Fully Automated
PDF to PDF/a Conversion
Automatically convert PDFs into compliant PDF/A
for long-term archiving & regulatory compliance
Automated PDF/A Conversion for Digital File Preservation
How does DocShifter’s PDF to PDF/a Conversion Software benefit your organization?
Long-term file preservation
PDF/A is specifically designed for long-term preservation of electronic documents. It ensures that the content and layout of the document remain intact and can be reproduced accurately in the future, even as software and technology evolve.
Reduced file size
PDF/A files can be optimized for smaller file sizes without sacrificing quality, making them easier to store and transfer, especially for large archival collections.
Deliver compliant PDFs to regulatory bodies that are archive-ready
DocShifter helps your organization deliver searchable, navigation-rich PDFs to regulatory bodies.
Legal compliance
PDF/A format is often required for legal and regulatory compliance in various industries, especially in sectors where document preservation and authenticity are critical, such as government, healthcare, and finance.
Go from multiple conversion tools and solutions into a centralized one
DocShifter eliminates the need for native applications on your rendition server. Not only do you save on licensing costs, but conversion speeds increase dramatically as well.
Standardization
PDF/A adheres to a strict set of standards defined by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), providing a common format for document preservation and exchange, which helps ensure interoperability and consistency.
Want to see automated PDF to PDF/A conversion in action?
Book a demo with a specialist.
Powerful and automated PDF renditions across your entire enterprise
- Authors continue to store their documents as usual, while a DocShifter workflow will automatically detect and convert the document to the correct format at the right time.
- Workflows automatically route content based on file type, metadata, templates used, document signatures, and more.
- User-friendly and highly adaptable workflows allow you to define the steps of your automation process.
- Check for new documents from various content sources (see DS Connectors for more details).
- Automatically reject conversion tasks with certain characteristics.
- Notify users automatically of conversion errors.
- Advanced management of images within documents, including DPI, encoding, quality, and more.
- Sophisticated conversions for images and emails, such as resizing, reorienting, adjusting aspect ratios, scaling, and additional options.
- Comprehensive handling of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, email, text, and image formats.
- Consistently convert documents while preserving tracked changes.
- Manage field codes to ensure all content remains intact.
- Process or exclude embedded files, including ZIPs, DOCX files, and more.
- Create bookmarks from any style, including custom styles.
- Ensure hyperlinks are formatted and styled consistently.
- Set magnification and zoom levels for both bookmarks and hyperlinks.
- Automatically generate bookmarks for PDFs without existing bookmarks, using criteria like text font, size, and more.
- Convert from multiple input formats to PDF or PDF/A.
- Choose the specific PDF or PDF/A version you need.
- Configure PDF properties and utilize any DMS metadata.
- Flatten PDFs when necessary.
- Optimize PDFs, including options for fast web viewing.
- Ensure PDF viewing preferences are properly configured.
- Embed fonts as needed, whether all, subset, nonstandard, or more.
- Automatically substitute fonts when the originals are unavailable.
- Enforce specific font substitutions to utilize available fonts.
- Embed attachments within the PDF.
- Fit entire Excel sheets onto a single PDF page.
- Specify the paper size for rendering Excel sheets.
- Convert only selected sheets from an Excel file to PDF.
- And much more.
- Add branding elements such as watermarks, headers, footers, page numbers, and more to PDFs.
- Optimize PDFs for fast web viewing.
- Reduce PDF file sizes to meet compliance and collaboration requirements.
- Compress PDFs without compromising quality.
Automated PDF/A conversion for a large bank
for document standardization
By partnering with DocShifter, a large European bank was able to tremendously improve operational efficiency. See what they have to say below about how DocShifter drastically improved PDF/a conversion for them..
“DocShifter is converting 36,000 documents per day, from both internal and external sources. We have no control over what comes in, and yet the failure rate is still below one-percent.
What really sets it apart from our previous process is that DocShifter tells us what’s gone wrong, which allows us to review and resolve non-converting documents.”
Speak to one of our specialists
Frequently Asked Questions
What is PDF/A?
PDF/A stands for Portable Document Format Archivable.
It's a specific type of PDF designed for long-term archiving of electronic documents.
Here's what makes PDF/A special for archiving:
- Preserves formatting: A PDF/A file ensures the document's layout and appearance are maintained exactly how it was created, regardless of the software used to view it in the future.
- Self-contained: Unlike regular PDFs, PDF/A files embed all the fonts, colors and other elements needed to display the document correctly. This eliminates reliance on external software or fonts.
- Standardized format: PDF/A is an ISO standard, ensuring wide industry acceptance and consistent rendering across different systems.
- In short, PDF/A offers a reliable way to store electronic documents for the long term, guaranteeing their accessibility and readability even decades from now.
Why convert PDF to PDF/A?
You'd convert a PDF to PDF/A format for long-term archiving and future accessibility. Regular PDFs are great for portable document sharing, but they might not be ideal for reliable preservation over extended periods. Here's why converting to PDF/A is beneficial:
- Future-proofs your documents: Technology evolves rapidly, and software used to create PDFs today might become obsolete in the future. PDF/A ensures the document can be opened and viewed correctly even with changes in technology.
- Preserves visual integrity: Regular PDFs can sometimes lose formatting or fonts when opened on different systems. PDF/A embeds everything needed to display the document exactly as intended, guaranteeing consistent visual appearance over time.
- Standardized format for archiving: Many institutions like governments and libraries have specific requirements for archived documents. PDF/A is a widely accepted standard format for archiving, ensuring your documents meet these requirements.
In essence, converting to PDF/A safeguards your documents against potential issues related to software incompatibility, font loss, or changes in technology, making them accessible and readable for years to come.
Can DocShifter automatically bookmark PDFs and create Table of Contents (ToC)?
Yes. PDFs are fully bookmarked, with Tables of Content created automatically as necessary (as well as cover pages, pagination, and more)
Does DocShifter software support optical character recognition (OCR)?
DocShifter allows for fully-automated OCR from any file format supported, which includes all image formats listed in a given RFP. The accuracy of results will depend on the quality of the image being processed via OCR, so the required 90% guarantee cannot be achieved without the quality of the content source also being guaranteed.
We need the conversion functionality for a one-off conversion project. Can DocShifter help?
Absolutely. It's something we have plenty of experience in. Head over to our Document Conversion Services page to find out how DocShifter's team can handle all of your document conversion project needs.
Can I customize the conversion settings?
Absolutely. The way your PDF/A looks, is fully customizable thanks to more than 200+ PDF conversion options. From bookmarks to headers, footers, font settings, PDF optimization settings; and PDF viewing options, you can customize your output to meet internal and external regulatory requirements.
Can we test DocShifter's PDF/A conversion capabilities?
Sure, we were hoping you would ask this!
We'd be happy to guide you through the steps. Can you contact us to start a discussion please? You can use the Contact Form right above.
