Archival (PDF/A)

​

Enabling PDF/A

<Document pdfa="2b" title="Contract Agreement" author="Legal Dept">
  <Page size="A4" margin={54}>
    <Text style={{ fontSize: 24, fontWeight: 700 }}>Service Agreement</Text>
    <Text style={{ fontSize: 10, lineHeight: 1.6 }}>
      This document is PDF/A-2b compliant for long-term archival.
    </Text>
  </Page>
</Document>

​

Supported Levels

{/* Most common -- visual preservation */}
<Document pdfa="2b">...</Document>

{/* Tagged structure required (forces tagging, same as pdfUa) */}
<Document pdfa="2a">...</Document>

​

Roadmap: PDF/A-3b

​

What Forme Handles

• Font embedding — All fonts (including subsets) are fully embedded in the PDF. No external font references.
• sRGB output intent — An sRGB ICC color profile is embedded as the document’s output intent, ensuring colors render consistently across devices.
• XMP metadata — Document title, author, and conformance level are written as XMP metadata packets (required by PDF/A).
• Document ID — A unique /ID array is written in the PDF trailer (required by PDF/A).
• No encryption — PDF/A prohibits encryption. If you need to restrict access, use application-level controls instead of PDF encryption.
• No JavaScript — PDF/A prohibits embedded JavaScript. Forme does not embed JavaScript in any case, so this is always satisfied.

​

Combining with PDF/UA

<Document pdfUa pdfa="2b" title="Accessible Archival Report" lang="en">
  <Page size="A4" margin={54}>
    <Text style={{ fontSize: 20, fontWeight: 700 }}>Annual Compliance Report</Text>
    <Image src="./chart.png" width={400} alt="Compliance metrics for fiscal year 2025" />
  </Page>
</Document>

​

Known Limitations

• No encryption. PDF/A explicitly prohibits document encryption. Attempting to combine encryption with PDF/A will produce a non-conformant file.

​

Level Comparison