Form Fields in Conversion from 1.4 > PDF/A File loose 'filling' Capability?

Technical Support Apryse SDK
1

Good afternoon,

I have several pdf 1.4 files which I am converting with the PDFNet SDK
to PDF/A but for some reason I am loosing the source pdfs' form
fields' capabilities... as in even the normal/non pdf-a view mode of
e.g. Acrobat Reader 9 the forms are no longer fillable. Is this normal
behaviour or am I / PDFNET doing something wrong?

Cheers,
-J

2

This is normal. PDF/A standard lists certain restrictions related to
generic PDF use. Some of the restrictions deal with PDF forms. For
example JavaScript is frequrently used to implement PDF forms but
JavaScript is not allowed in PDF/A. To make compliant document PDF/A
Manager (http://www.pdftron.com/pdfamanager/index.html) or
PDFACompliance class in PDFNet will strip away any embedded
JavaScript. As a result, conversion from PDF to PDF/A is not always an
information lossless process and for proper application of any PDF/A
converter requires some expertise with PDF.

3

Ahh alright, thanks! In case an already filled & saved pdf 1.4 is
converted to pdf/a, are the values within the form fields retained?

4

Correct, field values and the appearances will be retained after PDF/A
conversion.