PDF/A Introduction - Document Preservation In the future, the Judicial
Branch will require that all electronically filed documents uploaded in
e-filing be in the PDF/A format. Currently, the system accepts both PDF and
PDF/A documents.
This move to a PDF/A standard is viewed as a necessary step to enhance
security and to improve the archiving and preservation of case-related
documents. For more information on PDFs, go to the
Frequently Asked Questions.
1) Creation from electronic documents:
PDF/A documents can be created by most word processor programs. The
necessary instructions for creating PDF/A documents are given at:
For information about creating PDF/A documents with Adobe Acrobat 9
Professional or Standard, see
Creating PDF/A documents with Acrobat.
2) Creation from Judicial Branch fillable forms, other programs or
scanned documents To keep the sizes of files down and to make sure that
files are text-searchable, PDF/A documents should ideally be created using a
word processing program (like WordPerfect, Microsoft Word or OpenOffice
Writer), rather than being printed out in hard copy and scanned. Some
scanning software is capable of directly creating PDF/A format documents.
If your software does not have the capability to save in PDF/A format, the
document may be saved (like printing) to PDF/A using a
PDF Creator Tool or it may need to be scanned as a regular PDF and then
converted/saved to PDF/A.
If you have Adobe Acrobat Professional,
here is an
example of how to use that product with your scanner.
Special
Considerations with using PDF/A
PDF/A is for the creation of archival
documents, similar to paper documents to make sure that they will be
readable in the future, regardless of what fonts or software are on a
computer when a user subsequently views the documents. In essence, PDF/A is
similar to a frozen image of your document. This is desirable so the
Judicial Branch can ensure court documents are retained in the original
format as submitted.
With this in mind, it may be important for you to
retain your original source document in your word processor or file system
as the PDF/A document is usually used as a final static copy for submission
to the court.
An important consideration in the creation of PDF/A
documents is attachments and whether the hyperlinks they contain are
�active�; see
Attachments and Hyperlinks in PDF/A Documents3) Other PDF/A
Compliant productsMany commercial products can create PDF/A documents (
many
are listed here). The State of Connecticut Judicial Branch does not
recommend any particular products.