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Version: Version 1.7

Validate PDF documents

With the Pdftools SDK, you can validate PDF documents according to various PDF specifications. The Pdftools SDK lets you validate the following standards:

PDFPDF/A
PDF Reference 1.3-1.6PDF/A-1 (ISO 19005-1)
PDF 1.7 (ISO 32000-1)PDF/A-2 (ISO 19005-2)
PDF 2.0 (ISO 32000-2)PDF/A-3 (ISO 19005-3)

You can verify PDF documents in accordance with the ISO standard for PDF and also PDF/A for long­-term archiving, as well as to a specific conformance level.

Additional verification tests such as checking the version number of the PDF document are also possible. You can also verify conformance to internal directives; for example, use of the right color or use of the right fonts and other specifications. You can check the conformity of individual documents and entire archives.

With the Pdftools SDK, you can:

  • Perform PDF ­conformance in terms of lexical, syntactic, and semantic checks
  • Get a detailed or summarized report (log file):
    • Get detailed error descriptions: number, type, description, PDF object, page number
    • Classify by error, warning, and information
  • Cancel validation automatically when the first error is encountered
  • Determine the claimed conformance of the document
  • Validate conformance to corporate directives defined in custom profile

Conformance levels​

Conformance levels are determined by the PDF standard. Within the PDF/A specification standards, the following conformance levels are supported:

  • B (Basic)
  • U (Unicode, only PDF/A-2 and PDF/A-3)
  • A (Accessibility)

Validation checks​

When you validate a PDF document with the Pdftools SDK, different lexical, syntactic, and semantic validation checks are performed according to the PDF version and conformance level.

Validation reports​

You can determine how you want to receive the results of the document validation process. You can choose the reporting level: either a detailed report or a summary of error reports. The description includes every detail such as frequency, page number, or PDF object number. Verification of internal specifications (e.g. standard image resolution) can occur at the same time.

Get started

Learn how to validate a PDF document for conformance with a PDF version, or a PDF/A standard and level.