Creating Archivable PDF/A Files using Solid PDF Creator

One of the features in the new version of Solid PDF Creator is the ability to create PDF/A compliant documents.

What is a PDF/A file? Why does this matter to me?

Many, if not the majority of, businesses are sold on the benefits of storing their documents digitally. However, most digital storage and management systems have one major flaw: long-term reproducibility is not guaranteed.

This is where the PDF/A standard comes into play. It's a subset of the PDF standard, optimized for the long term archival of documents. They are always device and operating system independent, provide guaranteed color reproduction and contain everything needed to accurately display them.

PDF/A files must include:

- Embedded fonts
- Device-independent color
- XMP metadata

This allows them to achieve the above goal, accurately reproducing documents long after the computers and software that produced them are no longer available.

PDF/A files must not include:

- Encryption
- LZW compression
- Embedded files
- External content references
- Transparency
- Multi-media
- JavaScript

All of the above items can exist in standard PDF files, which may make them less suited to archival than a PDF/A file.

Using Solid PDF Creator to Create Archivable PDF/A Files:

Once you've purchased and installed the latest version of Solid PDF Creator go into Start Control Panel Printers (Printers and Faxes in Windows XP).

In the folder that appears you'll see all of your installed printers. Right click the Solid PDF Creator printer driver and select Printing Preferences.

In the window that appears, go into the Compliance tab and select "PDF/A-1b...":


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You have the option of either canceling PDF creation or just displaying a warning when you attempt to create a file that will not be PDF/A compliant. Click OK to close the window.

Once this is complete, simply print your documents to the Solid PDF Creator printer driver and it will attempt to create PDF/A compliant files from them.

Alternately, you can also create PDF/A files without changing the default settings above. To do so, print to the Solid PDF Creator printer driver from your Windows application.

When the Create PDF window appears, click "PDF files..." next to Save as type and select "PDF/A files...":


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Next, click the Create button to make the PDF/A file. This is useful when you only need to create PDF/A compliant files occasionally.

Free PDF Encryption using Solid PDF Creator

Not all great software costs money. You can use Solid PDF Creator to make encrypted PDF files free of charge.

Back in September we showed how to use Solid Converter PDF to Word to do this (You can read about it here), and most of the information in that post applies to Solid PDF Creator as well.

Why would I want to encrypt a PDF file in the first place?

Depending on the type of document you've created you may need to control how it's used. Some documents should only be opened by certain people, while others need to be distributed to many people without having the contents copied or changed.

Although there is no perfect way to protect a PDF file (software that crack PDF files does exist), it's easy to restrict the options of most users in Adobe Reader.

How to make a PDF file that requires a password to open in Adobe Reader:

1. Open a document you wish to convert to PDF and go into File | Print. You should see something similar to the screen below:


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Select the Solid PDF Creator Printer driver and click OK.

2. A nag screen will appear. Select Evaluate software, wait a couple seconds and click Evaluate near the lower right-hand part of the window:

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Incidentally, you can get rid of the nag screen by purchasing the product. It's not required, but it does help pay the people that made the software.

3. In the window that appears, ensure that Prompt for Document Properties is checked, name your PDF file and click Create:


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4. Next, go into Security and check Require user password to open document. Type in the password twice and click OK:


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Your PDF file will be created, and you should see the screen below when you try to open it in Adobe Reader:


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Free Software for Students and Teachers: Solid Capture

We're giving away Solid Capture - FREE - to students and educators. What's the catch? Just this - download and unlock our software using an e-mail address from an educational institution. Then it's yours to use or recommend to a friend.


(Click Here to Download)

Free Software: Helping Education and Companies

We at Solid Documents are taking a small step to help cut the burden of rising education costs by making software free to students and their instructors. Solid Capture is very useful to students who need to use screen shots and browser captures to extract information or illustrate reports.

Companies also benefit in many ways. All companies rely upon well-educated employees and customers who can understand and use technology, so it benefits everyone to support students in their endeavors to receive the highest quality technology education possible.

For a limited time, we are offering Solid Capture free to any e-mail address that ends in an educational institution extension (.edu, .k12, ac.uk, .sch.uk, etc). Each e-mail address is entitled to download one copy of the program, free of charge. If you have such an e-mail address (or know someone who does), please forward this post to them.

Restrictions: the license is strictly for non-commercial use, is non-transferable, and applies to the current release only. Other than that, students and educators are free to use the software for whatever purposes they need.

We hope students and teachers will enjoy this offer and look forward to hearing how Solid Capture is being used in educational institutions throughout the world!

Creating Encrypted PDF files using Solid Converter PDF

PDF files can contain information with varying levels of sensitivity.

You may have flyers that you wish anyone and everyone to open, print and use as needed. Or you may have documents that only a few key individuals should be able to open. You may also have files that you want people to be able to view, but not change using a PDF editor (invoices come to mind, as you don't want people to remove a couple zeros from a bill you sent them).

PDF files can be secured easily, restricting the options of most users. Please note that no encryption technology [wikipedia.org] is perfect, and there is software available that people can use to illicitly crack PDF files. The steps below can make it much harder for people to open or alter your documents, but they will not make it impossible.

This guide assumes that you have Solid Converter PDF v3 Professional installed. If you have not purchased the program, you can download a free 15 day trial [soliddocuments.com].

1. Open the document you wish to convert to PDF and go into File | Print | Select the Solid Converter PDF printer driver and click OK.

Below is an example window of what this looks like in Microsoft Word 2003:



2. In the window that appears, select the name and location of your PDF file, check "Prompt for password and security settings" and click Create:



The next window that appears will have several security options. If you feel intimidated don't worry; we'll narrow down things very quickly.


(Configuring security settings in a PDF file using Solid Converter PDF to Word)

3. First, determine if you need to prevent someone from opening your new PDF file without a password, or doing something with the PDF without a password (print, edit, extract contents, etc).

- If you need to do the former, check "Require user password to open the document" and enter a user password. Anyone who wants to open the PDF file in Adobe Reader will need this password.

- If you need to do the latter, check "Use owner password to restrict printing, editing and extraction". Next, enter an owner password and uncheck the items that you don't want people to do.

You can restrict:

• Printing (printing the document to a paper printer, for example).
• Editing of contents (changing the PDF file using a PDF editor).
• Copying and extraction of contents (to prevent copy/pasting from the PDF file, or using a program to convert the PDF to DOC).
• Adding or editing of comments.

4. Finally, you can set the encryption level at the top of the window. If you select either password option it will automatically default to "High (128-bit RC4)". Opening this kind of file requires Adobe Reader 5.0 or higher.

If you want to apply a stronger encryption method, select the drop down menu next to Encryption Level and select "High (128-bit AES)". This requires that viewers of the file have Adobe Reader 7.x or higher installed (you may download the latest Adobe Reader for free [adobe.com]).

Finally, you can select a weak encryption method (40-bit RC4), but we don't recommend this, unless you have to make the PDF file display in Adobe Acrobat 3 or 4.

5. Once you've setup how you want to secure the PDF file, click OK and the file will be created.

PDF vs DOC: When to Use Each

Adobe® PDF and Microsoft® Word DOC formats are two universally accepted document formats. Each has strengths and weaknesses. So which is the best for your documents? The answer is: It depends. We’ll take a look at each of these two popular formats and discuss when it’s appropriate to use each.

When to use PDF format

• Printing: When the goal is to produce a high-quality print job in which precise page layout and high resolution images are key, then PDF is the clear choice over DOC. PDF can create a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) file which assures you that what you see on your screen is exactly what you’ll see in your print. PDF files are accepted by professional printers, whereas Word DOC files usually are not. In addition, PDF’s print-ready file transfer makes it easy to send a print-ready file to a printer in another department or even another country with little or no rework needed at the other end.
• Online Content: PDF is useful for taking high-quality documents (newsletters, catalogues, manuals, technical papers, etc.) and making them available on the internet. Not only can you secure your PDF so that it can only be read and not altered, you can also be sure that it will display correctly every time. In addition, PDFs can have a table of contents, bookmarks, intra-document hyperlinks, and searchability, so you can make your PDF behave like a Web page.
• Archiving: When compressed PDF files can be very compact, so it is ideal for storage. File layout is retained and can be viewed on all platforms. Plus, PDF files are searchable, making archived documents and items much easier to find, categorize, and organize.
• Business and Legal Documents: PDF’s are essential for business and legal documents and forms that must retain their exact appearance. These important documents must retain their integrity and security. With the PDF format, you can secure your documents so that no one can change the wording of an application or the terms of an agreement.
• Combining Multiple Formats: PDF allows you to import text from a Word document, images of various formats, Excel® spreadsheets, vector graphics, and more into a single PDF document.
• Anyone Can View It: To view a Word document, you must have proprietary software (Microsoft® Office) installed on your computer. On the other hand, a PDF can be viewed by anyone who has the free Adobe® Acrobat® Reader, which is easy to download and which comes standard on many computers running Windows operating systems. This makes PDF the preferred format for creating a document that many can view.
• File Exchange: PDF is ideal for document exchange between users. Not only is it a compact format, but it can also store metrics and information about its own appearance (layout, fonts, content, color, etc.) within the document itself. This means that it may not have to rely on the fonts and settings that may or may not be installed on a user’s computer to display properly.

When to use Word format

• Reusing Images: Images in a Word document are easy to extract and reuse. This can’t be done with a PDF, because its images are embedded.
• Word Processing: Microsoft Word is a word processor. Adobe® Acrobat® is not. Therefore, when it comes to written documents such as business letters, memos, etc., Word is much better suited for writing the actual composition. Word documents provide the benefits of spell-checking and grammar-checking, among many other useful writing tools.
• Editing: There’s no doubt that Word is a powerful document editor. It contains intuitive formatting and compositional tools that allow you to format your document as you create it. Using Word and the DOC format, it is easy to edit large areas of text, change the flow between pages, and change font sizes and styles, among other things. With a PDF file you can only a few words at a time and have very limited editing options. When it comes to editing documents, Word is a much more powerful and pliant format than PDF.

Conclusion: Which is the best format?

The best strategy is one that incorporates the use of both of these formats. The Word format is clearly the best choice for editing and making changes to works-in-progress while the PDF format is the preferred option for viewing and sharing documents. Thus, you can maintain your original document in Word format and then convert your document to PDF when it’s finished and you are ready to share it with others.

What if you’ve got a document that’s in PDF format that needs major editing? The best idea is to convert it to Word format, and make your edits. Then create a PDF from that Word document. Not only does this strategy allow you to use the powerful features of each format, but it also allows you to edit and create high-quality customized PDFs using Microsoft Word. Our Solid Converter PDF program was designed specifically for this purpose.