Portable Document Format

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File extension(s)

.pdf

Format registry information

• PRONOM

Significant characteristics

See Significant characteristics of word processing files

Preservation action plan

Normalize to PDF/A

Preservation issues

PDF/A is the only version of PDF recommended for long-term preservation. According to Library of Congress, "For pragmatic reasons, when PDF/A is mandated, PDF/A-1b is usually acceptable. Full PDF/A-1a compliance, with tagged document structure, is hard to achieve except in a workflow that anticipates that objective from initial document creation." (Library of Congress Sustainability of Digital Formats: PDF/A)

Conversion test results

PDF to PDF/A using Ghostscript

Access format

PDF/A

More information

• Library of Congress Sustainability of Digital Formats: PDF,
• OIS Recommendations for PDF Files Created for Long-term Preservation and Access
• Freebase