: Creating PDF/A conform files with Adobe Illustrator I need to create PDF/A conform files of technical drawings with Adobe Illustrator. Are there any presets for saving PDF/A files? Or do I need

@Carla748

It's not possible to generate PDF/A files directly in Illustrator, Photoshop, or InDesign (as of CS6), only in Acrobat Pro version 8.0 or newer, and Acrobat Distiller which comes with Acobat Pro. However, I believe there is a commercially sold Illustrator plug-in available, and other stand-alone conversion software.

Otherwise you open the AI file in Acrobat Pro and use the Preflight feature to generate a separate PDF/A-compliant file from it.

An alternative workflow might be the 'old-school' postscript export from Illustrator to Acrobat Distiller. Distiller has the PDF/A-1b profiles for CMYK and RGB. This also allows for automated PDF generation with Distiller lurking in the background: You save a postscript file from Illustrator (via the Print dialog, set Printer to 'Adobe PostScript File', and PPD to 'Adobe PDF 9.0') into a specific folder that Distiller is set to 'watch' and to automatically convert PDFs from PS files in there...

PDF/A is promoted by the 'PDF Association' based in Germany. A brochure with more details on the use of Acrobat Pro can be downloaded from their website: PDF/A in a Nutshell (2011) www.pdfa.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/PDFA-in-a-Nutshell_1b.pdf

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@Marchetta832

Create an Adobe PDF Choose File > Save As or File > Save A Copy.

Type a filename, and choose a location for the file.

Choose Adobe PDF (*.PDF) as the file format, and click Save.

Either choose a preset from the Adobe PDF Preset menu, or select a
category from the list on the left of the dialog box and then
customize the options.

Click Save PDF.


The presets include the PDF/A selection.

Source: help.adobe.com/en_US/illustrator/cs/using/WS714a382cdf7d304e7e07d0100196cbc5f-654fa.html#WSF9A0BDC8-7767-452b-B9EA-23EB3644C6B9a

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