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What is PDF/A and How to Troubleshoot Common PDF/A Rendering Issues in Vault?

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Question:

What is PDF/A?

Answer:

PDF/A format is an Adobe ISO-standardized (190005) PDF version specialized for the archiving of electronic documents. 

For more information on Adobe PDF/A please reach out to Adobe Help Center.

Impact:

If Generate PDF/A-1b Compliant Rendition is enabled, documents that do not meet Adobe's PDF/A requirements will not render in Vault and no viewable rendition will be available. 

Common issue #1:

A Vault's Rendition Settings is set to Generate PDF/A-1b Compliant Rendition and a document that does not meet Adobe's PDF/A requirements is uploaded to Vault. The document does not render and no viewable rendition is available. 

Common issue #2:

A document type uses a Rendition Profile that is set to Generate PDF/A-1b Compliant Rendition and a document that does not meet Adobe's PDF/A requirements is uploaded to Vault. The document does not render and no viewable rendition is available. 

Common issue #3:

An existing document that does not meet Adobe's PDF/A requirements has been re-rendered by a user with the "I want a rendition in PDF/A format." option selected. The document fails to render and no viewable rendition is available. 

Vault Troubleshooting Options for all 3 scenarios: 

Option 1. Re-render the document as a regular PDF. 

Option 2. Review Adobe's PDF/A requirements and ensure the document meets these requirements and re-upload the document to Vault. 

If documents do not need to be PDF/A, Admins may want to reconsider Rendition Settings for the Vault or Rendition Profile/Document Type. 

Tips:

If users have Adobe Pro, users can use Adobe's Preflight to confirm if the document meets Adobe's PDF/A requirements. If the document does not meet Adobe's PDF/A requirements, it also lists errors of what needs to change. For more information on the Adobe Preflight PDF/A Errors and troubleshooting please see Adobe Help: Convert PDFs to PDF/X, PDF/A, or PDF/E. 

 Vault Related Documentation:

Vault Help Documentation:   Vault Help

 Adobe Related Documentation:

Adobe Documentation: Adobe Help Center

Adobe Documentation: Convert PDFs to PDF/X, PDF/A, or PDF/E

 

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