PDF/A variants supported by Documaster N5 Validator

[solfeggietto]

It seem to be a problem with PDF/A-detection and error reports where documents that are PDF/A is reported as PDF. We may send examples to Documaster such cases.

The Documaster N5 Validator need to be throughout tested towards the known PDF/A-variants and the result of this test need to be included in the README-section and possibly in the report itself (maybe the new first tab in Excel spreadsheet?).

Known PDF/A-formats that need to be tested:
PDF/A-1b : basic compliance (scan picture of the document)
PDF/A-1a : full compliance (as 1b + semantically-correct PDF tag structure etc.)
PDF/A-2a : =1b + addresses some new featrures PDF 1.5/6/7
PDF/A-2b : =1a + addresses some new featrures PDF 1.5/6/7
PDF/A-2u : = 2b + all text in the document have Unicode mapping.
PDF/A-3 :

Reference: need be verified against other sources (ref. PDF/A2 & 3 comformity and validation)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDF/A

need be verified against other sources.

[solfeggietto]

It is my understanding from dialog with Tom that the validation method we agreed on would be valid for at least PDF/A-1a and PDF/A-1b. Ref. the test done and replied to me below.

This issue deals with all available PFD/A formats and this validators general handling of those cases in accordance to Arkivverkets rules and notes on it.

The handling of PDF (non PDF/A) prior to february 2009 is a special rule only for PDF.
Handling of other file/document-formats must be specified in its own Issue with respect of what are the valid document-formats besides PDF/A and how the detection and report ot this should be handled.

From Ivaylo 07.03.2017
...

• When should documents be considered valid even if they do not comply to the PDF/A 1B standard?

From Tom Erik Falkevik 13.09.2016
I did a quick test with the current version of PreFlight that we use to validate PDF documents in the validator.
As expected, the result of validating PDF/A-1a against PDF/A-1b is: valid.
(PDF/A-1a is based on PDF/A-1b and this shouldn't be very surprising).