We worked with closely with both memory institutions and industry to gather their requirements for the PDF/A conformance checker.

OPF and DPC consulted with their members, and held a webinar to explain the aims of veraPDF and get feedback on the following points in the functional and technical specification.

Functional specification:

• scope of PDF/A validation;
• policy requirements;
• use cases;
• interfaces;
• integrations (e.g. with repository software).

technical specification:

• implementation technologies, validation/policy profile
• report formats, test framework, etc;
• review of existing test corpora;
• evaluation of PDFBox.

In parallel, the PDF Association’s Technical Working Group held regular meetings to:

• identify ambiguities in the PDF/A standards;
• form consensus at working group level to resolve ambiguity;
• create test files and documentation to support resolution;
• submit the above to the ISO committee for ratification;

 

The functional and technical design specifications were submitted to PREFORMA alongside a project plan proposal and community engagement plan for Phase 2 (prototyping).

The proposed software architecture was presented to the PREFORMA panel in March 2015.