Jessica said "Right now I am using Preflight built into Adobe Acrobat X Pro. Have you experienced issues with the reliability of the validation?"

We have experienced LOTS of problems with conversions using Adobe Acrobat X Pro. I strongly urge you to either:

(1) update to the current version (Adobe Acrobat Pro DC), or 

(2) consider purchasing a specialised PDF/A converter, such as Callas Software's pdfaPilot (https://www.callassoftware.com/en/products/pdfapilot/?type=product&product=pdfapilotdesktop).

With respect to validation, there is third-party validation software for PDF/A instead of (or in addition to) Adobe Acrobat's Preflight function. 

While it is somewhat old (2011), there's a list on the PDF Association Web site:  http://www.pdfa.org/2011/08/validating-pdfa/. 

The Open Preservation Foundation is developing veraPDF (currently in version 0.8), see http://openpreservation.org/news/verapdf-0-8-now-available/. 


You'll find some interesting documents on validation at the sites listed below:

- "Why Validation?" (video), by Duff Johnson, http://www.pdfa.org/video/duff-johnson-why-validation/

- "Validation: Is it really PDF/A?" Alexandra Oettler, February 7, 2013 http://www.pdfa.org/2013/02/validation/

- "Bavaria Report on PDF/A Validation Accuracy" PDFlib (2009), http://www.pdflib.com/fileadmin/pdflib/pdf/pdfa/2009-05-04-Bavaria-report-on-PDFA-validation-accuracy.pdf 

- "How veraPDF does PDF/A validation" Boris Doubrov, May 19, 2015  http://www.pdfa.org/2015/05/how-verapdf-does-pdfa-validation/ 

- and there are some sessions on validation at the PDF Association's Video recordings from the PDF Technical Conference 2015  http://www.pdfa.org/2015/12/video-recordings-from-the-pdf-technical-conference-2015/, in particular "Automating quality control in PDF generation and validation" (Boris Doubrov) and "Definitive PDF/A validation: why should developers care?" Boris Doubrov, Dual Lab & Duff Johnson, PDF Association.

If you are converting CAD drawings or GIS files, you may want to consider using PDF/E (E for "Engineering") instead of PDF/A, as that variant has some features which favour drawings. "ISO 24517 (PDF/E) was created to meet the needs of organizations who need to reliably create, exchange and review engineering documentation." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDF/E)


Jessica also said "I noticed there was another standard A-3, which had one additional feature - embedded files. Any reason why you aren't using this level?"

I, personally, would avoid PDF/A-3 like the plague:  it's a product that was, IMNSHO, developed for uses that are not truly "archival" (and yes, the folks on the ISO TC 171 Working Group who developed it disagree with me).

Full disclosure:  I am a Participating Member of the U.S. delegation ("Technical Advisory Group"--TAG) for TC 171, which is responsible for -- amongst many other projects -- continuing to develop the PDF system (except for PDF/T, PDF/V, and PDF/X, which fall under other organisations).

Best regards,

Fred
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Frederic J. Grevin
Vice-President, Records Management
New York City Economic Development Corporation
www.nycedc.com
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