PDF/A is the archival PDF standard — self-contained and guaranteed to render decades from now. Learn who needs it, the conformance levels, and how to convert free online.
A regular PDF can rely on fonts installed on your computer or content pulled from elsewhere — which means it might not look the same in ten years, or on someone else's machine. PDF/A is the archival version of PDF: fully self-contained and standardised, so it's guaranteed to render identically decades from now. That's why it's required for legal, government, and institutional archives.
PDF/A is an ISO-standardised subset of PDF designed for long-term preservation. You need it when a document has to remain readable and faithful far into the future:
| Level | Means | Use when |
|---|---|---|
| PDF/A-1b | Basic — reliable visual reproduction | Most archiving needs; widely accepted |
| PDF/A-1a | Adds tagged structure (accessibility) | When screen-reader accessibility is required |
| PDF/A-2b | Newer — allows JPEG2000, layers | Modern documents needing richer features |
| PDF/A-3b | Allows embedded source files (e.g. an invoice XML) | Archiving a PDF plus its source data together |
PDF/A is PDF built to last: self-contained, standardised, and guaranteed to render the same decades from now — which is why archives and courts require it. Embed your fonts by converting with the ToolsGravity PDF to PDF/A tool, confirm the conformance level you need, and OCR any scans first.