Convert a PDF to PDF/A
The archival format — and an honest list of what still blocks it.
- Zero-transmission processing
- No watermark
- Limited daily trial
- Unlimited on Pro
Drop your PDFs here
or pick them from your device
Your files are never transmitted. Nothing is uploaded.
Before you start
- Pick PDF/A-3 only when the file carries attachments that must stay, like an e-invoice XML.
- The report lists anything that still stands in the way, so you know what to fix.
Good to know
- Accepts
- Files at once
- One at a time
- Transmission
- None — nothing is uploaded.
Chain it
Run this tool and the next one back to back — nothing to download in between.
How to do it
Add your file
Add the PDF you need in archival form. PDF/A is what archives, courts and long-term records systems ask for, because it is designed to still open correctly decades from now.
Set it up the way you want
Nothing to set. The archive declaration, color profile and metadata are written in, and things PDF/A forbids, such as scripts, are removed. Anything that still stops the file from qualifying — like a font that isn’t embedded — is listed, so you know what to fix at the source.
Download the result
Download the archival copy. It looks the same as your original and will keep looking the same on software that does not exist yet.
Questions about Convert a PDF to PDF/A
- Why does PDF/A exist at all?
- Because an ordinary PDF can depend on things outside itself — a font installed on the machine that made it, a color profile, an external file. Open it in twenty years on a different system and those may be gone, and the page renders wrong. PDF/A forbids that dependence: everything needed is inside the file.
- Will the file get bigger?
- Usually yes, because fonts that were only referenced now have to be embedded. That is the trade: size in exchange for the document still being readable in twenty years.
- Does this validate against a PDF/A standard?
- It produces PDF/A output; it does not certify compliance against a specific conformance level. If your archive requires a formal validation report, run one — we would rather say this than let you assume a certificate you do not have.