PDF Document API — PDF/A Conversion (v23.2)

As you may already know, our PDF Document API (part of the DevExpress Office File API suite) now ships with a PDF/A-2b and PDF/A-3b converter. PDF/A is an ISO standard (ISO 19005) designed for long-term electronic document preservation. PDF/A documents are self-contained and do not rely on external resources such as fonts or images. Because of the self-contained nature of this file format, they are rendered consistently and always preserve the look and feel of the document itself. By converting documents to the PDF/A format, you maintain long-term document accessibility/consistency.

In our most recent major update (v23.2), we added a standalone PdfDocumentConverter converter you can use without the PdfDocumentProcessor class. To proceed, simply pass the path of the file that must be converted within the object constructor. The PdfCompatibility enumeration allows you to specify compatibility mode of the converted document. You can use the appropriate enumeration value as a PdfDocumentConverter.Convert method parameter.

You can also check the conversion status of the document and view issues encountered during the conversion process. Use the PdfDocumentConverter.ConversionReport property to obtain information on the file conversion process.

The following code snippet converts a file to PDFA/A-2b format and displays conversion status and issues in the console:

using DevExpress.Pdf;

// ...

// Specify file to convert.
var filePath = "PdfAConversionDemo.pdf";
var converter = new PdfDocumentConverter(filePath);
 

// Convert file to the desired format.
converter.Convert(PdfCompatibility.PdfA2b);
converter.SaveDocument("PdfAConversionDemoResult.pdf");
 

// Specify and display file conversion report.
var status = converter.ConversionReport.ConversionStatus;
Console.WriteLine($"Status: {status}");
Console.WriteLine("Issues:");

var issues = converter.ConversionReport.Issues;
foreach (var issue in issues) {
    Console.WriteLine($"{issue.Severity}: {issue.Message}");
}

If you're currently using the DevExpress Office File API and are considering PDF file conversion, please take a moment to respond to the following questions. Your feedback will help us refine our 2024 product development roadmap.

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