All tools Protect and redact
Save a PDF as PDF/A, for archiving
PDF/A is the version of PDF made for keeping: the file carries every font and colour it uses, and nothing that runs or reaches outside it, so it is made to open the same, years from now. Some courts, public offices and archives ask for it. PDF Stitch makes PDF/A-2b, keeping each page as it looks, and fills in a font a file used but did not include with a stand-in of the same widths, so nothing on the page moves.
PDF to PDF/A is part of Pro, from €7.90 a month or €49 a year. The everyday tools stay free forever. Pricing
How to do it
- Open your PDF.
- Open Document properties (the command key and I), then The downloaded file, and turn on Save as PDF/A, for archiving. Press Save.
- Press Download.
You do not have to take our word for it
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Watch the network
The "Nothing is uploaded" button in the app opens a list of every other site the page has contacted since you opened it, and how often, taken from the browser's own record. Your browser's developer tools show every request, this site's own included.
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Pull the plug
Once the app has loaded, turn off your network and keep working. Text recognition, the document converter and the handwriting fonts work offline too after their first use.
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Redaction that removes
A page with something blacked out is saved as a picture of itself, so the text under the box is gone, and every redacted page is checked before the file is saved.
Questions
- Which PDF/A is it?
- PDF/A-2b, the level that keeps how every page looks. Each file is made to its rules, and the files our tests make are checked against them with veraPDF, the reference checker.
- What if a font cannot be included?
- A page drawn with a font that cannot be stood in for, such as one for another script that the file did not carry, is saved as a picture of itself, its text kept so it can still be searched. The message after downloading says how many.
- Do signatures carry over?
- No. The PDF/A copy is a new file, so a signature the original carried is kept on its page as it looked, but is no longer a signature, and the app tells you so. Keep the signed original.
- Can a PDF/A file have a password?
- No. The standard does not allow one, so a copy downloaded with a password is an ordinary PDF.
- Is it free?
- PDF to PDF/A is part of Pro, from €7.90 a month or €49 a year. The everyday tools stay free forever.