Introduction

The 3-Heights™ PDF Validator safeguards the quality of PDF documents. It checks PDF files for compliance with the ISO standards for PDF and PDF/A documents. Unfortunately, there are many PDF creation or manipulation tools in use that do not comply with the PDF or PDF/A standard. System and operational interruptions often occur as a result. Incoming documents should be verified before they flow into business processes to prevent interruptions of this nature and to avoid unexpected costs.

The PDF Validator checks whether PDF documents comply with the PDF or PDF/A standard. Additional verification tests, such as checking the version number of the PDF document, are also possible; the tool can also verify compliance with internal directives – use of the right color, for instance, or use of the right fonts and other specifications.

Brief Description

Performance Characteristics

• Robustness
• High throughput
• Scalability
• Integrability
• Flexible adaptation options
• Exact verification of the PDF standard

Areas of Use

• Incoming mail
• Archiving
• Outgoing mail
• Quality assurance
• Software manufacturers / OEM

Functions

General Functions

• Validate PDF documents on the basis of various PDF specifications (PDF and PDF/A-1)
• Detailed or summarized reporting
• Detailed error description
• Classification by error, warning and information
• Optional cancellation of validation on occurrence of the first error

What Is Validated?

• Lexical checks
• Syntactical checks
• Semantical checks
• PDF/A-specific checks
• Additional checks for PDF/A-1a
• Customer and company-specific checks

Sectors

• Public sector
• Telecommunications
• Banking and insurance
• Archives and libraries
• Health sector
• Pharmaceutical industry
• Energy sector
• Publishing sector
• Printing industry

Functions

The 3-Heights™ PDF Validator verifies PDF documents in accordance with the ISO standard for PDF and also PDF/A for long-term archiving. The tool can check the conformity of individual documents and entire archives. The result output is needs-oriented, e.g. a detailed report for a manufacturer of PDF software or a summary of error reports for the user. The description includes every detail such as frequency, page number or PDF object number. Verification of internal specifications (e.g. standard image resolution) can occur at the same time.

Functions

General Functions

• Validate PDF documents on the basis of various PDF specifications (PDF 1.4, PDF/A-1)
• Detailed or summarized reporting (log file)
• Detailed error description (number, type, description, PDF object, page number)
• Classification by error, warning and information
• Optional cancellation of validation on occurrence of the first error
• Read encrypted PDF files

Validation Functions

All PDF Versions

• Lexical checks
  • Structure of tokens such as keywords, names, numbers or texts
  • Structure of the cross-reference table
  • File position in: Trailer directory, cross-reference table, etc.
  • Whether the object and generation number of a referenced object are correct 
  • Length attribute of stream objects
• Syntactical checks
  • Structure of directories, arrays, indirect objects, streams, etc.
  • Compression errors such as CCITT, JPEG, Flate, etc.
  • Detection of errors in embedded font programs
• Semantical checks
  • Specified entries in directories such as the entry of the width in an image directory
  • Inherited attributes
  • Value of the parent entry in a directory, e.g. page object
  • Value type of directory entries, e.g. integer, string, name
  • Whether an object has to be direct or indirect, e.g. a page object must always be an indirect object
  • Sequence of operators in content stream
  • The number of the operator's operands
  • The type of the operator's operands
  • Value range of the operand
  • Unknown cross-referenced resources
  • Operand stack overflow and underflow
  • Inconsistent information, e.g. when an image simultaneously has a stencil mask and a soft mask

PDF/A-Specific Checks

• Lexical checks
  • No header offset
  • Existence of a binary marker
• Semantical checks
  • Existence of a unique file identifier
  • Existence of document metadata
  • Existence of embedded font programs
  • Existence of characters for glyph mapping (coding) information for the font
  • Existence of output intents
  • Check for the existence of content that does not comply with PDF/A, for instance: encryptions, JPX and LZW filters, layers, Java scripts, prohibited annotations and actions, dynamically generated form fields, transparency, embedded PostScript code, invisible or unprintable annotations, device-dependent color space, unknown rendering intents, image interpolation, externally referenced information, Open Print Interface (OPI) information, alternative images, color transfer and half-toning functions
• Additional checks for PDF/A-1a
  • Existence of Unicode information
  • Existence of document structure information (tagging)

Formats

Input Formats

• PDF 1.4
• PDF/A-1a
• PDF/A-1b

Compliance

• Standards: ISO 19005-1 (PDF/A-1)
• Quality assurance: Isartor test suite
• Bavaria test suite (inofficial) 2

Benefits

Properties and Benefits

Powerful and consistent checks and a high throughput performance characterize the 3-Heights™ PDF Validator. As an active member of the ISO Organization, PDF Tools AG endeavors to support future PDF/A versions – for instance, the pending version PDF/A-2. The PDF Validator can validate individual documents and entire archives. It also meets the requirements of the Isartor test suite from the PDF/A Competence Center in full.

Performance Characteristics

• Robustness
• High throughput
• Scalability
• Integrability
• Flexible adaptation options
• Exact verification of the PDF standard

Areas of Use

Incoming Mail

The Validator checks incoming mail documents for conformance with the minimum requirements, for instance with regard to security, compliance, reproducibility or standardization (PDF/A). Inadequate documents are rejected.

Archiving

The tool also adopts the function of a archive gatekeeper: it rejects documents that do not comply with the standard. The Validator can also be used to validate the quality of existing archives and as a quality assurance tool during the conversion of TIFF archives to PDF/A.

Outgoing Mail

The quality of outgoing PDF documents can be checked prior to dispatch. The tool can take guidelines issued by the recipient into account.

Areas of Use

• Incoming mail
• Archiving
• Outgoing mail
• Quality assurance
• Software manufacturers / OEM
   

Quality Management

The Validator can also be used in quality management. It is able to monitor compliance with guidelines (CI) across the company or conformity in general, for instance after conversion from another format.

Software Manufacturers / OEM

The Validator serves to validate incoming and outgoing documents in workflow systems and DMS systems as well as - "you sign what you see" - in signature application software.

Sectors

• Public sector
• Telecommunications
• Banking and insurance
• Archives and libraries
• Health sector
• Pharmaceutical industry
• Energy sector
• Publishing sector
• Printing industry

Technical Details

Architecture and Application Options

The 3-Heights™ PDF Validator is available in the following variants:

• as a command line tool for batch processing (Shell)
• as a programming interface for integration in existing applications (Application Programming Interface, API)

Variants and Options

Product Variants

• Shell tool (command line)
• API (programming interface)

Options

Customized tests such as:

• All images must have a resolution ranging from 300 to 600 dots per inch (dpi)
• List of prohibited/permissible fonts
• List of prohibited/permissible PDF content
• etc.

Formats

Input Formats

• PDF 1.4 PDF Reference 1.4
• PDF/A-1a PDF/A 1a, ISO 19005-1, Level A compliance in Part 1
• PDF/A-1b PDF/A 1a, ISO 19005-1, Level B compliance in Part 1

Compliance

• Standards: ISO 19005-1 (PDF/A-1)
• Quality assurance: Isartor test suite
• Bavaria test suite (inofficial) 2

Platforms

Operating Systems

• Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Vista, 2008, Windows 7 – 32 and 64 bit
• FreeBSD 4.7 for Intel
• HP-UX 11.0 – 32 bit and Itanium
• IBM AIX (4.3: 32 Bit, 5.1: 64 bit)
• Linux (SuSE and Red Hat on Intel)
• Mac OS X
• Sun Solaris (2.7 and higher)

Interfaces and Languages

Interfaces

• Shell tool: Command line for batch processing
• API: C, Java, .NET, COM

Programming Languages

All program libraries are written in efficient and thread-safe C++. API offers a selection of the following connections to programming languages:

• C#, VB .NET, J# via .NET
• Java via JNI
• MS Visual Basic, Borland Delphi, MS Office products such as Access and C++ via COM
• C and C++ via native C

Product Code

VAL

Related Products

• 3-Heights™ PDF to PDF/A Converter

Further Product Details

The 3-Heights™ PDF Validator can establish whether PDF documents correspond to the PDF reference document or the new ISO standard for the long-term archiving of electronic documents (PDF/A).

The 3-Heights™ PDF Validator establishes whether a PDF document or an entire archive conforms to PDF/A. The PDF Validator provides a comprehensive verification procedure for converting a TIFF archive into a PDF/A archive; the procedure can be integrated directly in the conversion process. Specific corporate requirements can be checked and verified during the analysis process.

The PDF/A competence Center's Isartor test suite has tested and verified the full conformity of the 3-Heights™ PDF Validator with PDF/A.