On the 30th anniversary of PDF technology, we’re excited to announce the availability of the first development preview of a new veraPDF-powered application. Building on the great work done by the PDF Association supported by the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), veraPDF has developed an open-source PDF checker based on the Arlington PDF Model. This application is separate from the veraPDF PDF/A and PDF/UA validator but comprises a very familiar package of GUI and command-line applications.
About eighteen months ago, the PDF Association released the results of work funded by DARPA in the form of the Arlington PDF Model. This is an open-source, machine-parsable definition of the full PDF document model defined by the PDF 2.0 specification, ISO 32000-2:2020, and its related resolved errata. The model is presented as a set of TSV files that describe PDF’s various objects, properties, constraints and data integrity relationships. You can learn more on GitHub. The README also provides references for further reading.
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The Arlington PDF Model is an invaluable resource for anyone developing or testing PDF tools. The veraPDF development team have utilised Arlington in a way that’s compatible with the veraPDF architecture. The Arlington PDF Model-based checker can now analyse PDF files against the full PDF 2.0 specification, including errata, by downloading the Java-based installer (Win, MacOS, Linux, requires Java 8+ JRE installed) at veraPDF Software Downloads.Â
Please remember this release is a development preview, not production-ready software. If you do find any issues, please report them to us via the GitHub veraPDF Library repository.