Validate PDF/A Guide

How to integrate the PDF/A Validator into your application using iLovePDF’s REST API.

Remember that in order to use our Tool Guides, you need to have previous knowledge about the basics to processing a PDF with our REST API. We strongly recommend that you read the Processing a PDF guide before starting this one.

What is PDF/A

PDF/A is an ISO-standardized version of the PDF specialized for use in the archiving and long-term preservation of electronic documents.

PDF/A differs from PDF by prohibiting features ill-suited to long-term archiving, such as font linking (as opposed to font embedding) and encryption. The ISO requirements for PDF/A file viewers include color management guidelines, support for embedded fonts, and a user interface for reading embedded annotations.

Basic PDF/A validation

iLoveAPI allows you to validate a PDF by checking if it is PDF/A compliant. Instead of the file being returned as a different downloadable file, it receives a PDF/A validation result. See the following example:

Basic PDF/A validation

// Create a new task
$myTask = $ilovepdf->newTask('validatepdfa');
// Add files to task for upload
$file1 = $myTask->addFile('path/to/file1_name.pdf');
$file->setConformance('pdfa-2a');
// Execute task
$result = $myTask->execute();
// Print your result
echo $result->validated;

// Create a new task
var taskValidatePDFA = api.CreateTask<ValidatePDFATask>();
// Add files to task for upload
var file1 = taskValidatePDFA.AddFile("file1.pdf");
taskValidatePDFA.Process(new taskValidatePDFAParams(Conformance = "pdfa-2b");
// Execute the task
var result = taskValidatePDFA.Process();
// Print your result
Response.Write(result);

# Create a new task
my_task = ilovepdf.new_task :pdfa
# Add files to task for upload
file1 = my_task.add_file 'path/to/file1_name.pdf'
my_task.conformance = 'pdfa-2b'
# Execute the task
result = my_task.execute
# Print your result
print result;

const task = ilovepdf.newTask('validatepdfa') as ValidatePdfaTask;

task.start()
.then(() => {
    return task.addFile('path/to/file1_name.pdf');
})
.then(() => {
    return task.process({ conformance: 'pdfa-2b' });
})
.then(() => {
    const status = task.responses.process?.validations![0].status;
});