“What is well kept lasts long.”
PDF to PDF/A Online
Convert a PDF to PDF/A-1b, the ISO archival standard that courts, government portals, and long-term document repositories require for submissions that must stay readable for decades.
- No sign-up, no watermark
- Files encrypted and auto-deleted
- No installation — runs right in your browser
- Fast processing on desktop and mobile
How to use PDF to PDF/A online
- 1
Upload your files
Drag and drop or click to select your file(s). Uploads go directly to encrypted cloud storage over HTTPS. (PDF)
- 2
Run the tool: PDF to PDF/A
Processing happens instantly in the cloud — no software to install, works on Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android.
- 3
Download the result
Get your processed file via a secure temporary link. All files are deleted automatically about a day after upload.
Frequently asked questions
What exactly is PDF/A, and why would I need it?
It's an ISO-standardized subset of PDF built for archiving: everything needed to display the document must be inside the file itself, with nothing depending on external fonts, software, or links. Court e-filing systems, government submission portals, and institutional archives commonly reject plain PDFs and require PDF/A.
Which conformance level does this produce?
PDF/A-1b — level B, the visual-fidelity level, which guarantees the document will look the same in future. It adds the PDF/A identification metadata and embeds an sRGB color profile so colors are unambiguous. Level A, which additionally requires a tagged structure tree for accessibility, is not produced.
Does conversion change how my document looks?
It shouldn't. What it does change is the file's internals: encryption is removed (PDF/A forbids it), archival metadata is added, and an output color profile is embedded.
Will the result pass a strict validator?
It's a best-effort conversion and passes typical checks, but a PDF built with unusual or non-embeddable fonts, or with transparency that PDF/A-1 doesn't permit, can still be flagged by a strict validator like veraPDF. Validate before submitting if the destination is a court or regulator that rejects non-conforming files.
Will the PDF/A version be larger than the original?
Usually, yes. PDF/A requires every font to be embedded rather than referenced, which is precisely what makes the file still render correctly decades from now. That extra weight is the archive guarantee, so compressing it afterwards would undo the point.