Convert PDF to PDF/A and know what actually changed
Courts, government agencies, libraries and records departments often ask you to convert PDF to PDF/A before they will accept a file. The request sounds like a format change. In practice it is a list of rules: the file must declare the standard in its metadata, carry a color profile, contain no scripts, not be encrypted, and embed every font it uses.
PDF/A Compliance Converter checks each document against that list before it writes anything. Rows in the queue read "already PDF/A-1b", "3 things to put right" or "1 problem that can't be fixed", and clicking a document shows every finding with a plain verdict: This app fixes it, or Needs something the file doesn't contain.
After converting, the app reads the copy it just wrote, so the checklist describes the result rather than what was intended.
What is PDF/A, and which level should you choose?
PDF/A is the archiving profile of PDF, published as ISO 19005. Its purpose is that a file opened decades from now looks exactly as it does today, which is why everything a page needs has to live inside the file. Four levels are offered, and the checklist is redone whenever you switch:
- PDF/A-1b, the default: the oldest and strictest, still the one most often demanded. No attachments and no transparency.
- PDF/A-2b: permits transparency and JPEG 2000 images. The usual modern pick when nothing specific is required.
- PDF/A-2u: the same as 2b, plus each character has to be traceable to Unicode, so the text can be searched and copied.
- PDF/A-3b: the same as 2b, but other files may ride along inside, which is how e-invoices carry their source data.
How to convert a batch of PDFs to PDF/A
Each document's detail view shows a preview of its first page with Pages, Size and Target, above the rule list. Originals are never overwritten; there is no option to replace them.
- Click Add PDFs, or drop documents or a whole folder on the window.
- Choose a level under Which standard.
- Read the queue. The header tells you how many documents already conform and how many have a problem the app cannot fix.
- Pick Save: Beside the originals, or Into a folder.
- Press Convert.
PDF/A and fonts that are not embedded
This is where most conversions quietly fall short. If a PDF refers to a typeface without carrying it, the shapes of the letters are simply not in the file, and no amount of rewriting can add them. Some tools substitute a different font and call the result PDF/A; others fail with a cryptic error.
Here the missing fonts are named one by one and marked as something the app cannot fix. The copy is still written, and its result line says how many problems remain, so you know to go back to the source document, embed the fonts when exporting, and convert again.
