PDF/A is an ISO-standardized version of PDF designed for long-term archiving. It embeds all fonts, disables encryption, and ensures the document is self-contained.

Why should I convert to PDF/A?

PDF/A is required for legal archiving, government submissions, and compliance in many industries. It guarantees the document will look the same decades from now.

Will conversion change my document's appearance?

The visual appearance should remain the same. The conversion process embeds missing fonts and ensures all elements meet the PDF/A standard.

Convert PDF to PDF/A

Transform your PDF documents into the PDF/A archival format for long-term digital preservation. PDF/A ensures your documents remain readable and accessible for years to come, meeting compliance requirements.

Why use this tool

Converts to ISO-standard PDF/A format
Embeds all fonts for self-containment
Ensures long-term document readability
Required for legal and government archiving
Server-side processing for accuracy

Privacy and workflow

This workflow uses secure server processing for conversion or heavy document tasks.

Conversion runs on the server for thorough compliance validation and font embedding. Files are automatically deleted after processing.

Start with your PDF

Anonymous: 50 MB maxSign up for higher limits and more features

Drag and drop files here or click to browse

PDFMaximum file size: 50 MB

About this tool

The UnblockPDF PDF/A Conversion tool transforms standard PDF documents into the PDF/A archival format, an ISO-standardized subset of PDF designed specifically for long-term digital preservation. The conversion runs on the server side to ensure thorough compliance validation, font embedding, and metadata correction that exceeds what browser-based processing can reliably achieve. PDF/A (ISO 19005) differs from standard PDF in several important ways. It requires all fonts to be embedded within the document, prohibits encryption, disallows external content references, embeds all color profile information, and includes standardized metadata in XMP format. These requirements ensure that the document is completely self-contained and will render identically regardless of the software, operating system, or hardware used to open it, now and decades into the future. The conversion process analyzes your source PDF and applies the necessary modifications to achieve PDF/A compliance. This includes embedding any fonts that are referenced but not included, converting color spaces to device-independent profiles, adding or correcting XMP metadata, removing any encryption, and validating the document structure against the PDF/A specification. The tool primarily targets PDF/A-1b (basic conformance) and PDF/A-2b compliance levels, which cover the requirements of most archiving and compliance scenarios. The visual appearance of your document should remain unchanged after conversion. The content, layout, images, and typography are preserved. The only modifications are structural changes needed to meet the archival standard, which are invisible to the reader. Common use cases include preparing documents for legal archiving where PDF/A is mandated by regulation, submitting files to government agencies that require PDF/A format, converting corporate records for compliance with document retention policies, archiving research publications and academic papers for institutional repositories, and ensuring medical records meet healthcare archiving standards. The converted output can be downloaded immediately. The tool supports files up to 50 MB for anonymous users and 100 MB for registered accounts.

Common use cases

Prepare legal documents for court-mandated archiving that requires PDF/A compliance certification

Convert government submissions to PDF/A format meeting official filing and retention requirements

Archive corporate records in PDF/A format to comply with industry document retention policies

Ensure research publications meet institutional repository requirements for long-term digital preservation

Convert medical and healthcare records to PDF/A format for regulatory compliance and archival storage

Tips for best results

Verify that the source PDF uses standard fonts before conversion, as unusual fonts may cause embedding issues during the compliance check.
After conversion, use the Protect tool if you need to add access restrictions, but note that PDF/A prohibits encryption by specification.
For scanned documents, run the OCR tool first to add a searchable text layer before converting to PDF/A for a fully accessible archive.
Check the conversion report for any compliance warnings and address them before submitting the PDF/A file to regulatory authorities.

Good to know

PDF/A prohibits encryption, so password-protected PDFs must be unlocked before conversion. Some interactive features like JavaScript and multimedia are removed.

How to use Convert PDF to PDF/A

1
Upload your PDF
Select or drag and drop the PDF file you want to convert to PDF/A.
2
Convert to PDF/A
Click Convert and the tool will process your PDF to meet the PDF/A archival standard.
3
Download your PDF/A
Download the PDF/A compliant file for long-term storage or submission.