This article contains prerelease information. Release dates, features, and other information are subject to change without notice.
The new version of this experience includes the most commonly used features, but it does not yet match the full functionality of the classic version. Refer to the Supported Elements page for a list of currently available features and those still in development. Additional features will be added in future releases.
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
Configuration
Availability:
- Acrobat Standard and Acrobat Pro: 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 this setting requires all uploaded documents to be PDF/A-2b compliant. This includes the initial source documents, attached library documents, and attachments added by the sender or signers (through the File Attachments field).
- PDFs that are not compliant with the PDF/A standard are rejected.
- All other file formats that are not PDF are rejected.
Enabling this feature absolutely limits all uploaded files to be in the PDF format.
Allows PDFs that are not compliant with the PDF/A standard to be uploaded and used as source documents, library templates and file attachments. No error is presented to the sender
All other file formats that are not PDF are rejected.
Authored hyperlink fields don't have the option to use an external link. Only links within the agreement pages are allowed.
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 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:
- PDF documents are validated against the PDF/A-2b standard.
- 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.
API behavior
When PDF/A workflows are enabled, related APIs enforce the same restrictions:
- Hyperlink fields of type EXTERNAL return an INVALID_HYPERLINK_TYPE error.
- Password-protected security options return a PDFA_PASSWORD_PROTECTED_NOT_ALLOWED error.
- API requests involving non-PDF/A files are rejected unless the Ignore PDF/A Errors setting is enabled.
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.
- External hyperlinks are not allowed. Hyperlink fields are limited to page-based links within the document.
- When authoring fields onto the agreement, the hyperlink field type removes the option to include an external hyperlink.
- 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.
