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PDF/A Checker

Check the archival indicators in a PDF — clearly labelled as indicators, not certification.

Processed locally in your browser. Your file is not uploaded to any server. How this works

  1. 01Add your file
  2. 02PDF/A Checker
  3. 03Download

Runs in your browser · nothing uploaded

About PDF/A checker

PDF/A is the ISO 19005 family of profiles for documents that must still render identically decades from now. It achieves that by forbidding anything that depends on the outside world: every font must be embedded, colour must be device-independent or carry an ICC profile, encryption is prohibited because an archive cannot depend on a key, external content references are out, and depending on the conformance level transparency and layers are restricted too. This tool checks a document against the indicators of that profile that can be determined by reading the file — whether a PDF/A identification block is present in the XMP, whether every font used carries an embedded program, whether colour is specified independently of a device, whether an encryption dictionary exists, whether transparency groups appear. Being clear about what that is worth: it is a useful, fast, private pre-check that catches the common disqualifiers, and it is not certified validation.

How to PDF/A checker

  1. 01

    Load the PDF

    The XMP packet, font resources, colour spaces and page attributes are read locally.

  2. 02

    Read the indicator list

    Each check is reported as met, not met, or not determinable from the file, with the reason.

  3. 03

    Fix what is flagged

    Missing font embedding and encryption are the two most common and most fixable disqualifiers, both handled at the producing application.

  4. 04

    Validate properly if it matters

    For a submission with legal or regulatory weight, follow up with a certified validator such as veraPDF. This tool is the cheap first pass, not the verdict.

What this tool does

  • PDF/A identification metadata detected in the XMP packet, with the declared part and conformance level reported
  • Font embedding checked across every font resource, since a single unembedded face disqualifies the document
  • Colour space review for device-dependent spaces used without an output intent or ICC profile
  • Output intent presence, which PDF/A requires for the colour to be reproducible
  • Encryption detection, since any encryption disqualifies a document outright
  • Transparency group and soft-mask detection, relevant to PDF/A-1 which prohibits them
  • Checks for JavaScript, embedded files and external stream references, all restricted by the profile

Limitations worth knowing

Every PDF tool has constraints. Stating them plainly is more useful than discovering them halfway through your work.

  • This is not certified validation. It reports machine-checkable indicators only and does not claim ISO 19005 conformance for any file.
  • It is not a veraPDF-grade validator. A file that passes every indicator here can still fail formal validation on requirements this tool does not implement.
  • A PDF/A identification block in the XMP is a claim by the producer. Its presence does not prove conformance, and this report treats it as a claim rather than as evidence.
  • Some requirements cannot be checked by reading the file at all — notably whether embedded ICC profiles are internally valid and whether the logical structure is semantically correct.
  • This tool cannot convert a document to PDF/A. Producing a conforming file is the job of the application that creates it, with an archival export preset.
  • Where a check cannot be performed, the report says so explicitly rather than recording a pass.

How your file is handled

This tool runs entirely inside this browser tab. When you choose a file, your browser reads it from your own disk and hands the bytes to JavaScript running on this page — no network request carries your document anywhere. You can confirm that yourself: open your browser’s developer tools, switch to the Network panel, and run the tool. You will see no upload.

Nothing is stored after the fact. Closing or reloading this tab discards the file, the result and everything derived from them, because none of it ever left your machine. Read how local processing works.

Questions about PDF/A checker

Does passing this check mean my file is valid PDF/A?

No, and we want to be unambiguous about that. This checks the indicators that can be read from the file and catches the disqualifiers that account for most real failures. Formal conformance to ISO 19005 requires a certified validator — veraPDF is the reference open-source implementation. If a regulator, court or archive is the recipient, validate there and treat this as the pre-check that saves you a round trip.

Why is encryption forbidden in PDF/A?

Because an archival format cannot depend on anything outside the file, and a key is outside the file. A document that needs a password in thirty years is a document that is very likely unreadable in thirty years. Any encryption dictionary at all disqualifies a file, regardless of strength or whether the password is empty.

What are the PDF/A parts and levels?

Parts correspond to the PDF version they are based on: PDF/A-1 on PDF 1.4, A-2 on PDF 1.7 with transparency and JPEG 2000 permitted, A-3 the same plus arbitrary embedded attachments, A-4 on PDF 2.0. Levels describe how much is guaranteed: B for reliable visual reproduction, A for that plus tagged structure and Unicode mapping so the document is accessible and searchable, U for Unicode mapping without full tagging.

My file has a PDF/A identifier but fails some checks here. Which is right?

Trust the checks over the label. The identifier is metadata a producer writes; it is not verified by anything. Files are routinely stamped PDF/A and then edited by a tool that adds an unembedded font or encrypts them, leaving the claim behind. That mismatch is one of the most useful things this report surfaces.

Does this check accessibility, since PDF/A-1a requires tagging?

Only at the level of whether a structure tree is present. Judging whether tags are semantically correct — that headings are real headings, that reading order makes sense, that images have meaningful alternative text — is a substantially different assessment, and we do not claim to perform it. The accessibility checker and tag inspector are the right tools, and they are equally explicit about the limits of automated checking.

How do I actually make a PDF/A file?

At production time, not afterwards. Export with an archival preset from the authoring application, which will embed fonts, convert colour to a profile with an output intent, and avoid the prohibited constructs. Converting an existing non-conforming PDF usually means re-processing it through a dedicated converter, and where fonts were never embedded the glyph data simply is not there to recover.

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