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Introduction
Agenda• Why long term preservation of PDF is an issue
• Overview of PDF/A-1 and the ISO Process
• Discussion of PDF/A-1 Standard and NARA’s Transfer Guidance for Permanent PDF records
• Roles of both PDF/A-1 and the NARA’s PDF Transfer Guidance in Federal recordkeeping
• Conclusion and Questions
Long-term preservation of PDF is an issue
Wide use of PDF• PDF is a ubiquitous open format for electronic documents
– Proprietary, but with publicly available specification
• Much important information maintained in PDF – Permanent archival records, in some cases
• The feature-rich nature of PDF can complicate preservation efforts
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• Encryption • 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)
Overview of PDF/A-1 and the ISO Process
• 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
– Part 3 (19005-3) intended to address dynamic content (e.g., Java Script)
– And additional future parts, as necessary
PDF/A-1 Approach
• PDF/A-1 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
PDF/A
PDF 1.4 Reference
Specifies required featuresSpecifies restricted features
Specifies prohibited features
PDF/A-1 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-1 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
Two Conformance Levels
• Level A - Promotes the creation of PDF/A files with rich semantic and structural information, – Uses “Tagged PDF” and Unicode character maps
• Level B - Allows less complex files such as scanned images. – Includes all requirements of 19005-1 minimally
necessary to preserve the visual appearance– Does not require users to define structure or other
descriptive information.
Annexes of the Draft PDF/A Standard
• Informative Annexes provide supplemental information including:– Summary of the PDF structures and components
disallowed, required, or limited– Best Practices for PDF/A-1
• Guidelines for capturing or converting electronic documents to PDF/A-1– To replicates the exact quality and content of
source documents – Required for compliance with NARA’s PDF Transfer
Guidance
PDF/A-1 Dos and Don’ts
PDF/A-1 Dos:
• Embed fonts
• Device-independent color
• XMP metadata,
• Tagging
PDF/A-1 Don’ts:
• Encryption
• LZW Compression
• Embedded files
• External content references
• Transparency
• Multi-media
• JavaScript
NARA’s Expectations for PDF/A
– PDF/A-1 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-1 along with
records management policies and procedures
• Such as….
– NARA’s PDF Transfer Guidance
– AOUSC’s document management program
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-1 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-1)– 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)
Scope and Usage
NARA’s PDF Transfer Guidance• Usage: Instructions on what is required to transfer existing
permanent PDF records to NARA. • Scope
– Applies to permanent records– PDF 1.0 - 1.4– Addresses quality criteria, laws and regulations, transfer documentation,
NARA contact information PDF/A-1 ISO Standard • Usage: Programming specification to create and process the file
format• Scope
– Applies to one aspect of long term preservation (i.e., file format) – PDF 1.4– Addresses how to use the PDF 1.4 reference to create and process a
flavor of PDF that is more amenable to long term preservation.– Should be used as one piece of the archival puzzle
Requirements - PDF/A and NARA’s PDF Transfer Guidance
Embedded fonts • PDF/A-1 and NARA’s PDF Transfer Guidance both
require that fonts be embedded– NARA guidance phases in requirements for
workstation resident fonts.
Encryption • PDF/A-1 and NARA’s PDF Transfer Guidance both
prohibit encryption– NARA guidance phases in requirement as long as
we can open, view and print
Special Features• PDF/A-1 restricts special features
– Embedded files, external links, Java Script– PDF/A-1 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-1 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
• For records in PDF, agencies need to understand that:– PDF/A-1 is one option for long-term preservation of
electronic documents– PDF/A-1, by itself, does not guarantee exact
replication of source material– Agencies must implement PDF/A-1 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://www.aiim.org/standards.asp?ID=25013
• Contact Susan Sullivan at [email protected]
Questions/Discussion
