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NewFormat AB

PDF standards make the world work




NewFormat makes PDF information permanently
accessible, searchable, readable and reusable
for the future and for as many people as possible.

We leave no file behind.

We create accessible PDF in compliance with the ISO Standard PDF/UA.


Our solutions are based on
recognized ISO Standards based on PDF technology
and tested, reliable, and highly accessible software solutions from
the PDF Association vendor community.




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Accessible PDF


A fully PDF/UA compliant PDF can be just as
accessible as a WCAG compliant website.




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Inaccessible PDF Documents
May Constitute Discrimination


    Access to digital public information is a fundamental right for everyone;
    also access to digital information in the form of PDF documents created by
    government authorities constitutes digital public service.

    The EU Web Accessibility Directive ensures that all users,
    regardless of functional ability, have equal access to
    information and functionality on the web;
    (The Swedish Act 2019 on Access to Digital Public Services".


    Barriers that prevent interaction with, or access to a website
    by people with disabilities can be considered discrimination.

    Websites hosting inaccessible documents can be a significant
    liability risk even if you have fixed the websites's HTML content.

    Avoid litigation risks and disputes by ensuring that also
    PDF documents on websites are accessible for everyone;
    with or without disabilities.




Varning - Ikon

Sweden as a nation is bound by
international regulations for accessibility for everyone


    Sweden as a nation is bound to:

    • the UN Declaration on Human Rights,

    • the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities,

    • the Swedish Anti-Discrimination Act, and

    • the EU Web Accessibility Directive implemented as
      the Swedish Act on Access to Digital Public Services
      (SFS 2018:1937 & SFS 2018:1938)

    Declarations, conventions, directives and acts that are technology-neutral.
    Regardless of the technology used for a digitally based service (web/HTML, PDF, ...)
    it must be published in a form so that it is accessible for everyone in the community.

    Authorities are also in the role of employer responsible for that
    employee work material is accessible and well functioning.

    Swedish authorities are thus since long bound to comply with
    and apply these regulations in their daily operations.





Varning - Ikon

Business documents / PDF documents,
which unfortunately are not accessible for everyone!


    The Swedish public sector alone publishes every year millions of PDF documents.

    Digital PDF documents occupy a large proportion of the amount of information
    on the authorities' websites for public digital service.


    On September 23, 2020, all websites in the public sector across the EU
    shall comply with the Web Accessibility Directive.

    The directive also covers PDF documents published on these websites;
    documents and presentation slides that must be published as accessible PDF.


    For a PDF to be considered digitally accessible it shall be compliant with:


    Authorities, and other entities that cooperate with the public sector,
    and who do not yet publish their digital PDF documents as accessible PDF
    shall immediately start the necessary accessibility work.

    How far a business has come in its accessibility work
    is easy to find out with this simple rule of thumb:

    • If the business' perhaps most important document,
      the own annual report(!) is designed, distributed and
      published as digitally inaccessible PDF, it is a clear indication
      that all of the business's other PDF documents are as well
      published as inaccessible PDF.

    As a first immediate action, we recommend that at least
    the own annual report is immediately created, distributed and
    published in the form of digitally accessible PDF.


    Tip: If you want to get an insight into what you should consider before
    creating digitally accessible documents, and a good understanding of
    what can go wrong, including common errors to learn from,
    please contact us.

    We can show you numerous typical examples of completely inaccessible
    digital PDF documents/presentation slides that today are published
    on governmental websites (national, regional and municipal).

    Documents that unfortunately are not accessible for everyone,
    completely contrary to applicable law, and how these documents
    can be remedied / made digitally accessible:


    If your business needs help with going from words to action,
    getting started creating accessible PDF, we can help:




PDF/UA - Icon

Accessible PDF
Easy to validate PDF documents for PDF/UA compliance


    PDF documents can be easily tested/verified against how well they
    comply with the ISO standard 14289, PDF/UA, for accessible PDF.

    A reliable compliance test for the ISO Standard PDF/UA
    always requires at least two stages of validation:

    1. a programmatic syntactic test, which can be performed by a piece of software, and

    2. an interactive semantic test, manually carried out by a human.

    Syntactic compliance of PDF documents with PDF/UA,
    can be checked with several reliable testing tools.
    We always recommend the use of more than one testing tool,
    for example:


    In case your PDF document does not pass the PDF/UA validation:

    • Do not publish the document on public facing websites.
      Do not accept the document, return it to responsible instance
      for remediation - Re-do it, do it right!


    Interesting?




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Recommended Reading on PDF/UA
The ISO Standard for Accessible PDF Documents and Forms

PDF/UA in a Nutshell - Front Cover - Picture     PDF/UA Flyer Front Cover - Picture

(For download of these guides, click on the pictures above)



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    Do you need help to create accessible PDF in compliance with PDF/UA?

    Accessible PDF (PDF/UA) ensures accessibility to digital public service for everyone.

    We help customers to create any volume of accessible PDF documents,
    out of native MS Office (Word and PowerPoint) and Adobe InDesign documents,
    and PDF documents generated by other tools.


    Interesting?




More Information and Resources

PDF/UA - Icon


For more information contact NewFormat


NewFormat AB
Smörblommegränd 14, SE-165 72 Hässelby (Stockholm), Sweden
tel:+46 (0)70 631 53 01

All content © copyright 2008-2024 NewFormat AB. All rights reserved.
All product names, trademarks and registered trademarks
are property of their respective owners.



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Accessible PDF