Adobe PDF/A-3b Export and Import

PDF/A-3 allows attachments in any format to be added to PDF documents. The standard itself does not standardize the embedded documents but how they are embedded into the PDF structure. This enables applications to reliably extract the attached file from the PDF document, allowing readers to extract only the embedded documents without having to open the entire PDF document.

In the PDF/A specification, PDF/A-3 added a significant change compared to all predecessors. PDF/A-3 (ISO 19005-3:2012) permits embedding files of any format (including XML, MS Word, and proprietary binary formats). This change allows for the migration from electronic paper to an electronic container that holds the human and machine-readable versions of documents.

The option to embed additional documents into standardized PDF documents is typically used in various industries, including healthcare and government, to attach additional structured data to documents.