FairScan could allow exporting scanned documents to PDF/A, "an ISO-standardized version of the Portable Document Format (PDF) specialized for use in the archiving and long-term preservation of electronic documents".
PDF/A compliance can be checked using validators (although results may vary depending on the tool).
As of today, PDF files generated by FairScan are not PDF/A compliant, for example:
- document information metadata (e.g.
creationDate, creator) should also be embedded as XMP metadata.
- a color profile such as sRGB should be defined.
There are multiple versions of PDF/A, which are not mutually compatible. PDF/A-2 supports transparency, while PDF/A-1 does not. This would make it impossible to create PDF/A-1 files with a transparent text layer, which is planned for OCR (see #27).
Supporting PDF/A may require embedding additional data (such as fonts when adding text), which may increase file size. As this may not be desirable for all users, PDF/A could be implemented as an optional export mode for PDF.
There is currently no clear use case for PDF/A support in FairScan. Users interested in this feature are invited to comment on this issue and describe their needs:
- In which context do you need PDF/A?
- Who requires it (e.g. administration, employer, legal constraint)?
- Do you know which version of PDF/A is expected?
- Do you need the file to pass a specific validator?
FairScan could allow exporting scanned documents to PDF/A, "an ISO-standardized version of the Portable Document Format (PDF) specialized for use in the archiving and long-term preservation of electronic documents".
PDF/A compliance can be checked using validators (although results may vary depending on the tool).
As of today, PDF files generated by FairScan are not PDF/A compliant, for example:
creationDate,creator) should also be embedded as XMP metadata.There are multiple versions of PDF/A, which are not mutually compatible. PDF/A-2 supports transparency, while PDF/A-1 does not. This would make it impossible to create PDF/A-1 files with a transparent text layer, which is planned for OCR (see #27).
Supporting PDF/A may require embedding additional data (such as fonts when adding text), which may increase file size. As this may not be desirable for all users, PDF/A could be implemented as an optional export mode for PDF.
There is currently no clear use case for PDF/A support in FairScan. Users interested in this feature are invited to comment on this issue and describe their needs: