Date: Thursday 14 May, 2020
Time: 10:00 - 12:15 EDT (2 hours)
Track: Standards and Best Practices
Level: Intermediate
Instructor: Boris Doubrov

Benefits:  This course enables the attendee to:

• Understand preservation risks of the PDF format.
• Be acquainted with different international standards (PDF/A, PDF/UA, PDF/E) and their conformance levels.
• Evaluate the archival quality of a collection of PDF files using the available tools.
• Define custom preservation policies for PDF documents.
• Use PDF as a package for archiving complex data (emails, 3D models, and others).
• Be up to date with recent developments in PDF technology relevant for archiving.

Course Description
The course starts with a brief overview of the PDF format along with indication of various preservation risks. PDF/A (all parts and levels), PDF/UA, and PDF/E standards with the details on risks they mitigate are discussed. The practical part of the course includes a short demo of how to use veraPDF to validate PDF documents different sets of requirements. Next, the course discusses how PDF can be used as a container format for other data collections with the additional workflow considerations to evaluate and manage the risks in these cases. Finally, we give an overview of recent developments in the PDF technology around the newly published PDF 2.0 standard and their potential role in archival solutions.

Intended Audience: Preservation engineers and technical managers. A basic understanding of PDF format is assumed.

Boris Doubrov is CEO of Dual Lab, which develops and supports veraPDF, the industry supported open source PDF/A validation tool. He holds PhD in both math and computer science. Doubrov has been working for 20 years in PDF technologies. He is an active participant of the ISO activity on PDF standardization and a board member of the PDF Association.