PDF to PDF/A

Choose your PDF and the PDF/A version; PDF/A-2b is selected for you. The file is checked first and every change it needs is listed in plain words. After converting, the result is validated against the version you chose, and the download appears only if it passes.

PDF/A is the kind of PDF made for keeping documents readable for decades. Everything needed to show the file, such as its fonts and colour profiles, is stored inside it, and anything that depends on outside software or the internet, such as scripts, links to outside files or encryption, is not allowed.

The one the archive, court or office receiving the file asks for. If nobody has said, keep PDF/A-2b, the default. Choose PDF/A-1b only when a system asks for it, 2u or 3u when the text must be reliably searchable and copyable, and 3b or 3u when files attached to the PDF must be kept, because the other versions remove attachments.

Every converted file is checked against the rules of the version you chose before the download button appears. If it doesn't pass, you get no file, and we explain why. We never label a file as PDF/A without checking it.

Yes. When a file only needs small fixes, such as a colour profile, archive information or removing scripts, those are fixed and the pages are not touched. When pages have to be rebuilt, for example to embed missing fonts, the text and the look of sample pages are compared before and after, and the result screen tells you what was found.

Links and bookmarks are kept. Comments are kept and given a fixed appearance so they print. Form fields stay fillable when the file can be fixed in place; when the pages have to be rebuilt they are flattened, which keeps what was typed in them but makes them no longer editable. The check before converting tells you which will happen.

Yes, but any change to a signed file breaks its signature, and PDF/A conversion is a change. The signature is removed and its visible stamp is kept, so the new file never shows a signature as valid when it is not. Keep your original as the signed record, or sign the PDF/A copy again with Digital Signature.

No. A scan keeps its image quality and becomes PDF/A as it is; no text recognition is added, so nothing is guessed. If the scan already has a searchable text layer, that layer is kept. To make a scan searchable first, run it through OCR PDF and then convert the result.

Not in one step, because this tool only takes PDFs. Turn the document into a PDF first with Word to PDF or Image to PDF, then bring that PDF here.

The file is converted on our server and kept only while you work: it is deleted about 30 minutes after upload, or straight away when you leave the page or start again. A password-protected PDF has to be unlocked first with Unlock PDF.

Yes. Every tool works without paying and without an account. Files can be up to 200 pages and 80 MB, and a run that fails costs you nothing.

No. All tools work without signing in. An account raises your hourly allowance and lets you see what you have processed.