Generate PDF/A Output
PDF/A is a variation of PDF file format designed for the long-term archiving of electronic documents. Some governments and standards organizations require PDF/A to ensure preservation of documents. A PDF/A file is a PDF file viewable by PDF viewers such as Adobe Reader, but the PDF/A file must follow additional requirements specified in the ISO standard. These requirements specify both required objects and features not supported for long-term archiving. You can generate the PDF/A-1A, PDF/A-1B, PDF/A-2A, or PDF/A-2B variation of the PDF/A standard.
Requirements and Limitations
PDF/A output has specified requirements and limitations.
Limitations and requirements for generating PDF/A output:
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Supported template types: RTF, FO, XPT, and XSL.
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Font requirements: By default, all fonts in the template are replaced with Albany fonts in the output. To use a different font in the output, specify the font mappings in the report configuration. If Albany fonts aren't available in the JVM font directory, and you haven't specified a font mapping, the output won't be a valid PDF/A file. In this case, Helvetica font is used.
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PDF features not supported in PDF/A documents:
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All audio and video content, including Flash embedding
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Transparency (transparent colors render as opaque). Use PDF/A–2B to support transparency.
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Encryption
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Reprocessing by utilities isn't supported: Reprocessing PDF/A file using the PDFBookBinder, PDFDocMerger, or PDFSignature (digital signature) utitlities isn't supported. The reprocessed PDF file may lose conformance to the PDF/A standard.
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Required report configuration properties: The report run-time properties must be set as shown in the following table.
Property Required Setting pdf-version
Must be lesser than 1.5
Enable PDF Security
(pdf-security)
Must be set to false
Encryption Level
(pdf-encryption-level)
Must be set to 0
pdf-font-embedding
Must be set to true
Formatting properties specific to PDF/A output can be set in the Report Properties dialog. For more information, see PDF/A Output Properties.