PDF to PDF/A

What converting to PDF/A actually adds

PDF/A is not a different file format; it is ordinary PDF with requirements added and liberties removed, so a reader fifty years from now renders the document identically. This tool adds the file-level pieces PDF/A-1b demands: an sRGB output intent so colour stays defined, an XMP packet declaring the conformance level, consistent dates, and a document identifier. It runs entirely in your browser; the document is never uploaded, which tends to matter for exactly the papers people archive.

Before converting, it inspects your fonts, because unembedded fonts are the most common reason a PDF cannot be archival: a file that borrows fonts from the computer that made it will not render identically anywhere else.

• Adds the sRGB output intent, XMP packet, and file identifier
• Checks whether every font is embedded before converting
• Runs locally, so the document never leaves your device

The honest limits of doing this in a browser

A browser cannot conjure a font program that is not in the file; the font lives on the machine that authored the PDF. When fonts are missing, the reliable route is flattening pages to images, which conforms because a page with no fonts and no transparency has almost nothing left to violate, at the cost of text that is no longer selectable or searchable.

Nor can a browser run a full conformance audit. If the file must satisfy a court, registry, or archive that validates submissions, check the output with veraPDF, the standard open validator, before relying on it.