On 09/10/2009 11:18 AM, Bill Donovan wrote:
> This issue has probably been debated in the past, but might be worth
> revisiting.
> Now that the PDF file format (version 1.7) is an international standard
> (ISO 32000-1), is there any reason to continue to prefer PDF/A for
> archival purposes?
> If PDF/A is a stripped-down version of PDF, wouldn't it be better to
> employ the file format that supports a wider range of content?
> 

As I understand it, the archival advantage of PDF/A is that it explicitly
disallows things that have are comparatively likely to become unusable or
inaccessible over the years: scripts, hyperlinks, non-embedded fonts, media.

It would be an interesting exercise to create a revised PDF/A with multimedia
support, specifying fully open, patent- and royalty-free media specs.


-- 
Thomas Dowling
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