Best PDF to PDF/A or PDF/X Converter
Best PDF to PDF/A or PDF/X Converter
What is PDF/A?
PDF/A is an international standard (ISO19005), a subset of the PDF standard, specially designed for long-term archiving of electronic documents. This standard guarantees that the document can always be viewed in the same way, even after some time and with different software programs. The PDF/A standard is divided into two parts. Only the PDF/A-1 is approved, and is divided into two levels:
PDF / A-1a maximum required by the standard
PDF / A-1b minimum required by the standard
PDF/A contains only the information necessary to view the document as it was when it was formed. All visible content of the document must be included, such as text, images, graphic vectors, fonts, colors and more. A PDF/A document cannot contain macro-instructions or references to elements or information (such as fonts) not contained in the file itself.
What is PDF/X?
PDF/X is an ISO standard, called 15930, which is made up of multiple specifications. The PDF / X file is a PDF file to which more restrictive rules have been imposed to facilitate the exchange and treatment by all the protagonists of a typical graphic work process.
The software tools we normally use to view and work with PDF files also work with PDF/X files. The aim of the format is to secure the transfer of digital files between companies involved in the production and printing of graphic works. The adjective “safe” used in this case identifies a condition coveted by operators in our sector and not always achieved: being able to work and print digital files created by others without fear of running into problems and errors. Born in 1999, PDF/X today contains several versions aimed at different processes and markets. When we talk about PDF/X we are talking about a family of formats, but the most important are:
PDF / X-1a (ISO 15930–1: 2001): evolution of the PDF / X-1 specification is based on the PDF 1.3 version and is very popular for sending digital files in the context of advertising. There is also the ISO 15930–4: 2003 specification which is identical to ISO 15930–1 but admits the PDF 1.4 version while prohibiting the presence of transparency;
PDF / X-3 (ISO 15930–3: 2002): studied and promoted by European members of ISO, it is proposed as a format for sending digital files that implement flows in which color management is provided. In particular, PDF / X-3 files can contain ICC profiles and RGB images. There is also the ISO 15930–6: 2003 specification which is identical to ISO 15930–3 but admits the PDF 1.4 version while prohibiting the presence of transparency;
PDF / X-4 (ISO 15930–7: 2010): some features of PDF versions after 1.3, such as transparency and layer management as well as JPEG2000 compression have been incorporated by this ISO specification released in 2008. The PDF / X-4 allows the presence of RGB elements, equipped with ICC profile, and requires the presence of an output intent. The acceptance of PDF / X-4 is wide and is having a good diffusion in the production field, especially in digital photography environments;
Best Software to Convert PDF to PDF/A or PDF/X
Free PDF to PDF/A or PDF/X Converter is a small but reliable tool designed to do this conversion. It support batch conversion to convert multiple pdfs to the desired format at the same time: PDF/A or PDF/X
To get started, download the tool on your Windows PC from this link.
Install the program (during installation Ghostscript will be installed too because it is essential for the correct functioning of the converter)
Here is the program interface:
At the top you can choose to convert your documents to PDF/A or PDF/X. Then drag and drop your PDF documents in the program. They will be automatically converted in the selected format (PDF/A or PDF/X).
Note that the original files are not overwritten. The program saves the new PDF documents in another file with a name that will include “pdfa” or “pdfx” depending on the conversion done.
At the end of the conversion, the folder will open where you will find the documents converted to standard PDF/A or PDF/X format.
With this utility (compatible with all Windows OS PC), you will also be able to directly convert Word to PDF/A or convert Word to PDF/X format.