PDF long-term archiving - saving documents in PDF/A

Under the heading "PDF/A long-term archiving" (PDFA) hides for companies, courts, lawyers, but also authorities a highly important file format for legally compliant storage of electronic documents. Because only in the long-term archiving format PDF/A, electronic documents in PDF format are preserved legally and auditable.

Why use PDF/A for long-term archiving of digital documents?

The technological basis of the PDF/A long - term format is the ISO standard fixed in 2005. However, this has now been expanded several times. In addition to the PDF/A-1 standard, which was originally set up in 2005, further expanded versions such as PDF/A-2 and PDF/A-3 were defined over the years. The technological enhancements of these variants of PDF/A long-term archiving not only support larger page formats, but also new graphics formats such as JPEG 2000 and can also record additional data in the form of XML. However, compared to the normal PDF format, all formats have the common and / or above all the advantage of "containing" corresponding components permanently for this purpose in the reproduction of their representation. Thanks to the archiving standard of digital documents PDF/A, it is possible, legally and auditably, to be able to "visualize" preserved PDF documents, even in the distant future. Especially for courts, authorities, ecclesiastical institutions with long retention periods, the ISO standard PDF/A is an indispensable archiving method for all possible variants of digital documents.

But even companies benefit from the standard PDF/A in the digitization of their business processes and storage of business-critical corporate correspondence or documentation also be subject to legally prescribed retention periods.

Proper digitizing: PDF Printer with PDF/A support

From the above mentioned facts, we have created a functional extension for our PDF Printer that enables you to create digital documents in the long-term archiving format PDF/A. Specifically, we provide the standard PDF/A-1b in our PDF Printer as output format. However, the newer formats PDF/A-2b and PDF/A-3b are also being offered experimentally. Such generated documents contain additional descriptive properties, fonts used, and information of the color scheme used (RGB/CMYK) after being created. Digitally generated documents in PDF/A format therefore usually have a larger file size than their sister documents normally available as PDF.

How to create PDF/A compliant documents with our PDF Printer in just three steps!

Illustration: Create PDF/A compliant documents with our PDF Printer in just three steps!

In Word 2016, print the current document via „7-PDF Printer“.
In the print dialogue under „Document“ we select as format „PDF/A-1b“ and then press „Save“.
The generated PDF/A document is displayed in Acrobat Reader and is PDF/A compliant formatted.

Legally compliant digitization: Our software automates PDF/A long-term archiving for you!

Take a look at the extensive online documentation of our PDF Printer, get straight back to first application examples and code examples, and benefit from our sophisticated PDF Printer technology directly on your own systems! Cope with your requirements with Citrix, Terminal Servers, PCs & Co. with our software! Everything from one source, everything in english for medium-sized businesses, corporations and small businesses as well as professional end users in courts and authorities!

Screenshots of our PDF Printer

For more information about our PDF printer "7-PDF Printer", visit this product detail page...