Ensure your signed documents remain readable, accessible, and compliant decades into the future.
PDF/A is a specialized format developed for long-term document preservation. It restricts features like encryption, external fonts, and unsupported multimedia to keep files self-contained and accessible over time.
Using PDF/A helps meet regulatory requirements, protects document integrity, and avoids future file format issues. Acrobat Sign enforces PDF/A compliance throughout the agreement workflow—from upload to signature to storage.
PDF/A workflows are especially useful for organizations with long-term archiving needs, such as those in finance, healthcare, and government.
Benefits of using PDF/A workflows
- Meet compliance and retention regulations
- Maintain readable, stable document formatting
- Avoid costs from reformatting or migrating archived files
- Increase confidence in the integrity of signed records
Acrobat Sign supports converting files to either PDF/A-2B or PDF/A-3B file types.
Configuration
Availability:
- Acrobat Standard and Acrobat Pro: Disabled; Not Configurable
- Acrobat Sign Solutions: Supported
- Acrobat Sign for Government: Supported
Configuration scope:
Administrators can enable this feature at the account and group levels.
Access this feature by navigating the administrator's configuration menu to Global Settings > PDF/A Workflows
The following settings are available:
Enabling PDF/A Workflows gives the administrator access to the PDF/A controls and lets Acrobat Sign validate and convert files into supported PDF/A formats.
Admins must select one of the two conformance levels for Acrobat Sign to convert files into when normalization is enabled:
| Conformance level | Description | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| PDF/A-2b | Preserves the document’s visual appearance for long-term archiving. Ensures text, fonts, images, and colors remain consistent over time. This is the most commonly used level for compliance. |
General compliance and standard archiving needs. |
| PDF/A-3b | Provides the same visual preservation as 2b, but also lets you embed non-PDF/A files (such as XML, CSV, or spreadsheets) inside the PDF for additional recordkeeping needs.. | Organizations that need to store source data or supplemental files along with the signed PDF. |
Enable PDF/A Normalization to actively convert uploaded files to the selected conformance level.
- PDF files will be validated and converted to the selected conformance level. PDFs uploaded with the selected conformance level will be evaluated and repaired if needed.
- If PDF/A workflows are enabled, but normalization is not enabled, Acrobat Sign evaluates each file uploaded and adopts the conformance level of the first PDF/A file that is uploaded with a supported standard.
When files are converted to the selected file standard and validated, there may be errors. These errors can stem from multiple sources and will bring the agreement process to a stop.
If the option to ignore the validation errors is enabled, Acrobat Sign will disregard the errors and proceed with the agreement generation. These agreements may not be fully PDF/A compliant, and should not be treated as such for any reason.
If the option to ignore validation errors is enabled, the user must reformat their original file so that it no longer produces errors.
The Signed Document Password Protection admin controls are altered to suppress any option that allows a sealing password to be applied:
Both the Request Signatures and Workflow Designer interfaces removes the option to add a password at the user level:
Acrobat Sign does not support editing or digitally signing PDF/A documents.
Enabling PDF/A Workflows disables the Download and Sign with Acrobat option for digital signature workflows. Agreements must be signed using cloud-based signatures.
Acrobat Sign does not support downloading and physically signing an agreement.
Enabling PDF/A Workflows automatically disables the Download and Sign with Acrobat option for digital signature workflows. Agreements must be signed using cloud-based signatures.
How it's used
When enabled, the PDF/A workflow includes validation steps to ensure full compliance:
- Word document conversion is supported.
- PDF documents are validated against the selected conformity level: PDF/A-2b or PDF/A-3b.
- Files that meet PDF/A requirements are accepted and preserved throughout the signing process.
- If a document fails validation, the agreement is blocked and an error message is shown:
- {File Name}: File does not conform to the PDF/A specification - Indicates that the uploaded file does not meet PDF/A-2b requirements.
- {File Name}: File cannot be uploaded - Indicates that password protection or encryption is blocking the upload of the file.
The signed document and its audit report include a compliance marker that identifies PDF/A status.
Things to know
PDF/A compliance imposes restrictions on certain Acrobat Sign features:
- Password protection is disabled for PDF/A agreements.
- The option to add Signed Document Password Protection to an agreement (through the agreement settings or Workflow Designer) is suppressed to prevent applying a password.
- The controls in the admin menu to require a signed document password is altered to remove all options that allow passwords.
- Encryption is disabled, even if encryption does not require a password to decrypt the document. Signed PDF/A documents are not encrypted after download.
- Non-compliant attachments are rejected. Uploaded attachments must also be PDF/A-2b compliant, including uploads from recipients.
- Embedded fonts - Documents must only contain embedded fonts. If a user provides a non-PDF document that Acrobat Sign can convert to a PDF, that document must only make use of supported fonts.
- Acrobat Sign can only embed a font from the set of fonts used for modifying the documents.
- Acrobat Sign cannot embed unlicensed fonts.
Supported fonts
Adobe Acrobat Sign supports these font categories for PDF/A:
- Microsoft Office Fonts - The fonts typically included with a standard Microsoft Office installation are supported.
Additional Supported Fonts
- Adobe Arabic
- Adobe Caslon Pro
- Adobe Clean
- Adobe Devanagari
- Adobe Fan Heiti Standard
- Adobe Fangsong Standard
- Adobe Garamond Pro
- Adobe Gothic Standard
- Adobe Hebrew
- Adobe Heiti Standard
- Adobe Jenson Pro
- Adobe Kaiti Standard
- Adobe Ming Standard
- Adobe Myungjo Standard
- Adobe Pi Standard
- Adobe Song Standard
- Adobe Text Pro
- Adobe Thai
- Alexa Standard
- Arno Pro
- Balzano Standard
- Banshee Standard
- Bell Centennial Standard
- Bickham Script Pro
- Birch Standard
- Blackoak Standard
- Brioso Pro
- Brush Script Standard
- Caflisch Script Pro
- Caliban Standard
- Century Old Style Standard
- Chaparral Pro
- Charlemagne Standard
- Cooper Black Standard
- Copal Standard
- Coriander Standard
- Cottonwood Standard
- Courier Standard
- Cronos Pro
- Cutout Standard
- Flood Standard
- Fusaka Standard
- Garamond Premier Pro
- Giddyup Standard
- Graphite Standard
- Heisei Kaku Go Standard
- Heisei Maru Go Standard
- Heisei Min Standard
- Hobo Standard
- Hypatia Sans Pro
- Immi Five O Five Standard
- Ironwood Standard
- Juniper Standard
- Kazuraki SP2N
- Kazuraki SPN
- Kepler Standard
- Kozuka Gothic Pr6N
- Kozuka Gothic Pro
- Kozuka Gothic Pro VI
- Kozuka Gothic Standard
- Kozuka Mincho Pr6N
- Kozuka Mincho Pro
- Kozuka Mincho Pro VI
- Kozuka Mincho Standard
- Letter Gothic Standard
- Lithos Pro
- Madrone Standard
- Mesquite Standard
- MICR Standard
- Minion Pro
- Myriad Arabic
- Myriad Hebrew
- Myriad Pro
- Myriad Standard
- Mythos Standard
- News Gothic Standard
- Nueva Standard
- OCRA Standard
- OCRB Standard
- Orator Standard
- Ouch Standard
- Pepperwood Standard
- Poetica Standard
- Ponderosa Standard
- Poplar Standard
- Postino Standard
- Prestige Elite Standard
- Quake Standard
- Rad Standard
- Rosewood Standard
- Ryo Clean Plus N
- Ryo Display Plus N
- Ryo Display Standard
- Ryo Gothic Plus N
- Ryo Gothic Standard
- Ryo Text Plus N
- Ryo Text Standard
- Sanvito Pro
- Shuriken Standard
- Stencil Standard
- Strumpf Standard
- Symbol Standard
- Tekton Pro
- Toolbox Standard
- Trajan Pro
- Utopia Standard
- Viva Standard
- Voluta Script Pro
- Warnock Pro
- Willow Standard
- Woodtype Ornaments Standard
- Zebrawood Standard
Japanese Fonts
- BIZ UDMingcho
- BIZ UDPGothic
- HG S Kyokasho
- HG S Mincho
- Hiragino Kyokasho
- Hiragino Maru Gothic
- Hiragino Mincho
- Hiragino Reisho
- Hiragino Seikaishotai
- Hiragino Soei Kakupoptai
- Meiryo
- MS Mincho
- OCR B
- UD Digi Kyokasho N
- Yu Mincho
