PDF/A-3

PDF/A-3

May 28, 2024 | seedling, permanent

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Summary #

  • PDF/A-3 is a specific standard for archiving documents for the long term. Essentially, it’s a way to ensure that your documents will be readable and accessible even decades after they were created.
    • PDF/A-3 files have an attachment embedded within them, containing all the data required to load the PDF. This includes things like font data, colours, and any attached files, such as XML invoice data.

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PDF/A1 vs PDF/A2 vs PDF/A3 #

  • Embedded files are forbidden in PDF/A-1,
  • but PDF/A-2 allows embedding of PDF/A files, facilitating the archiving of sets of PDF/A documents in a single file.
  • PDF/A-3 allows embedding of any file format such as XML, CAD and others (including JSON) into PDF/A documents.

Details #

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PDF/A-3 is a constrained form of Adobe PDF version 1.7 (as defined in ISO 32000-1) intended to be suitable for archiving of page-oriented documents for which PDF is already being used in practice. PDF/A-3 adds a single and highly significant feature to its predecessor PDF/A-2 (ISO 19005-2)

  • PDF/A-3 allows for embedding of files of any type, but imposes requirements beyond those in “regular” PDF 1.7 files as defined by ISO 32000-1.
  • Files that comply with these requirements are termed “associated” files; an explicit association must be made between each embedded files and the containing PDF or object or structure (e.g., image, page, or logical section) within the PDF.
  • See Notes below for more detail on the association mechanism. Predefined values for relationships for associated files (in the required AFRelationship key) are Source, Data, Alternative, Supplement, and Unspecified.
  • MIME types must be provided for associated files. The PDF/A-3 specification requires the use of application/octet-stream if a more specific MIME type is not known.
  • The compilers of this resource have not determined whether more explicit characterization necessary to support long-term preservation (e.g., version) can be indicated. Comments welcome.
  • Human-readable descriptions for the associated files can be provided and are recommended. Conforming readers must provide a mechanism for a user to choose to extract and save (not open) associated files.

Why ZATCA Mandated the PDF/A-3 Format for E-Invoicing, EGS, ? #

ref This is because it ensures that all invoices and related notes can be uniquely identified at any given time in the future. The file name for the PDF/A-3 format contains the seller ID, the date and time the document was generated, and the invoice reference number. This makes it easy to find and reference specific documents, even years down the line.

  • The invoice when shared with buyer in PDF/A-3 format, the buyer can extract the attached XML invoice to use digitize and load into his ERP it easily and the invoice can be archived for future reference.

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