With TX Text Control 15.0, we introduced PDF/A export functionality. PDF/A is a format that has been created and standardized for long-term archiving of electronic documents. Using TX Text Control, you don't need separate third-party software, printer driver or an additional component module.

TX Text Control is your ALL-IN-ONE word processing component that doesn't consist of separate components developed by different companies or teams. You'll get everything from the same vendor in order to integrate word processing very smoothly.

What is a PDF/A Document?

The created PDF must be 100% self-contained. That implies that all information that is required to render the PDF must be embedded. That includes all used fonts of the document. TX Text Control provides a special PDF/A edit mode, so that users are only able to pick the supported fonts from the drop down box in the button bar. Not every font can be embedded using PDF/A for a couple of reasons: The license of the font forbids embedding or a device dependent font is used.

Additionally, TX Text Control is able to substitute unsupported fonts automatically and it provides an event where you can replace the fonts based on your own logic. Only this way guarantees a smooth export to this special Adobe PDF format.

Furthermore, audio and video content, encryption, Javascript and executable code is not allowed. The PDF/A standard is based on the PDF Reference Version 1.4 from Adobe Systems Inc. and has been published as an ISO standard on October 1, 2005.

How to Create a PDF/A Document Using TX Text Control?

Generally, you can simply use the Save method to export a valid PDF/A document. TX Text Control's FontSettings must be adjusted in order to allow only embeddable fonts to be used. If the document already contains not embeddable fonts and the FontSettings.AdaptFontEvent property has been set to true, an event is fired for each not supported font. All fonts can be replaced automatically, so that a valid PDF/A can be exported easily. If you start typing a new document with the goal of exporting it as PDF/A, the following steps or settings are required:

• The TextControl's ViewMode property must be set PageView.
• FontSettings.EmbeddableFontsOnly must be set to true.
• Save the document using TextControl.Save.

Conclusion: Using TX Text Control, creating PDF/A documents is as easy as exporting DOCX, DOC or RTF documents. No third-party software is required.