PDF Document Management Software, Services & Support

PDF/A Best Practices Bundles

When it comes to reliable storage and delivery, PDF/A is the format document managers have been looking for.

When PDF/A compliance is required, a robust PDF/A validation technology is vital.

PDF/A Best Practice #1:
Manipulation means Re-Validation

Stamping, assembling, form-flattening, redacting and other conventional workflow processes are all modifications to an original document.  Each such process can affect PDF/A conformance.

If the output must meet PDF/A standards, any modified document should be revalidated as PDF/A compliant.

PDF/A Best Practice #2:
Use Different Vendors

While Appligent Document Solutions' CTO Mark Gavin helped write ISO 19005, the PDF/A International Standard, we don't produce PDF/A conformance or validation software.

If the same company produces both your manipulation and your validation software, any mistake or omission in manipulation is likely to be matched by a similar problem in validation.

Why trust, when you can verify?

Why Appligent Document Solutions and
callas software gmbh?

Appligent Document Solutions invented PDF form-flattening and redaction. With server software for forms processing, document assembly, encryption, extraction, digital signatures and more, we've delivered server-based PDF management and manipulation solutions longer than almost anyone else.

callas software develops PDF technology for publishing, print production, document exchange and document archiving. The company helps agencies and document managers to meet their challenges with software to  correct and repurpose PDF files. Businesses and government agencies all over the world rely on callas software’s future-proof, fully PDF/A compliant archiving products. Adobe itself uses callas software's PDF/A validation technology.

PDF/A Validation for Trusted Systems

Some organizations require positive identification of document authorship or provenance, while others simply require that documents receive a digital signature to establish an authoritative source document.

Still other organizations, typically planning and other government agencies, prefer to sign their electronic documents as they are delivered to consumers from their archives to establish authenticity.

Encryption, of course, is prohibited under PDF/A; conforming documents can have no open or change passwords set.

For many implementations, however, PDF/A and encryption are simply two sides of the same workflow.

Some banks require PDF/A for archiving statements. Operationally, copies of these archival documents are given password protection; PDF files are secured using the account holder's login password.

PDF/A Conversion for Production Systems

An enterprise-class server-based application, StampPDF Batch is commonly used by federal, state and local courts, county clerks and law firms to apply date or image stamps, Bates numbers and other variables. Organizations interacting with the Federal Courts will increasingly be required to make their submissions in PDF/A.

For many of these document workflows PDF/A is mandatory. Each time a document is stamped,, it should be revalidated for PDF/A conformance.

Organizations delivering public-access, invoice, manifest, regulatory, planning and other documents online often prefer to assemble these materials into a single PDF file, sometimes complete with bookmarks and a Table of Contents, for delivery to end-users.

Establishing PDF/A conformance on the deliverable document is a significant quality-control measure, giving both sender and recipient assurance that a document may be referenced long into the future.

The final stage in forms processing on a server usually involves flattening the forms contents so they cannot be subsequently modified. 

With pdfaPilot Server 2 validating each PDF form after flattening, developers can ensure that completed forms for order-placement, SCM, shipping, medical and other purposes are ready for permanent storage in their as-delivered form.

Learn more about the pdfaPilot Bundles!