Validate PDF and PDF/A Compliance

Validate PDF and PDF/A documents for ISO compliance. Pdftools SDK returns detailed results that help developers identify, classify, and fix compliance issues in automated workflows.

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Check document conformance at any stage

PDF SDK

Extensive PDF validation checks

Just because a PDF looks right, doesn’t mean it is correctly built and ready for archiving. The Pdftools SDK lets you validate PDF/A documents according to various specifications:

ISO standards for PDF and PDF/A
Conformance levels B, U, and A
Programmatic validation for automated pipelines

Validate your documents’ conformance with the PDF SDK

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PDF SDK

PDF/A validation for the entire pipeline

Validate documents at any stage of your pipeline to ensure file health and archival compliance

Validate incoming files, pre-, and post-processing
Validate after digital signing
Custom compliance for internal policies

See our documentation for more details

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Lexical, syntactic and semantic validation

The Pdftools SDK performs validation checks according to PDF specification and conformance level

Lexical checks

Lexical checks include checking whether individual characters and tokens are valid

Syntactic checks

Syntactic checks validate the structure of tokens

Semantic checks

Semantic checks look at a document as a whole, for example, whether a referenced font is embedded in the file

PDF/A validation checks that matter

The PDF SDK checks whether a PDF contains everything required for reliable long-term preservation and reports the issues that prevent full PDF/A conformance

Embedded fonts

Ensure that text remains visually intact even when the original fonts are no longer available.

Color and output intent

Verify that colors are defined in a device-independent way for predictable rendering on different devices in the future.

Text, Unicode and accessibility metadata

Check whether text extraction, search, and semantic information are preserved where required by the selected PDF/A level.

Transparency, annotations and interactive content

Detect features that are restricted or need normalization for archival use.

Metadata and document structure

Validate required XMP metadata, conformance identifiers, document structure, and other PDF/A-specific requirements.

Learn which validation checks the PDF SDK performs

See documentation

Validate for quality and compliance

Compliance

Check if documents are ready for long-term archiving and if incoming files meet custom compliance requirements

Signature validation

Validate PDF/A compliance after digital signing, as signing can break PDF/A conformance

Efficiency

Avoid unnecessary conversion workflows by checking if a PDF already conforms to the required PDF/A standard

Programmatic checks

Use validation APIs to inspect document properties as part of automated pipelines

Quality assurance

Validate documents previously converted with third-party tools or older systems

Custom profiles

Create custom compliance profiles to enforce internal document policies

Validate PDFs instead of simply trusting they’re compliant

Build programmatic PDF and PDF/A validation into your automated pipeline

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