Convert a PDF to PDF/A for free

How it works

1. 1

   Upload the PDF to archive.

2. 2

   Convert it to PDF/A on the server.

3. 3

   Download the PDF/A copy.

About the PDF to PDF/A

Courts, public archives and many companies ask for documents in PDF/A, a version of PDF designed to look the same decades from now. It requires fonts to be embedded and colours to be defined independently of any device, and forbids features that depend on outside resources. This tool rewrites your PDF to the PDF/A-2 standard using Ghostscript on our server.

What you can do

• Convert an ordinary PDF to PDF/A-2, a widely accepted archival level.
• Embed the fonts the document uses so it renders the same on any computer in future.
• Convert colours to a device-independent colour space, as the standard requires.
• Download the result with "-pdfa" added to the file name.
• Keep the visual appearance of every page while the internal structure is rewritten to follow the archival rules.

When it works best

• Filing documents with courts, tax offices or government portals that require PDF/A.
• Archiving contracts, theses and annual reports for long-term storage.
• Meeting a records-management policy that only accepts archival formats.
• Preparing scanned records for a document management system with PDF/A as its storage format.

Things to know

• Features that PDF/A forbids, such as embedded JavaScript, are dropped, and transparency or colours may shift very slightly.
• The tool converts but does not issue a validation report. If a recipient requires a specific level such as PDF/A-1b or 3, check with a dedicated validator.
• Password-protected PDFs cannot be converted; remove the password with Unlock PDF first.
• The 25 MB upload limit applies. Ghostscript works on a temporary copy, and the archival file waits on the server for roughly half an hour at most before it is swept away.

Frequently asked questions