Convert PDF to PDF/A

How our PDF to PDF/A converter rebuilds your document

We do not add a label to your file. We rebuild it. A standard PDF is allowed to point at things it does not contain — a font sitting on your laptop, a colour profile belonging to your monitor, a script that runs when the file opens. Every one of those is a dependency that can vanish.

Our engine takes the page content apart and reassembles it with those dependencies resolved. Fonts get subset and embedded. Device-dependent colour becomes device-independent colour with an sRGB profile attached. Scripts, embedded media and encryption come out entirely, because the standard forbids them.

Here is the part most converters stay quiet about. When the engine meets something it cannot legally keep, it drops that element and carries on rather than failing the job. That is usually the behaviour you want on a deadline. It also means an interactive form button or an embedded video can disappear without a word, so we say it plainly on the upload screen and we are saying it again here. Open the output next to the original before you file it anywhere that matters.

Which PDF/A conformance level should you pick?

Pick the one your recipient named. When nobody named one, pick PDF/A-1b.

The parts of the standard were published in order, and each later one relaxes the rules a little. PDF/A-1b came first and is the strictest: no transparency, no layers, no attachments. PDF/A-2b added transparency, layers and JPEG 2000 compression. PDF/A-3b is PDF/A-2b with one change, the ability to carry attached files of any type.

In our experience the vague requirement is the common case. A registry or a repository says “submit as PDF/A” and stops there. A 1b file satisfies almost any system built for a later part, so it is the safe answer — with one real cost. Because 1b forbids transparency, a document with soft shadows or a semi-transparent logo comes back visibly flattened. If your file is design-heavy and the recipient has not specified, ask before you assume. We walk through the trade-offs properly in which conformance level you need.

What makes an ISO 19005 compliant PDF different

Four things, and they all point the same direction: remove every reason the file might render differently later.

• Fonts live inside the file. A normal PDF can name Arial and trust your system to supply it. An archival one carries the glyphs it uses. This is also the single most common reason a conversion fails — see fonts not embedded error.
• Colour is defined, not assumed. The file carries an ICC profile saying exactly what its colours meant, so a printer in 2050 can reproduce them.
• Nothing executes. No JavaScript, no launch actions, no embedded audio or video. Anything that runs is something that can break or attack.
• Nothing is locked. Encryption is forbidden outright, because a password is a guaranteed way to lose a document once everyone who knew it has moved on.

That last rule surprises people. If your source file is password-protected, no tool on earth can turn it into a compliant archive while it stays locked. The protection has to come off first, assuming the file is yours to unlock.

Why archives insist on a self-contained PDF

Because they have been burned. Ask anyone who has run a records office for a decade and they will describe opening a twenty-year-old contract to find the text rendered in a substitute typeface, with the line breaks in different places and a signature block that no longer lines up.

Nothing was corrupted. The file simply asked for a font that the reader could not supply, and the reader guessed. On a marketing brochure that is annoying. On a contract where the page break determines which clause sits above a signature, it is a legal problem.

A self-contained file removes the guessing. Everything needed to draw the page travels with the page. If you want the longer background on how the standard came about and what it does not cover, we wrote what PDF/A actually is.

Three steps to archive your document online

You can convert PDF to PDF A online here without installing anything, without an account, and without a watermark on the output.

1. Upload the file. Drag it into the box at the top of this page. The limit is read from the server and shown on the upload panel, so the number you see is the number that actually applies.
2. Choose your level. Three buttons, with the trade-off written under each one. PDF/A-2b is preselected as a sensible middle ground.
3. Convert, then check. Download the result and confirm it before you submit it. Our PDF/A validator reads the file in your browser and tells you what it found.

Step three is not padding. We would rather you catch a problem here than discover it in a rejection email. If you are preparing a thesis, the route through Word has its own pitfalls, covered in saving a Word document as PDF/A. Scans need different handling again — a converted scan is compliant and still unsearchable, which we explain in turning scanned PDFs into PDF/A.

Where the archive PDF format falls short

No tool page should read like a sales sheet, so here is the honest list of what this format costs you.

Files usually get bigger. Embedding fonts adds weight, and a document using several typefaces or a CJK font can grow a lot. If size matters, compress the PDF first and archive second. Doing it the other way round tends to undo the compression.

Editing gets awkward. Readers open PDF/A files in a protected mode that blocks changes, which people reasonably experience as the file being broken. It is not. You can turn a PDF/A back into a normal PDF when you need to work on it, then archive the finished version. The workflow is covered in editing a PDF/A file.

Compliance is not accessibility. A PDF/A file at level b says nothing about screen readers. Only level a adds a tagged structure, and that information has to come from the program that authored the document. Our engine produces level b and we do not pretend otherwise.

We do not certify anything. We run a well-established archiving engine and report what it did, including when it could not attach a colour profile. We do not run a formal audit on your file and we will not tell you it passed one. That is what a validator is for.

Your document, still readable in thirty years

Converting PDF to PDF/A buys one specific thing: a file that carries everything it needs, so no future computer has to guess. That is why courts, universities and records offices ask for it, and it is the whole reason the format exists.

Upload your file above, pick the level you were asked for, and check the result before you send it. If you have several documents to combine first, merge them into one document and archive the finished file rather than the parts.