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PDF data containers

周e development of PDF (Portable Docu-

ment Format), which Adobe Systems has

been promoting since 1993, has signiﬁ-

cantly simpliﬁed data management and

exchange for a great number of users from

completely diﬀerent ﬁelds. PDF allows

obstacles that can arise during the trans-

mission or storage of ﬁles to be neatly

avoided.

■■PDF ﬁles can be opened on all estab-

lished operating systems. Free PDF readers

are available for all of the important plat-

forms including Windows, Apple, Linux,

and mobile devices.

■■With this format, the document layout

is true to the original. Since PDF can incor-

porate diﬀerent types of content such as

text (and the relevant fonts), images, and

graphics, nasty surprises relating to miss-

ing illustrations or incorrect fonts – like

those that occur when Word documents

are opened on another computer – are not

usually a problem.

■■PDF is an open format. 周is means that

companies other than Adobe Systems (who

invented PDF) can develop so晴ware for

creating or displaying PDF. 周e ‘release’ of

PDF by Adobe has brought independence

for both users and developers and, as a re-

sult, there is a high probability that there

will still be programs for generating and

displaying PDFs in decades to come.

So, can users who want to keep docu-

ments such as contracts or invoices for long

periods of time trust in PDF to make sure

that their documents will work just as well

in ten, ﬁ晴een, or one hundred years time as

they do today? It might well be the case that

PDF ﬁles created today will still work with-

out any signiﬁcant problems in 2017. How-

PDF speciﬁcations:

Since it was introduced at the start of the 1990s, the PDF

ﬁle format has been in a state of constant development.

The current PDF speciﬁcation is version 1.7, which was

introduced with Acrobat 8. Today, it is extremely rare to

come across PDF ﬁles with a version number lower than

1.3, and modern PDF generation programs only have

backward compatibility to version 1.3 at the most.

With each PDF version, Adobe Systems publishes a refer-

ence that describes the features and functions of the ver-

sion in detail. The speciﬁcation history contains ‘mile-

stones’ – important features that were introduced with

the new version. Some of these milestones are listed be-

low.

Acrobat 1 (1993, PDF 1.0): PDF 1.0 incorporates most

of the functions oﬀered by the page description language

PostScript Level 2. All basic functions for text, vector

graphics, and raster graphics are available.

Acrobat 2 (1994, PDF 1.1): This version supports the

Lab color space and CalRGB. It also supports TrueType

fonts.

Acrobat 3 (1996, PDF 1.2): This version enables

color separation and supports Unicode and CID fonts

(Chinese, Japanese, and Korean). It also supports ZIP

compression.

Acrobat 4 (1999, PDF 1.3): PDF 1.3 contains the com-

plete PostScript Level 3 graphics model. It enables multi-

channel color spaces (DeviceN) and supports ICC proﬁles

for the reliable reproduction of colors. It introduces

smooth shades and page geometry boxes, which are use-

ful for prepress processes (TrimBox, CropBox, and Bleed-

Box).

Acrobat 5 (2001, PDF 1.4): From this version, PDF

ﬁles can contain transparency. This version also intro-

duces ‘tagged PDF’ (= structured PDF), which enables

content accessibility. The security options are enhanced

with this version. In addition, the image compression

type JBIG2 is supported.

Acrobat 6 (2003, PDF 1.5): With this version, PDF

documents can contain layers (also called ‘optional con-

tent’). JPEG2000 image compression is supported.

Acrobat 7 (2004, PDF 1.6): This version supports

OpenType fonts. With this version, 3D content can be in-

serted. Users can create virtual page sizes with edges of

up to 381 km in length.

Acrobat 8 (2006, PDF 1.7): Unicode path speciﬁca-

tions simplify the correct speciﬁcation of links, even

across international language systems. The new Acrobat

‘PDF packages’ function allows several independent PDF

documents to be forwarded in a single ﬁle. The recipient

requires Acrobat or Reader 8.

One of the reasons for the

global success of PDF must be

considered to be the free

availability of the Adobe

Reader. This PDF viewer is

available for download from

Adobe Systems’ Web site in

many language versions for

numerous commonly used

platforms:

www.adobe.com/products/

acrobat/readstep2.html

PDF/A

in a Nutshell

Durable documents with the PDF/A standard

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ever, only the new PDF/A standard can

guarantee that users will be able to view ex-

actly the same content as when their docu-

ments were created. 周is format brings the

kind of legal certainty that can be decisive

in many business and administrative con-

texts.

Why PDF/A and not PDF?

Why has a special PDF standard now been

deﬁned for archiving documents? Are tra-

ditional PDF documents not ‘good enough’

for long-term archiving? PDF has some

excellent characteristics that lend them-

selves to the creation of archive docu-

ments. Like a container, a PDF can incor-

porate completely diﬀerent elements such

as text, images, and fonts. In addition, it

reproduces layouts that are true to the

original and is cross-platform capable.

However, certain requirements must be

met in order to enable the exact reproduc-

tion of content.

■■Required: One ‘must’ is that users re-

quire full access to all elements belong-

ing to a document. For example, fonts

must be embedded – a link to the font in

question is not sufficient. This means

that if, in 10 years time, a user who tries

to open a document does not have a re-

quired font on his or her computer, spe-

cial characters or symbols will not be dis-

played correctly.

■■Prohibited: In addition, some PDF fea-

tures must be avoided. Such elements are

prohibited because they would undermine

the required document durability, and in-

clude interactive elements and PDF layers.

周ese features inhibit the unambiguity that

is required from an eﬀective PDF/A ﬁle.

For example, in the case of a PDF docu-

ment with layers, users printing it out in 50

years time might well ask themselves which

layers are valid and which are not. 周is

kind of decision needs to be made now –

when the PDF is created.

A PDF/A document is basically a tradi-

tional PDF document that fulﬁlls precisely

deﬁned speciﬁcations. In order to prevent

users from repeatedly having to test and

discuss the best appearance of a well-

functioning archive PDF, industry experts

decided in 2002 to work together to de-

velop the PDF/A standard.

The introduction of the PDF/A standard

周e PDF/A standard for long-term ar-

chiving was adopted by ISO (International

Organization for Standardization) in au-

tumn 2005. 周e PDF/A standard was pub-

lished with the number ‘ISO 19005-1:2005’

and is based on PDF speciﬁcation 1.4. An

additional part, PDF/A-2, is currently be-

ing prepared. 周is part shall refer to PDF

Version 1.7.

周e PDF/A standard aims to enable the

creation of PDF documents whose visual

appearance will remain the same over the

course of time. 周ese ﬁles should be so晴-

ware-independent and unrestricted by the

systems used to create, store, and repro-

duce them. As far as PDF/A is concerned,

practice soon caught up with theory.

While Acrobat Professional 7 contained

only ‘dra晴’ PDF/A functions, Acrobat 8,

which has been available since the end of

2006, now oﬀers creation and veriﬁcation

features that comply with the adopted

standard.

Many new PDF/A tools and solutions

for creating and verifying ﬁles have en-

tered the market since the introduction of

the standard – from ‘small’ tools for indi-

vidual users who want to create PDF/A

documents every now and again to exten-

sive server solutions that can create a hun-

dred thousand archive documents from

databases in just a few hours time.

➔

ISO is an international organization for

standardization, active primarily in tech-

nical and electronic fields. The PDF/A stan-

dard was developed by industry and de-

velopment experts.

PDF/A has two levels of compliance:

PDF/A-1a (Level A) applies to semantic correctness

and structure. Each character must have a Unicode

equivalent. The structure is expressed by tags.

PDF/A-1b (Level B) applies to visual integrity.

Any ﬁle that meets the requirements for PDF/A-1a will

also comply with PDF/A-1b, which is less strict.

PDF/A

Competence Center

International companies and experts from

the field of PDF technology have joined

forces to form the PDF/A Competence Cen-

ter. It aims to promote the exchange of in-

formation and experiences relating to

long-term archiving. Users can visit

www.pdfa.org for up-to-date advice and

background information as well as a dis-

cussion forum on PDF/A.

Durable documents with the PDF/A standard

PDF/A

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How to create archive

PDFs

周ere are many diﬀerent conditions that

might be encountered when creating PDF/A

ﬁles. 周e process diﬀers depending on

whether existing PDF documents are al-

ready available or whether they need to be

generated from working ﬁles such as Word

or PowerPoint ﬁles.

■■PDF/A ﬁles from ﬁles or data: 周is ﬁeld

relates to newly created PDF ﬁles from ap-

plications including word processing, im-

age editing, and layout programs. 周e pro-

cess can be realized by means of a PDF ex-

port from the source program, Acrobat

Professional, Distiller, or other PDF con-

verters. For the mass conversion of content

to PDF/A, there are program modules that

can convert database content or print data

streams to the PDF/A format.

■■Converting scanned paper docu-

ments to PDF/A: O晴en, documents that

exist only on paper, such as contracts, in-

voices, and books, need to be digitalized

using a scanner. Over the past years, the re-

sults of the scanning process have usually

been stored as Bitmap TIFFs. However,

PDF is increasingly being used for scanned

documents, and before long the majority of

scanned ﬁles will probably be stored di-

rectly as PDF/A ﬁles. For example, users

can scan paper documents using Acrobat 8

Professional and save them as PDF/A ﬁles.

It is o晴en possible to make the text in a

PDF/A ﬁle searchable using the text recog-

nition function (OCR). Images and histori-

Converting paper documents to PDF/A:

Scanned documents can be automatically

given searchable text following digitaliza-

tion. Text recognition software is used for

this.

Converting PDF to PDF/A: Acrobat 8 Pro-

fessional provides an export function for

PDF/A in addition to other formats.

Dirk Herold – photocase.com/de

PDF/A

in a Nutshell

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cal documents can also be scanned for con-

version to PDF/A. Solutions and services

for mass processing are available for users

who wish to scan a large number of pages

or documents.

■■Creating PDF/A from PDF: Many users

already have PDF documents that are not

PDF/A-compliant. It is o晴en not possible to

recreate such documents from the source

program because, for example, they were

not created locally but were sent to the user

in question by e-mail. 周ere are several

methods for converting PDFs to PDF/As.

Acrobat 8 Professional is one of the appli-

cations that can be used. However, Adobe

is not the only company to market so晴ware

for this particular task. 周ere are many dif-

ferent products on the market, ranging

from single-user solutions to systems for

high throughput.

■■Is this really a PDF/A ﬁle? When work-

ing with PDF/A on a daily basis, ﬁle veriﬁ-

cation is also important. Is it sensible to

believe the sender of a PDF document when

he or she says that it’s a PDF/A ﬁle? Before

received ﬁles are saved in an archive, they

must be checked to make sure that they are

PDF/A-compliant. 周ere are various tools

that enable ﬁle veriﬁcation: In addition to

Acrobat 8 Professional, there are other ap-

plications including Berlin-based callas

so晴ware’s pdfaPilot, which enables the veri-

ﬁcation and creation of PDF/A ﬁles as well

as providing some additional functions.

Who stands to beneﬁt from PDF/A?

Many sectors and professions have been

waiting for a PDF standard for archiving. It

is useful not only for archives, administra-

tive departments, industry, and commerce

but also for research and teaching. Many

diﬀerent types of content can be saved as

PDF/A ﬁles. Below are a few randomly se-

lected examples from various ﬁelds.

■■Saving e-mails as PDF/A: Today, more

and more correspondence, some of it of a

contractual nature, is being sent by e-mail.

Anyone who has switched from one e-mail

program to another knows the diﬃculties

involved in transferring old

mail to the new system. Since

PDF/A is a safe format, it

makes sense to save e-mail ar-

chives on back-up media in

the form of PDF/A at regular

intervals.

■■Saving brochures, manu-

als, and information sheets

as PDF/A: Many companies

and public authorities already

make a large quantity of in-

formation available in the

form of PDF downloads. Why

not create these documents in

the future-proof PDF/A for-

mat straight away and distrib-

ute them as PDF/As?

➔

PDF/A validation with Preflight: The Preflight validation and correction tool is part of Ac-

robat 8 Professional. It generates PDF/A files and checks existing PDF/A documents to

make sure that they comply with the standard.

Durable documents with the PDF/A standard

PDF/A

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■■Plans, maps, and design drawings:

Digital maps, architectural drawings, and

construction plans can also be used by fu-

ture generations if their creator uses

PDF/A. 周e law stipulates that certain en-

gineering plans, such as construction

plans for bridges, must be kept for several

decades.

■■Signed digital contracts: An increas-

ing amount of business correspondence is

sent electronically. PDF/A documents can

be digitally signed to enable legally eﬀec-

tive contracts to be concluded using only

digital means.

■■Correct colors in image documents:

PDF/A also enables the accurate display of

colors, an important advantage when

working with digital image data. For ex-

ample, if a museum or gallery already has

digital images of exhibits, they can be

converted to PDF/A ﬁles and beneﬁt from

the advantages of the archiving format.

Digital imaging procedures are becoming

increasingly important in medical diag-

nostics, meaning that PDF/A could be

useful in this ﬁeld, too.

■■Accessible PDF ﬁles: In America, ac-

cessibility in the digital world has been an

issue for a long time – especially for the In-

ternet. Enabling the accessibility of infor-

mation to visually impaired members of

society is now also on the agenda in Eu-

rope. Since PDF/A speciﬁcally supports

structured content in PDF documents, it is

ideal for processing accessible PDF docu-

ments that can be read out by screen read-

ers.

■■Storing print documents as PDF/A:

Printers and prepress companies will be

relieved to hear that the PDF/X standard

that is widespread in their industry sec-

tors is completely compatible with the new

PDF/A standard. A PDF document can be

simultaneously PDF/X and PDF/A-com-

pliant.

Although the PDF/A standard was in-

tended for long-term archiving, it also has

advantages that can be appreciated imme-

diately. Anyone who passes information

and documents on to customers, readers,

or partners can beneﬁt from PDF/A.

PDF/A guarantees data consistency.

周is rules out problems such as non-em-

bedded fonts, which can result in gobble-

degook. Color management functions

mend images that are too pale or too

bright. In addition, PDF/A prevents many

processing problems that can occur with

password-protected PDF documents or

when printing ﬁles.

Consequently, people who use PDF/A are

not only doing themselves a favor – they

are also helping ﬁle recipients, since PDF/A

eliminates many of the problems that can

otherwise be encountered right from the

start.

■

Design drawings: Historical, hand-drawn

plans can survive for centuries. A standard

such as PDF/A is required to make sure

that digital plans are also viable in the

long term.

Font problems caused by non-embedded fonts: PDF/A prevents

problems with fonts such as the inconsistent tracking illustrated in

the second line above.

PDF/A

in a Nutshell

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ISO has split the PDF/A standard into two

levels of conformity. PDF/A-1a (Level A)

requires documents to be capable of being

reproduced without visual ambiguity, de-

mands that text can be depicted in Uni-

code, and stipulates that the content struc-

ture must be correct. PDF/A-1b-compli-

ance (Level B) only requires the reproduc-

tion of documents without visual ambigu-

ity.

Table: Comparison between PDF/A-1a and PDF/A-1b

ISO 19005-1:2005: PDF/A-

1a (Level A)

ISO 19005-1:2005: PDF/A-

1b (Level B)

Conformance

Complete PDF/A conformance

Restricted PDF/A conformance

Aim

To produce archive PDFs with

full access to all content

To produce archive PDFs that

only guarantee visual reproduc-

ibility

PDF version

PDF 1.4

PDF/A identification

Users are obliged to state the PDF/A identifier and the level of

compliance

Metadata

Specifications such as author, document title, creation data, and

source program must be XMP-compliant

Logical structure

Structure and accessibility must

be realized using tags and alter-

nate image descriptions and by

stating the language used

There are no explicit logical

structure requirements

Encryption

Security settings are prohibited. It must be possible to open/pro-

cess the PDF file in question without requiring a password.

Colors

All colors must be identified. Device-dependent color spaces must

be identified by output intent.

Transparency

Not permitted

PDF layers

Not permitted

Compression

LZW compression not permitted

JPEG2000 compression not permitted

Fonts

All fonts must (at least as subsets) be available (embedded) direct-

ly in the PDF document in question

Mapping of character codes to glyphs must be unambiguous

Each letter must have a Unicode

equivalent

–

Annotations

Comments that take the form of sound or movies are not permit-

ted.

Traditional text/label-style annotations are permitted.

Referenced content

Referenced (non-embedded) images or page content are not per-

mitted

Alternate images

Alternate images (for lower-resolution screen display) are not per-

mitted

Programming

languages

Embedded JavaScript is not permitted

Actions

Certain actions, such as opening movies or sound files or sending

or resetting forms, are not permitted

Forms

Permitted, but with restrictions

Durable documents with the PDF/A standard

PDF/A

in a Nutshell

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PDF/A

XPS

TIFF-G4

JPEG

DOC (Word)

96 KB

112 KB

56 KB

88 KB

120 KB

Overview: Which ﬁle formats are suitable for

archiving?

How are documents normally archived in

private home oﬃces, company oﬃces, pub-

lic authorities, and organizations?

Many users simply store the original

documents (for example, Word, Excel, or

PowerPoint ﬁles). 周is can lead to nasty

surprises with regard to reliable display-

ability and the future usability of the ﬁles.

周is method of archiving is therefore not

recommended.

TIFF-G4 has been the de facto standard

for numerous companies and administra-

tive departments for many years. TIFF-G4

ﬁles are monochrome, black and white

TIFFs (bitmaps) that can be archived in a

way that saves space thanks to compression

features based on fax technology. 周e JPEG

image format is commonly used for color

documents. 周is format produces relatively

small ﬁle sizes in spite of the colors. 周e

PDF/A standard and XPS (XML Paper

Speciﬁcation), which was developed at the

end of 2006 by Microso晴, are relatively new

formats. Both of these formats oﬀer fac-

simile quality as well as supporting struc-

tured content, thereby allowing the the re-

liable and complete indexing of text. PDF/A

is already standardized, but XPS still has to

stand the test of time.

周e table below gives an overview of the

long-term archiving features oﬀered by

both these formats.

PDF/A

in a Nutshell

Durable documents with the PDF/A standard

PDF/A

XPS

TIFF-G4

JPEG

DOC (Word)

ISO standard for

archiving

✔ Yes

✘ No

● De facto stan-

dard, but not an

official standard

✘ No

Facsimile quality y ✔ Yes

✔ Yes

✘ No

Font security

✔ Yes

Maximum level

of security

thanks to strictly

defined specifi-

cations in the

PDF/A standard

✔ Yes

Fonts are embed-

ded

● No fonts exist,

since the files are

pixel images.

● No fonts exist,

since the files are

pixel images.

✘ No

The display of

fonts can vary on

different com-

puters. Users are

not told about

missing fonts.

Users are not told

about replaced

fonts.

Searchable text t ✔ Yes

Enabled by

means of OCR,

even for text on

scanned pages

✔ Yes

● Possible if

searchable text is

generated using

OCR. There is no

standard proce-

dure for storing

the text in the

TIFF-G4 file.

✘ No

✔ Yes

Consistent colors s ✔ Yes

Consistent colors

are required by

the standard

● Possible

✘ No

Produces black

and white bit-

maps

● Possible

✘ No

Images and

graphics are

fixed document

parts

✔ Yes

They are incorpo-

rated into the

pixel image

✔ Yes

They are incorpo-

rated into the

pixel image

✘ No

Cannot always be

handled safely

Structured data

✔ Yes – with PDF/A-

1a with tagged

PDF

✔ Yes

With XML

✘ No

● Possible

Cross-platform

capable

✔ Yes

✘ No

✔ Yes

● Only with restric-

tions (font prob-

lems)

Free viewer

✔ Yes

PDF/A is always

displayed in ex-

actly the same

way

✔ Yes

(currently only

for Windows)

✔ Yes

(but not widely

used)

✔ Yes

Most Internet

browsers can dis-

play JPEGs

✔ Yes

There are free

alternatives to

Office but docu-

ments may be

displayed differ-

ently

What’s to be done with JPEG and TIFF-G4 archives?

周ere are basically two options for convert-

ing large document archives that currently

use TIFF-G4 or JPEG to PDF/A along with

their existing inventory: Permanently or

temporarily.

If the number of documents handled is

not too high and regular access to the data

is required, converting the image ﬁles to

PDF/A is worthwhile. 周is involves using

mass conversion solutions that package

pixel information into PDF and can enable

text searching using text recognition.

However, if users only need to call up

data from an archive every now and then,

‘on the ﬂy’ solutions can be used to gener-

ate a PDF/A ﬁle from a particular original

image ﬁle.

■

Durable documents with the PDF/A standard

PDF/A

in a Nutshell

Is XPS an alternative to

PDF/A?

Since the end of 2006 and especially in

Microso晴 circles, it has been argued that

XPS might be a future alternative to both

PDF and PDF/A. However, it is still neces-

sary to clarify whether or not XPS can of-

fer at least the same level of technical ex-

pertise as PDF/A. If it can do so, its special

features must also be deﬁned.

For the moment, let’s put aside the fact

that PDF has existed since 1993 and that

PDF/A was adopted as an ISO standard in

autumn 2005, whereas XPS has been avail-

able since the end of 2006/start of 2007 as

a part of Microso晴’s Vista operating sys-

tem. Instead, let’s look at the nature of

PDF / PDF/A and XPS. XPS can be de-

scribed as a format that statically depicts

the content that a monitor would or should

display or a print device would or should

print out. In this respect, it could be called

an up-to-date ‘spool’ format, comparable

with PCL, AFP, or PostScript but more

modern. On Microso晴 Vista at least, users

can display a document in XPS spool for-

mat in Internet Explorer.

PDF can also be used as a ‘spool’ for-

mat. 周e Californian company Apple has

been using it as such for years for its Mac

OS X operating system. However, for a

long time PDF has not been used just as

the ﬁnal stop for static digital documents

– instead, it has become the basis of docu-

ment-based process ﬂows.

周e best-known usage of PDF in this

context is for electronic forms; recently,

PDF has increasingly been used for col-

lecting information with sophisticated

comment functions that can be used by

multiple users for PDF documents with

ensured traceability. 周e many established

possibilities oﬀered by digital signing

round oﬀ the use of PDF in various docu-

ment workﬂows, even including certiﬁed

and qualiﬁed digital signatures (cf. the

section on digital signatures on page 61).

All in all, PDF builds a bridge between

the diﬀerent electronic document formats

(even if no PDF export function is avail-

able, anything that can be printed out can

also be ‘printed’ to a PDF) while also be-

ing a document format in its own right

with its own, separate ﬁelds of applica-

tion.

As far as forms, comments, and signa-

tures in PDF documents are concerned,

ﬁles containing such elements can be ad-

equately archived as PDF/A. In this re-

spect, both PDF and the PDF/A ISO

19005-1 go far beyond the conceptual and

actual features of XPS.

Comparison of XPS and PDF/A

Even in the subarea where PDF/A and XPS

can be directly compared with each other,

weaknesses and restrictions for XPS

quickly emerge, making it unlikely that

XPS will ever complete usurp the position

of PDF/A. Some examples are presented

below.

One of the first things to point out is

that the graphics models of PDF and XPS

are very similar. However, since XPS

lacks certain constructs it can be difficult

or even impossible to convert PDF docu-

ments to XPS without losing data (con-

version from XPS to PDF is always pos-

sible, thanks to the greater scope of func-

Documents can be ‘published as PDF or

XPS’ from Office programs.

The current version of Internet Explorer

also serves as an XPS viewer (as yet, only

on Windows).

PDF/A

in a Nutshell

Is XPS an alternative to PDF/A?

tions offered by PDF). Below is a detailed

list of XPS properties in comparison to

PDF/A:

■■It does not support an overprinting

function.

■■User-deﬁned, colorable image masks

are not permitted.

■■周e JBIG2 compression procedure,

which is an extremely powerful procedure

for scanned documents, is not supported.

■■Multi-channel color spaces with more

than eight components are not permitted.

■■JPEG2000 (to be supported from

PDF/A-2) is also missing from XPS’s range

of features.

■■XPS only has one transparency blend-

ing mode – PDF has 16 (but note that trans-

parency is only permitted in PDF/A docu-

ments from PDF/A-2).

■■Finally, XPS lacks the bookmarks, notes,

and comments that have now become im-

portant for so many users.

■■On the other hand, PDF/A does not sup-

port Windows Media Photo format or the

corresponding image compression proce-

dure, but this is not surprising since it was

only released by Microso晴 in the third

quarter of 2006. In any case, XPS Speciﬁca-

tion 1.0 of October 18th 2006 still talks

about Windows Media Photo even though

Microso晴 has now renamed the format as

HD Photo. 周is indicates that the format is

still not entirely consolidated.

From Microso晴’s point of view, this fact

is probably considered to be a plus rather

than a disadvantage. At the end of the day,

Microso晴 applications can make do with

what XPS can display.

However, even in this respect Microso晴

could be accused of not putting all of its ef-

forts into XPS: Although Publisher 2007

permits the use of CMYK and spot colors,

it saves them in XPS format as RGB, which

unfortunately casts doubt upon the appli-

cations claim to be a serious publishing

tool. Users do not even see a warning,

which, considering the ‘high-quality print-

ing’ XPS export style, must be considered

as misguiding at the very least. Microso晴’s

own PDF export process suﬀers from the

same restriction.

It’s no secret that the performance of

XPS, however impressive, can only be guar-

anteed if the program from which a ﬁle is

being saved in XPS format expressly sup-

ports XPS (or the Windows Presentation

Foundation architecture).

Over the course of time, many applica-

tions are certain to implement such sup-

port, since otherwise they will eventually

be unable to claim that they support Vista.

However, it will take years for the required

updates to ﬁnd their way onto Windows

computers, and there will probably be a

whole range of applications that will either

not support XPS at all or will only intro-

duce XPS support later on. If a program

does not expressly support XPS, it is still

possible to create an XPS document on Vis-

ta using the XPS printer driver. 周is in-

volves a transformation of the original GDI

protocol into XPS notation.

➔

The Print function can be used to generate

XPS files from any application (including

Photoshop or CorelDraw), but the quality

is less than perfect.

Is XPS an alternative to PDF/A?

PDF/A

in a Nutshell

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