Non-1.4 Features in PDF/A

Can PDF/A files include features from PDF 1.5, 1.6 or 1.7 (ISO 32000-1)?

This is a recurring FAQ that comes from a superficial understanding of the PDF/A ISO-19005-1 specification. While PDF/A-1 was defined based on the PDF Reference for 1.4 of the format, it quite clearly allows non-1.4 features. One of the great features of PDF is that "unknown things" are ignored by conforming readers. This feature is part of all PDF specifications that have ever existed, including 1.4 on which PDF/A-1 is based.

To quote Leonard Rosenthol, PDF Standards Architect for Adobe Systems:

"There is no question about this by the committee. In fact, we just rediscussed this last week at our meeting in Germany due to a comment from one of the various national bodies about potentially changing this position (aka allowing 'private data' or 'unknown keys') and the agreement was that we are still in agreement that 'unknown things' are allowed PROVIDED THEY DO NOT CHANGE the visual appearance of the page."

The ISO 19005-1 Application Notes from AIIM provide answers to many of these issues. To quote the Application Notes:

“A conforming PDF/A file has three kinds of content:

• content that affects the final visual reproduction of the composite entity;
• other visual content such as annotations, form fields, etc.
• non-printing content such as bookmarks, metadata, etc.

The PDF/A-1 standard states that a conforming file may include valid PDF features beyond those described in the standard provided they do not affect final visual reproduction of the composite entity and are included as part of PDF Reference 1.4.”

What does this mean?

One of the goals of PDF/A is to make the appearance of PDF files predictable and reproducible over time. Including "private" features does not affect this goal or break PDF/A-1 assuming the rules are followed.

Examples

If a feature from a more recent version of PDF can be ignored by a PDF/A-1 Compliant Reader without affecting the visual appearance of the PDF then this goal is met. An example of such a feature would be /PrintScaling (PDF 1.6) in the /ViewerPreferences dictionary. Any “future” feature that does not affect appearance is exactly the same as a “private” feature between reader and writer: conforming PDF/A Readers should ignore it.

Features from later versions of PDF which do indeed affect visual appearance are explicitly prohibited in the PDF/A 19005-1 specification. For example, 6.5.2 states that annotation types not defined in PDF Reference 1.4 are prohibited (along with a few that are defined in 1.4). This means newer annotation types like 3D are clearly prohibited. Another good example of a "feature from the future" that clearly alters appearance is /UserUnits in the /Page dictionary which is obviously prohibited because it certainly affects appearance.

Other features are implicitly forbidden. For example, an image compressed using JPXDecode filter (JPEG2000 - PDF 1.5) would be ignored by a conforming PDF/A-1 reader but the absence of this image would affect the visual appearance of the PDF. Hence, JPEG2000 should not be used in PDF/A-1 files. Another example is setting BitsPerPixel to 16 for images (PDF 1.5): since this value was introduced after 1.4, it is obviously forbidden because ignoring it would lead to undefined behavior in readers capable only of rendering 1.4. Many of these cases are covered explicitly in the PDF/A Competence Center's Isartor Test Suite and also the PDF/D Consortium extensions to the PDF/A test suite: PDF/D Compliance Tests.

Comments and questions most welcome.