Comments As I mentioned in earlier articles, a PDF/A document is considered an archive that should not be changed.
Normally, Acrobat’s PDF/A View mode appears when you open a PDF/A document and making edits to the document is not possible:
Sometimes, however, you may need to revise a document before filing. For example, you might create a PDF/A document from Microsoft Word then insert some scanned pages.
In this case, it makes sense to remove the PDF/A information, make your edits, then conform the file using Save As.
In this article you’ll learn how to:
- Remove PDF/A using Preflight
- Use my free Remove PDFa Information Action
Removing PDF/A Information
The best way to remove PDF/A information is to use Preflight in Acrobat Pro. Here’s how:
- Open a PDF document
- In Acrobat 9 Pro:
Choose Advanced> Print Production> PreflightIn Acrobat X Pro:
A) Click the Options button to show the Print Production panel if it is not already open
B) Open the Print Production panel and click Preflight
- The Preflight window appears.
A) Twirl open the PDF/A compliance section
B) Select Remove PDF/A Information from the list
C) Click Analyze and Fix
Using an an Acrobat X Action to Remove PDF/A Information
Acrobat X Actions can automate many tasks such as removing PDF/A information from a document.
Just about all of the Preflight functions are available via Actions including the profiles associates with PDF/A.
I’ve created the “Remove PDFa Informaiton” Action for you. Dowload it below . . .
Remove PDFa Information Action (106K PDF)
The PDF contains the Action itself along with installation instructions.
Running the Remove PDFa Information Action
Once you install the Action, it will appear at the top of your Action Wizard panel. Just click on the action name to run it.
If you have a document open, the Action will prompt you for a file location and to name the file.
If you do not have a file open, the Action will allow you to select files or a folder of files and run the Action on all of the files.
Can I remove the PDFa information with an Acrobat X STANDARD version?
The only way Acrobat Standard can conform a file is by printing to the Adobe PDF Print driver. You’ll lose bookmarks and links that way, though.
Using the print driver in Acrobat X Standard to save a PDF/A file as “standard” or “high quality” did not remove the PDF/A information. When I opened the test file thus created, I still got the message that the file complies with PDF/A, and I still can’t add comments or sticky notes to it. Can you provide details of how to remove this accursed PDF/A data in Acrobat X Standard?
This works properly for me.
Hey, try this: Within your doc, go to File > Print > choose Adobe PDF as the printer > rename the file (I just appended a 1 to mine) . This created a copy to which I can highlight and add notes. I am using Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro. Hope this helps!
BTW, you WILL lose the bookmarks and ToC.
I did not lose bookmarks or TOC in my testing following the instructions in the post.
Well, that’s one technique called “refrying”. When you do that, you will lose bookmarks, links, etc.
This is the exact information I was looking for, I just wishi it was easier to find. Searched for almost an hour before I came across this information!
There really needs to be more information/resources posted on the Internet for Acrobat X.
—- Rick’s Reply —-
Well, you found it here!
Perfect! Took me about 20 minutes of searching before I came across this but it is exactly what I needed and worked beautifully…thank you!
Here is a quick and fast wasy of removing PDF/A without losing anything.
Open Acrobat and go to “Combine Files into a Single Pdf” when that window is open, click and drag your “PDF/A file”, it will convert it to a regular pdf — if you have it with bookmarks it will keep them.
That did not happen in my testing unless you also combined it with a non PDF/A document.
This worked for me as well, using Acrobat 9 Pro. Thanks!!!!
Thanks for the help. I came across a typo in Instruction #3 above.
“B) Select Remvoe”
Thx, fixed!
The Combine Files method worked perfectly for me, and I did not need to combine w/ any other file. I am using Adobe Acrobat 9 Standard.
“Unterminated string” is the message I got with the Preflight. When using “Combine Files” I got the following message “No PDF file was created because Acrobat encountered an unidentified error”. The file in question has the above blue message: “The file you have opened complies with the PDF/A Standard and has been opened read-only to prevent modification”. Before the last update I haven’t had problems removing the PDF/A. Any idea or suggestion?
I’ve not seen that message before and I wonder if something else is amiss with that file. I’ve successfully combined PDF/A and non-PDF/A files before without errors, so I don’t know what could be the issue.
Combine Files worked just fine for me also – didn’t combine with any other file, just opened combine, added the pdf/a file and then save as. Also using Acrobat 9 Standard. Great resource site – thanks.