Turn an ordinary PDF into PDF/A, the archival profile designed to look the same in twenty years — the format public bodies, courts and archives usually ask for.
A normal PDF may depend on fonts installed on your machine, on transparency effects, or on encryption that a future viewer cannot handle. PDF/A removes those dependencies: fonts are embedded, colour spaces are declared, encryption is forbidden, and the file carries metadata identifying itself as archival. The trade-off is size — embedded fonts and uncompressed structure make the file bigger.
Italian and European public administrations, tender platforms and many university repositories specify PDF/A for long-term preservation. If a portal rejects your PDF with a message about "archival format", this is the conversion it wants — not a scanned image of the document.
Converting to PDF/A can flatten transparency and strip some interactive features (forms, JavaScript, embedded files). Keep the original for daily use and submit the archival copy where it is required.
The conversion targets the widely accepted archival profile; if a portal demands a specific version, check its requirements first.
Yes, but saving it may break the archival conformance. Edit first, convert last.
Yes. A scan stays a scan; add OCR beforehand if the text must be searchable.