled as permanent
Supplements Federal Regulations
Incorporates PDF versions - PDF 1.0 - 1.4
Additionally includes quality criteria, laws and regulations, transfer documentation, NARA contact information  
Usage:Transfer existing permanent PDF records to NARA 
PDF/A ISO Standard 
Addresses one aspect of long term preservation (i.e., file format) 
Should be used as one piece of the archival puzzle
Successful implementation depends on:
Records management policies and procedures 
Additional requirements (e.g., such as those prescribed in NARA’s  Transfer Guidance).
Compliance with QA processes
PDF/A, alone, does not ensure accurate reflection of source material in the creation process.
For example: Allows image downsampling and lossy compression for smaller file size
PDF/A should be used as one component of an organization’s electronic archival environment.  
PDF/A implementation depends on:
Records management policies and procedures and any additional requirements and conditions necessary to ensure the persistence of electronic documents over time
Quality assurance processes necessary to very conformance with requirements

## Requirements - PDF/A and NARA’s PDF Transfer Guidance

**Embedded fonts **
- PDF/A and NARA’s PDF Transfer Guidance both require that fonts be embedded
- NARA Guidance phases in requirements for workstation resident fonts.
**Encryption **
- PDF/A and NARA’s PDF Transfer Guidance both prohibit encryption
- NARA Guidance phases in requirement as long as we can open, view and print

**Notes:**
Embedded fonts 
PDF/A and NARA’s PDF Transfer Guidance both require that fonts be embedded
NARA accepts PDFs that do not include fonts resident in operating system, for documents created before transfer guidance was released. 
Encryption 
PDF/A and NARA’s PDF Transfer Guidance both prohibit encryption
NARA accepts PDFs with encryption as long as we can open, view, and print them, for documents created before the release of the transfer guidance, 

## Special Features
PDF/A restricts special features 
Embedded files, external links, Java Script
PDF/A promotes tagged PDF as a higher level of conformance
NARA evaluates special features on a case-by-case basis at the time of scheduling

Metadata/Documentation 
PDF/A requires that embedded metadata must be in Adobe XMP
NARA requires transfer documentation (e.g., SF-258), and would evaluate embedded metadata at the time of scheduling

- PDF/A restricts special features
- Embedded files, external links, Java Script
- PDF/A promotes tagged PDF as a higher level of conformance
- NARA evaluates special features on a case-by-case basis at the time of scheduling
**Metadata/Documentation **
- PDF/A requires that embedded metadata must be in Adobe XMP
- NARA requires transfer documentation (e.g., SF-258), and would evaluate embedded metadata at the time of scheduling

- Requirements - PDF/A and NARA’s PDF Transfer Guidance

## Quality Requirements
PDF/A as a file format does not address quality/creation requirements such as exact replication of source material
Informative Annex B - identifies recommended creation guidelines 
Agencies must implement these guidelines to comply with NARA’s PDF transfer guidance
NARA’s PDF Transfer Guidance includes 
quality requirements regarding scanning quality, 
lossy compression 
substitution of characters with OCR’d text

- PDF/A as a file format **does not address quality/creation requirements such as exact replication of source material**
- Informative Annex B - identifies recommended creation guidelines
**Agencies must implement these guidelines to comply with NARA’s PDF transfer guidance**
- NARA’s PDF Transfer Guidance includes
- quality requirements regarding scanning quality,
- lossy compression
- substitution of characters with OCR’d text

- Requirements - PDF/A and NARA’s PDF Transfer Guidance

## NARA’s Expectations for PDF/A

- PDF/A should address some of the PDF archival issues and enable PDF records to be maintained longer as PDF
- Standard maintained by ISO, not just vendors
- Agencies should implement PDF/A along with records management policies and procedures
- Such as....
- NARA’s PDF Transfer Guidance
- AOUSC’s document management program

**Notes:**
program that verifies that the bits and bytes received equal the bits and bytes stored.

## The PDF/A Standard

- Multi-part ISO International Standard
- ISO 19005-1:2005, *Document management – Electronic document file format for long-term preservation – Part 1: Use of PDF 1.4 (PDF/A-1)*
- Part 2 (19005-2) intended to bring PDF/A into conformance with PDF 1.6
- And additional future parts, as necessary

## Time Line for Part 1

- Submitted to ISO Central Secretariat for publication as International Standard
- Should be publicly available September 2005
- Throughout the process, PDF/A has been reviewed by technical experts from 15 national standards bodies

## PDF/A - Approach

- PDF/A specifies:
- The subset of PDF components, from the PDF 1.4 Reference), that are either required, restricted, or prohibited, **and**
- How these components may be used by software

**Notes:**
Adobe Systems, Inc., makes the PDF specification publicly available. As mentioned before, the inclusive, feature-rich nature of the format requires that additional constraints be placed on its use to make it suitable for the long-term preservation of electronic documents. 
The base-line criterion for PDF/A conformance is adherence to Version 1.4 of the PDF Reference. A conforming PDF/A document may include any valid PDF 1.4 feature that is not explicitly forbidden by this standard. 

## PDF/A - Requirements

- Disallows or limits features that could complicate long term preservation, and
- Maximizes:
- Device independence
- Can be reliably and consistently rendered without regard to the hardware/software platform
- Self-contained
- Contains all resources necessary for rendering
- Self-documenting
- Contains its own description
- Transparency
- Amenable to direct analysis with basic tools

## PDF/A - Table of Contents 

- 1 Scope
- 2 Normative References
- 3 Terms and Definitions
- 4 Notation
- 5 Conformance Levels
- 6 Technical Requirements
- 6.1 File Structure
- 6.2 Graphics
- 6.3 Fonts

- 6.4 Transparency
- 6.5 Annotations
- 6.6 Actions
- 6.7 Metadata
- 6.8 Logical Structure
- 6.9 Interactive Forms
- Informative annexes
- Annex A - PDF/A-1 Conformance Summary
- Annex B - Best Practices for PDF/A
- Bibliography

## Annexes of the Draft PDF/A Standard – Informative Annexes

**Informative Annexes** provide supplemental information including:
- Summary of the PDF structures and components disallowed, required, or limited
- Best Practices for PDF/A
- Guidelines for capturing or converting electronic documents to PDF/A
- To replicates the exact quality and content of source documents
- Required for compliance with NARA’s PDF Transfer Guidance

**Notes:**
to ensure that resulting PDF/A documents retain their quality and integrity as records.  
ISO 15489-1, 7.1, specifies that “to support the continuing conduct of business, comply with the regulatory environment, and provide necessary accountability, organizations should create and maintain authentic, reliable and useable records, and protect the integrity of those records for as long as required” [8]. 
The regulatory environment document quality rules such as minimum image resolution, compression restrictions, or prohibited processes that either alter or dispose of approved data. For archival preservation purposes, the quality and integrity of documents should be retained when they are captured or converted to PDF/A.   
To meet this critical archival need, PDF/A capture or conversion processes should replicate the exact content and quality of the source document within the PDF/A file.  Following are examples of specific software requirements that accomplish this:
PDF/A writers should not use lossy compression, subsampling, downsampling, or any other process that either alters the content or degrades the quality of source data in the PDF/A document
Software should not substitute searchable text, based on optical character recognition, for the original scanned text within the bit-mapped image of documents that are scanned to PDF/A from paper or converted to PDF/A from image formats
NOTE	Optical character recognition processes may involve loss of data through imprecise interpretation of scanned characters.

## PDF/A - Overview of Requirements

- Two levels of conformance
- Level A (e.g., Tagged PDF, UNICODE Mapping)
- Level B (e.g. No Tagged PDF)
- Uniform file format (header, trailer, no encryption)
- Device-independent rendering of graphics
- Embedded fonts, character encoding
- Annotations restricted, content should be displayed by readers
- External actions restricted, no dependence on external content
- Readers not required to act on hyperlinks, but may
- XMP metadata  “Adobe XML Metadata Framework”
- Forms based on appearance, not data

## For permanent records in PDF, agencies need to understand that:
PDF/A is one option for long-term preservation of electronic documents
PDF/A, by itself, does not guarantee exact replication of source material
Agencies must implement PDF/A in conjunction with additional requirements to meet NARA standards for transferring permanent records to NARA (i.e., NARA’s PDF Transfer Guidance)

- PDF/A is one option for long-term preservation of electronic documents
- PDF/A, by itself, _does not guarantee_ exact replication of source material
- Agencies must implement PDF/A in conjunction with additional requirements to meet NARA standards for transferring permanent records to NARA (i.e., NARA’s PDF Transfer Guidance)

- Take Away

## More Information is Available 

- More information on NARA’s PDF Transfer Guidance on NARA’s Web Site
- http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/initiatives/pdf-records.html
- More information on PDF/A on AIIM Web Site
- _[http://](http://www.aiim.org/standards.asp?ID=25013)__[www.aiim.org/standards.asp?ID](http://www.aiim.org/standards.asp?ID=25013)__[=25013 ](http://www.aiim.org/standards.asp?ID=25013)_
- Contact Susan Sullivan at _[susan.sullivan@nara.gov](mailto:susan.sullivan@nara.gov)_

## Questions/Discussion