Convert PDF File to PDF/A

Aspose.PDF allows you to convert a PDF file to a PDF/A compliant PDF file. Before doing so, the file must be validated. This article explains how.

Please note we follow Adobe Preflight for validating PDF/A conformance. All tools on the market have their own “representation” of PDF/A conformance. Please check this article on PDF/A validation tools for reference. We chose Adobe products for verifying how Aspose.PDF produces PDF files because Adobe is at the center of everything connected to PDF.

Before converting the PDF to a PDF/A compliant file, validate the PDF using the validate method. The validation result is stored in an XML file and then this result is also passed to the convert method. You can also specify the action for the elements which can not be converted using the ConvertErrorAction enumeration.

Try online. You can check the quality of Aspose.PDF conversion and view the results online at this link products.aspose.app/pdf/conversion/pdf-to-pdfa1a

PDF to PDF/A_1b Conversion

The following code snippet shows how to convert PDF files to PDF/A-1b compliant PDF.

public void convertPDFtoPDFa1b() {
        // Open document
        try {
            document = new Document(inputStream);
        } catch (Exception e) {
            resultMessage.setText(e.getMessage());
            return;
        }

        // Convert to PDF/A compliant document
        // During conversion process, the validation is also performed
        File logFileName = new File(fileStorage,"PDF-to-PDFA-log.xml");
        File pdfaFileName = new File(fileStorage,"PDF-to-PDFA.pdf");
        document.convert(logFileName.toString(), PdfFormat.PDF_A_1B, ConvertErrorAction.Delete);

        // Save output document
        document.save(pdfaFileName.toString());
    }

To perform validation only, use the following line of code:

public void ValidatePDF_A_1B() {
        // Open document
        try {
            document = new Document(inputStream);
        } catch (Exception e) {
            resultMessage.setText(e.getMessage());
            return;
        }

        // Validate to PDF/A compliant document

        File logFileName = new File(fileStorage,"PDF-to-PDFA-log.xml");
        if (document.validate(logFileName.toString(), PdfFormat.PDF_A_1B)){
            resultMessage.setText("Document is valid");
        }
        else {
            resultMessage.setText("Document is not valid");
        }
    }

PDF to PDF/A_3b Conversion

    public void convertPDFtoPDFa3b() {
        // Open document
        try {
            document = new Document(inputStream);
        } catch (Exception e) {
            resultMessage.setText(e.getMessage());
            return;
        }

        // Convert to PDF/A compliant document
        // During conversion process, the validation is also performed
        File logFileName = new File(fileStorage,"PDF-to-PDFA-log.xml");
        File pdfaFileName = new File(fileStorage,"PDF-to-PDFA.pdf");

        document.convert(logFileName.toString(), PdfFormat.PDF_A_3B, ConvertErrorAction.Delete);

        // Save output document
        try {
            document.save(pdfaFileName.toString());
        }
        catch (Exception e) {
            resultMessage.setText(e.getMessage());
            return;
        }
        resultMessage.setText(R.string.success_message);
    }

PDF to PDF/A_3a Conversion

public void convertPDFtoPDFa3a() {
        // Open document
        try {
            document = new Document(inputStream);
        } catch (Exception e) {
            resultMessage.setText(e.getMessage());
            return;
        }

        // Convert to PDF/A compliant document
        // During conversion process, the validation is also performed
        File logFileName = new File(fileStorage,"PDF-to-PDFA-log.xml");
        File pdfaFileName = new File(fileStorage,"PDF-to-PDFA.pdf");

        document.convert(logFileName.toString(), PdfFormat.PDF_A_3A, ConvertErrorAction.Delete);

        // Save output document
        try {
            document.save(pdfaFileName.toString());
        }
        catch (Exception e) {
            resultMessage.setText(e.getMessage());
            return;
        }
        resultMessage.setText(R.string.success_message);
    }

PDF to PDF/A_2a Conversion

public void convertPDFtoPDFa2a() {
        // Open document
        try {
            document = new Document(inputStream);
        } catch (Exception e) {
            resultMessage.setText(e.getMessage());
            return;
        }

        // Convert to PDF/A compliant document
        // During conversion process, the validation is also performed
        File logFileName = new File(fileStorage,"PDF-to-PDFA-log.xml");
        File pdfaFileName = new File(fileStorage,"PDF-to-PDFA.pdf");

        document.convert(logFileName.toString(), PdfFormat.PDF_A_2A, ConvertErrorAction.Delete);

        // Save output document
        try {
            document.save(pdfaFileName.toString());
        }
        catch (Exception e) {
            resultMessage.setText(e.getMessage());
            return;
        }
        resultMessage.setText(R.string.success_message);
    }

PDF to PDF/A_3U Conversion

 public void convertPDFtoPDFa3u() {
        // Open document
        try {
            document = new Document(inputStream);
        } catch (Exception e) {
            resultMessage.setText(e.getMessage());
            return;
        }

        // Convert to PDF/A compliant document
        // During conversion process, the validation is also performed
        File logFileName = new File(fileStorage,"PDF-to-PDFA-log.xml");
        File pdfaFileName = new File(fileStorage,"PDF-to-PDFA.pdf");

        document.convert(logFileName.toString(), PdfFormat.PDF_A_3U, ConvertErrorAction.Delete);

        // Save output document
        try {
            document.save(pdfaFileName.toString());
        }
        catch (Exception e) {
            resultMessage.setText(e.getMessage());
            return;
        }
        resultMessage.setText(R.string.success_message);
    }

Create PDF/A-3 and attach XML file

Aspose.PDF for Android via Java offers the feature to convert PDF files to PDF/A format and it also supports the capabilities of adding files as an attachment to PDF document. In case you have a requirement to attach files to PDF/A compliance format, then we recommend using PDF_A_3A value from com.aspose.pdf.PdfFormat enumeration, the PDF/A_3a is the format that provides the feature to attach any file format as an attachment to PDF/A compliant file. However, once the file is attached, you should convert it into Pdf-3a format again, in order to fix metadata. Please take a look over the following code snippet.

 public void convertPDFtoPDFa3u_attachXML() {
        // Open document
        try {
            document = new Document(inputStream);
        } catch (Exception e) {
            resultMessage.setText(e.getMessage());
            return;
        }

        // Convert to PDF/A compliant document
        // During conversion process, the validation is also performed
        File logFileName = new File(fileStorage,"PDF-to-PDFA-log.xml");
        File pdfaFileName = new File(fileStorage,"PDF-to-PDFA.pdf");
        File attachment = new File(fileStorage,"sample.xml");

        // Save output document
        try {
            // load XML file
            FileSpecification fileSpecification = new FileSpecification(attachment.toString(), "Sample xml file");
            // Add attachment to document's attachment collection
            document.getEmbeddedFiles().add(fileSpecification);
            document.convert(logFileName.toString(), PdfFormat.PDF_A_3B, ConvertErrorAction.Delete);
            document.save(pdfaFileName.toString());
        }
        catch (Exception e) {
            resultMessage.setText(e.getMessage());
            return;
        }
        resultMessage.setText(R.string.success_message);
    }