PDF to PDF/A using Ghostscript

Main Page > Documentation > Media type preservation plans > Portable Document Format > PDF to PDF/A using Ghostscript

File 1 (primarily text)

• File used was A checklist for documenting PREMIS-METS decisions in a PREMIS profile, May 2010, Sally Vermaaten, OCLC, http://www.loc.gov/standards/premis/premis_mets_checklist.pdf.
• Used Ghostscript 8.71 using the following command: gs -dPDFA -dBATCH -dNOPAUSE -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -sOutputFile=premis_mets_checklist_PDFA.pdf premis_mets_checklist.pdf

Property	Original	Normalized
PDF version	PDF 1.5	PDF/A-1b
File size	318,500 bytes	974,071 bytes
PageCount	14	14
Fonts	10 embedded subsets 2 non-embedded subsets: Arial and Arial Italic	10 embedded subsets. Arial replaced by Helvetica and Arial Italic replaced by Helvetica Oblique.
Features	Forms: no Metadata stream: no Outline: no Threads: no Tagged: yes Page layout: single page Page mode: use none	Forms: no Metadata stream: no Outline: no Threads: no Tagged: no Page layout: single page Page mode: use none

File 2 (text, graphics, colours, images)

• File used was IFPI Digital Music Report 2010, http://www.ifpi.org/content/library/DMR2010.pdf
• Used Ghostscript 8.71 using the following command: gs -dPDFA -dBATCH -dNOPAUSE -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -sOutputFile=DMR2010_PDFA.pdf DMR2010.pdf

Property	Original	Normalized
PDF version	PDF 1.4	PDF/A-1b
File size	1,713,072 bytes	5,337,321 bytes
PageCount	32	32
Fonts	7 embedded subsets	7 embedded subsets
Features	Forms: no Metadata stream: no Outline: no Threads: no Tagged: no Page layout: single page Page mode: use none	Forms: no Metadata stream: no Outline: no Threads: no Tagged: no Page layout: single page Page mode: use none

File 3 (fillable form)

• File used was Understanding Canada: Canadian Studies Application, Faculty Research Program, http://www.iccs-ciec.ca/pages/z_pdfs/FEP_FRP/FRPEnForm.pdf
• Used Ghostscript 8.71 using the following command: gs -dPDFA -dBATCH -dNOPAUSE -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -sOutputFile=FRPEnForm_PDFA.pdf FRPEnForm.pdf
• Note that the version normalized to PDF/A is no longer usable as a fillable form

Property	Original	Normalized
PDF version	PDF 1.6	PDF/A-1b
File size	153,196 bytes	61,175 bytes
PageCount	5	5
Fonts	5 non-embedded fonts	5 embedded subsets Substituted font Helvetica-Bold for Arial, Bold Substituted font Helvetica for Arial Substituted font Helvetica-Oblique for Arial, Italic
Features	Forms: yes Metadata stream: yes Outline: yes Threads: yes Tagged: no Page layout: single page Page mode: use none	Forms: no Metadata stream: yes Outline: yes Threads: no Tagged: no Page layout: single page Page mode: use none