Imagine you’re trying to open an important PDF document - like a contract, a research paper, or a financial report - but damaged, can’t be read, or even completely lost. It's a frustrating thing, but not uncommon. While PDF is the most widely used document format in today’s digital age, standard PDF is not suitable for long-term storage. At this point, the advantages of PDF/A become clear. Designed specifically for long-term archiving, PDF/A standard ensures your document is kept completely and accessibly even decades later.
So, how to quickly convert PDF to PDF/A? In this blog, we will introduce how to integrate this feature into your systems or applications seamlessly using different programming languages, complete the conversion process easily.
How to Convert PDF to PDF/A?
ComPDFKit supports multiple programming languages, helping developers easily achieve PDF to PDF/A conversion. With the help of our detailed development documents, you can create an efficient PDF to PDF/A converter.
With ComPDFKit's PDF/A library, the conversion option analyzes the content of existing PDF files and performs a sequence of modifications in order to produce a PDF/A compliant document. Features that are not suitable for long-term archiving (such as encryption, obsolete compression schemes, missing fonts, or device-dependent color) are replaced with their PDF/A compliant equivalents.
Here, we show you sample code from PDF to PDF/A-1a standard using different programming languages.
1. Convert PDF to PDF/A Using Objective-C
Please go to the ComPDFKit documentation guide to learn how to build your Mac/iOS PDF editor using Objective-C beforehand to integrate the PDF to PDF/A feature.
Then, use the following example code to complete the conversion:
NSURL *url = [NSURL fileURLWithPath:pdfPath];
CPDFDocument *document = [[CPDFDocument alloc] initWithURL:url];
[document writePDFAToURL:url withType:CPDFTypePDFA1a];
2. Convert PDF to PDF/A Using Swift
As a prerequisite to starting, please check the ComPDFKit documentation guide to build your Mac/iOS PDF editor using Swift. Then, use the following example code to complete the conversion process from PDF to PDF/A-1a.
let url = URL(string: pdfPath)
var document = CPDFDocument(url: url)
document?.writePDFA(to: url, with: .pdfa1a)
3. Convert PDF to PDF/A Using Java
Before completing the PDF to PDF/A conversion using Java, please check the ComPDFKit documentation to create an Android PDF editor quickly.
Then, use the following sample code to integrate this functionality into your application:
document.convertType(PDFDocumentType.PDFTypeA1a);
4. Convert PDF to PDF/A Using C#
In advance of using C# for the PDF to PDF/A conversion, please check the ComPDFKit documentation guide to create a Windows application.
Then, follow the sample code to achieve PDF to PDF/A-1a：
CPDFDocument document = CPDFDocument.InitWithFilePath("filePath");
document.WritePDFAToFilePath(CPDFType.CPDFTypePDFA1a,"savePath");
Conclusion
Converting PDF to PDF/A ensures the document's accessibility and readability for long-term storage and archiving. This guarantees the document maintains possessive displaying and consistent formatting in different devices even after decades or longer. With the ComPDFKit PDF to PDF/A conversion guide, developers can integrate the feature using a few lines of code, improving the document conversion experience.
Additionally, in the upcoming release of ComPDF Conversion SDK V3.0.0, a hybrid layout mode is introduced, combining fixed layout and reflowable layout. This mode preserves the text flow while achieving pixel-perfect layout reproduction. This not only ensures the layout is constantly in the conversion process but also meets the users’ editing requirements for the documents. If you need any help, please contact us free time, and our technical support team will be dedicated to assisting you.