PDF/A-3: the edition an electronic invoice uses
The third edition, published in 2012, differs from the second by a single clause — and that clause is the reason electronic invoicing across Europe is built on it.
- Published text
ISO 19005-3- Year of the edition
- 2012
- Version it rests on
- PDF 1.7
Summary
The second edition let a document carry another file inside it only if that carried file was itself archival. The third lifts the condition: the carried file may be of any kind at all.
That one change is what makes an electronic invoice possible. The page is the invoice a person reads; tucked inside it is the same invoice as a data file that accounting software reads without anybody retyping a figure. One document, two ways of reading it, and it is archival for both of them.
Everything else is the second edition word for word: the same rule, the same three levels, the same doors closed.
Technically
The part rests on PDF 1.7. The only substantive difference from the second edition is the rule on carried files: any format is allowed, and each carried file states its relationship to the document — the source it was made from, the data behind it, an alternative form of it, or a supplement.
Three levels, as in the second edition. Level A asks for a structure tree and the engine refuses to write the file without one; level B asks for the page alone.
Through the service this part is asked for as archive with the value pdfa3b, pdfa3u or pdfa3a. The header says PDF 1.7, and a document whose version and claim disagree is refused before a byte is written.
Clause by clause
All three claims of this part are written by the engine, and a request asks for level B, level U and level A by their own names.
The levels of this part
| Level | What it adds | Asked for over the network as |
|---|---|---|
PDF/A-3A |
The page, its text mapped back to Unicode, and the structure of the document, so it can be read aloud and searched by paragraph. |
pdfa3a
|
PDF/A-3B |
The page alone. This is the level an electronic invoice is written at. |
pdfa3b
|
PDF/A-3U |
The page, and every character drawn mapped back to the letter it stands for. |
pdfa3u
|
What this part asks for
- Everything the second edition asks for, unchanged.
- Every carried file states what it is to the document carrying it, and carries its own name, its kind and the moment it was written.
- A structure tree, at level A.
- The document header names PDF 1.7.
What this part rules out
What every part of the standard rules out
On top of what every part of the standard rules out, this part closes:
- The same doors as the second edition, and one of them opened: a carried file may be of any kind at all.
Where this part stands here today
Written today, and the part every electronic invoice produced here is written under. A request asks for it by name; the engine writes level A of its own accord when the document carries a structure tree.
What an archival document written here carries is the same whichever part is claimed — the fonts, the output intent, the description packet, the report and the two independent checkers — and it is set out once, on the page that presents the standard. What every archival document here carries
The requirements, family by family
The requirements group into eight families, the same eight for every part, and each of their pages says what we write for you automatically and the little that is left for you to state. The eight families, and the page each one has
The published texts behind these rules
| Published text | What it asks for |
|---|---|
ISO 19005-3 6.1.2 |
The version the file header names is the one the part rests on. |
ISO 19005-3 6.2.11.4.1 |
Every font the document draws with is carried inside the file. |
ISO 19005-3 6.2.8 |
What reading software is to do between an image's samples is stated, not left to it. |
ISO 19005-3 6.3.2 |
What an annotation's flags may and may not say. |
ISO 19005-3 6.5.1 |
Which kinds of action a document of this part may hold. |
ISO 19005-3 6.7.3.3 |
A document at level A carries a structure tree. |
ISO 19005-3 6.9 |
What a set of layers a reader can switch off has to declare. |