Problems with annotations and PDF/A

[benep]

Hello,

I tried to save a pdf as PDF/A2b. In the pdf-file there are hidden annotations (with property hidden=true, not opacity=0).
After converting/saving the pdf to/as PDF/A2 the hidden content is visible. As far as I know, PDF/A2 should support hidden annotations.
As reference, converting with PDF24 to PDF/A2 the hidden content remains hidden (which is my expected behavior).

Example files below:

• test_nonArchive.pdf

  (6.02 KiB) Downloaded 20 times

  - the original file created with PDF-XChange Editor which should be converted

• test_pdfA2b.pdf

  (551.95 KiB) Downloaded 18 times

  - the file converted with PDF-XChange Editor (~90 times as big as original)

• test_pdfA2b_pdf24.pdf

  (24.09 KiB) Downloaded 17 times

  - the file converted with PDF24 (~8 times as big as original)

Is this a bug and if yes, is there a possible workaround (within PDF-XChange) until this gets fixed?
(Version 9.5 build 366.0)

kind regards
benep

[TrackerSupp-Daniel]

Hello, benep

I am sorry to say that there is no bug on our end. The Spec says the following in regards to All PDF/A formats (not only PDF/A-2. but also A-3 and A-4 as well).

In brief this means that it is disallowed for a comment to remain hidden (with the exception of popups) and they must always be "printable" as well. I am afraid that your PDF-24 Example is breaking the spec here.

Kind regards,

[benep]

That's good to know. Thank you very much!

[Tracker Supp-Stefan]