PDF/A considered harmful for digital preservation

Abstract

Today, the Portable Document Format (PDF) is the prevalent file format for the exchange of fixed content electronic documents for publication, research, and dissemination work in the academic and cultural heritage domains.Therefore it is not surprising that PDF/A is perceived to be an archival format suitable for digital archiving workflows.This paper gives a rather short overview about the history and technical complexity of the format, its benefits, shortcomings and potential pitfalls in the area of digital preservation with respect to aspects of accessibility and reusability of the information content of PDF/A.Several potential problems within the creation, preservation, and dissemination contexts are identified that may create problems for present and future content users.It also discusses some of the risks inherent to PDF/A for parts of the preservation community and suggests possible strategies to mitigate problems that might prevent future human or machine-based usability of the data and information stored within digital archives.

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