PDF XChange Forum

Hi,

Assuming you have tons of PDFA compliant files,
How could we remove this attribute and convert them back to standard PDF (editable)?

I do that manually using PDF Editor but guess bulk modification should be possible using PDF tools?

Regards,
Bernie

Hello Bernie,

PDF is a subsection of the PDF specification, but actually PDF/A files have more information in them that would ensure their long term preservation - so by removing the PDF/A compliance from a file you actually have less info in it, so why would you need to do this to batches of files? I would recommend you to only remove this for files that you actually need to modify - and leave the rest in the archived format.

Regards,
Stefan

Hi,

Thanks,

Goal would be to password protect files ... which is not possible for PDFA files.
So, if I decide this, I will have to first revert all such files to editable ... unless a way exist to password protect PDFA files?

Regard,
Bernie

Hi Bernie,

Indeed PDF/A files can not be password protected - as the password might get lost in time, and make the file inaccessible - something against the idea of PDF/A files.
You can try to start with the "Split/Merge" tool as a base and then customize it by adding options to password protect the new file(s) and select to put new files in e.g. a new folder and keep each new file with the same page(s) as the source one(s) - this will effectively create new copies of your original documents and add the desired password.

Regards,
Stefan

Hi,

Thanks, as per suggested I did try w split + option to pwd protect copies but got error during save operation!
Can you confirm that at your side converting PDFA to PDF this way well works? Regards
Bernie

Hi Bernard,

Can you post a screen-shot of the error you're getting?

Thanks,

Hello Bernard,

Just got an update from the devs that this is being worked on, and should be available in the next PDF Tools build.

Regards,
Stefan

Hello,

Thank you for letting me know.

Regards
Bernie