Topic: preforma

Open Source Tools for Validation in the Digital Archive Workflow

Merle Friedrichsen attended the “No Time To Wait 2” symposium organised by PREFORMA in November 2017 and gave a presentation on “Open Source Tools in the Digital Archive Workflow” from the perspective of the German National Library of Science and Technology. They both veraPDF (PDF/A), and MediaConch (for Matroska/FFV1 – for film) and the result is that all the requirements that they identified regarding open source software for validation are fulfilled (or are possible to fulfill) by these tools. Continue reading


veraPDF 1.10 released on International Digital Preservation Day

The latest version of veraPDF is now available to download. veraPDF is an open source PDF/A validator, and version 1.10 marks the first release of veraPDF as part of the Open Preservation Foundation’s (OPF) reference toolset. The latest version of veraPDF is now available to download. veraPDF is an open source PDF/A validator, and version 1.10 marks the first release of veraPDF as part of the Open Preservation Foundation’s (OPF) reference toolset. There are also a number of other fixes and improvements which are documented in the latest release notes. Continue reading


Adobe steps up on standards adoption

The November 2017 updates for Acrobat DC, now available from Adobe, include some significant news for those who pay attention to ISO standards-adoption. Among the enhancements of the preflight tools there is also PDF/A compatibility with veraPDF. Now, Acrobat preflight tools can find and report issues that are not compatible with the veraPDF tests. Continue reading


Interview with Brian E. Davis of Oregon State University

This is the nineth in a series of interviews with people using MediaConch within their institutions. Brian is the head of the Digital Production Unit for the Special Collections & Archives Research Center at Oregon State University Libraries & Press. He is using MediaConch for validation and policy checking during the quality control process for the video files. He also used DPF Manager and veraPDF for quality control of TIFF and PDF files. Continue reading


veraPDF Workshop

On Friday, November 24, PACKED and the Royal Library of Belgium, in collaboration with the Open Preservation Foundation, organise a workshop “Quality Control of PDF Files”. The workshop is intended for digital archivists who are responsible for the long-term preservation of PDF files. During the workshop you will learn how to gain an insight into the technical properties of PDF files and what you can do to preserve them for future generations. The workshop is conceived as a hands-on session, where participants get started with PDF files from their own collection. Continue reading


Life after PREFORMA: the future of veraPDF

The PREFORMA project that commissioned and funded the development of veraPDF draws to an end this year. Recent activity has been focused on PREFORMA acceptance testing, formalising the decisions of the PDF Association’s Technical Working Group and fixing issues reported by the community. In this webinar, the veraPDF Consortium will present the results of recent development and the plans for life after PREFORMA. Continue reading


veraPDF 1.8 released

The latest version of veraPDF is now available to download on the PREFORMA Open Source Portal. This release includes new PDF information in the features report and automatic configuration of the features extractor when applying custom policy profiles. There are also a number of low level PDF fixes and improvements which are documented in the latest release notes. From September, veraPDF will make the transition from a funded project to a stand alone open source project. Continue reading


veraPDF 1.6 released

The latest release of veraPDF is available to download in the PREFORMA Open Source Portal. The validation logic and test corpus of veraPDF 1.6 have been updated to comply with the resolutions of the PDF Association’s PDF Validation Technical Working Group (TWG). The TWG brings together PDF technology experts to analyse PDF validation issues in a transparent way. To find out more about veraPDF and the PREFORMA project, join us at the PREFORMA International Conference in Tallinn on 11-12 October 2017. Continue reading


PREFORMA hands-on sessions in Europe

During May 2017, successful hands-on sessions and workshops have been organised by PREFORMA in several places to explain to the participants what does conformance checking mean, why is file format validation so important in long-term digital preservation, how to create their own policy profiles and how to download, install, configure and use the conformance checker to analyse their files. Continue reading


Preservation courses at the IS&T conference Archiving 2017

Report of the course about formats for preservation organised by PREFORMA in Riga in the framework of the IS&T (Society for Imaging Science and Technology) conference Archiving 2017. The participants were introduced to an abstract and a generic overview of the meaning of “format” and digital preservation. Within that framework the value and importance of a Conformance Checker and what makes a format appropriate in a specific user case was explored. Continue reading