ISO 14289-1:2014

INTERNATIONAL ISO
STANDARD 14289-1
Second edition
2014-12-15
Document management
applications — Electronic document
file format enhancement for
accessibility —
Part 1:
Use of ISO 32000-1 (PDF/UA-1)
Applications de la gestion de documents — Amélioration de format du
fichier du document électronique pour l’accessibilité —
Partie 1: Utilisation de l’ISO 32000-1 (PDF/UA-1)
Reference number
ISO 14289-1:2014(E)
©
ISO 2014

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ISO 14289-1:2014(E)

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© ISO 2014
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ISO 14289-1:2014(E)

Contents Page
Foreword .iv
Introduction .vi
1 Scope . 1
2 Normative references . 1
3 Terms and definitions . 1
4 Notation . 2
5 Version identification . 3
6 Conformance requirements . 3
6.1 General . 3
6.2 Conforming files . 3
6.3 Conforming reader . 3
6.4 Conforming assistive technology . 4
7 File format requirements . 4
7.1 General . 4
7.2 Text . 5
7.3 Graphics . 5
7.4 Headings . 5
7.5 Tables . 6
7.6 Lists . 7
7.7 Mathematical expressions . . 7
7.8 Page headers and footers . 7
7.9 Notes and references . 7
7.10 Optional content . 7
7.11 Embedded files . 7
7.12 Article threads . 8
7.13 Digital signatures . 8
7.14 Non-interactive forms . 8
7.15 XFA . 8
7.16 Security . 8
7.17 Navigation . 8
7.18 Annotations. 9
7.19 Actions .10
7.20 XObjects .10
7.21 Fonts .10
8 Conforming reader requirements .13
8.1 General .13
8.2 Text .13
8.3 Tables .14
8.4 Optional content .14
8.5 File attachments and embedded files .14
8.6 Digital signatures .14
8.7 Actions .15
8.8 Metadata .15
8.9 Navigation .15
8.10 Annotations.15
9 AT requirements .16
9.1 General .16
9.2 Optional content .16
9.3 Navigation .16
Bibliography .17
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ISO 14289-1:2014(E)

Foreword
ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide federation of national standards
bodies (ISO member bodies). The work of preparing International Standards is normally carried out
through ISO technical committees. Each member body interested in a subject for which a technical
committee has been established has the right to be represented on that committee. International
organizations, governmental and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO, also take part in the work.
ISO collaborates closely with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) on all matters of
electrotechnical standardization.
The procedures used to develop this document and those intended for its further maintenance are
described in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1. In particular the different approval criteria needed for the
different types of ISO documents should be noted. This document was drafted in accordance with the
editorial rules of the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 (see www.iso.org/directives).
Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of
patent rights. ISO shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights. Details of
any patent rights identified during the development of the document will be in the Introduction and/or
on the ISO list of patent declarations received (see www.iso.org/patents).
Any trade name used in this document is information given for the convenience of users and does not
constitute an endorsement.
For an explanation on the meaning of ISO specific terms and expressions related to conformity
assessment, as well as information about ISO’s adherence to the WTO principles in the Technical Barriers
to Trade (TBT) see the following URL: Foreword - Supplementary information.
The committee responsible for this document is ISO/TC 171, Document management applications,
Subcommittee SC 2, Application issues.
This second edition of ISO 14289-1 cancels and replaces the first edition (ISO 14289-1:2012, Corrected
version), of which it constitutes a minor revision incorporating the following corrections:
— in Scope, line 1, rewording clarifies the reference to ISO 32000-1:2008 that was changed in the ISO
publishing process;
— in Clause 5, the method for specifying version and conformance has been clarified;
— in 7.3 (line after second bullet), bold type has been applied to the word “Caption”;
— in 7.3 (line before Note 1), “Table 333 has been replaced by “Table 323” and a reference to subclause
14.7.2 has been added;
— in 7.4.1 (second line), a reference to subclause 14.7.2 has been added;
— in 7.4.3 (first paragraph), the phrase “listed above” in the second sentence has been replaced with
the correct reference in this International Standard;
— in 7.4.4 (first line), bold type has been applied to the letter “H”;
— in 7.5 (second paragraph), the normative requirement to have a Scope attribute on a TH structure
element has been changed from a shall to a should, and additional normative text added to explicate
when the Scope element is required;
— in 7.6 (second bullet), LI has been replaced by L;
— in 7.17 (last paragraph), a reference to 7.7.2 has been added;
— in 7.18.1 (first paragraph), elements of Subtype Popup have been exempted from the requirements
in this clause;
— in 7.18.1 (fourth paragraph), alternative descriptions for widget annotations have been clarified;
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ISO 14289-1:2014(E)

— in 7.18.2 (first line), 7.17.1 has been replaced by 7.18.1;
— in 7.18.5 (first paragraph), the reference has been corrected to ISO 32000-1:2008, 14.8.4.4.2;
— in 7.18.8, the requirements for handling of annotation type PrinterMark have been clarified;
— in 8.4 (third bullet), the word “the” has been added before “value”;
— in 8.8 (Note), a reference to 12.2 has been added.
ISO 14289 consists of the following parts, under the general title Document management applications —
Electronic document file format enhancement for accessibility:
— Part 1: Use of ISO 32000-1 (PDF/UA-1)
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ISO 14289-1:2014(E)

Introduction
PDF is a digital format for representing documents. PDF files may be created natively in PDF form,
converted from other electronic formats, or digitized from paper. Businesses, governments, libraries,
archives and other institutions and individuals around the world use PDF to represent considerable
bodies of important information. These PDF files should be made accessible to users with disabilities.
The accessibility of a document is dependent on the inclusion of a variety of semantic information in
a document such as (but not limited to) machine-recoverable text presented in a declared language,
logical structure of content, and organization of that content in pages, sections and paragraphs. Semantic
information can also contain a variety of descriptive metadata, such as alternative text for images. The
primary purpose of ISO 14289 (known as PDF/UA) is to define how to represent electronic documents in
the PDF format in a manner that allows the file to be accessible. This is accomplished by identifying the
set of PDF components that may be used and restrictions on the form of their use. PDF/UA is intended
as a companion standard, to be used in conjunction with ISO 32000, ISO 19005, ISO 15930 and other
standards as may apply for the purpose of achieving accessibility or as mandated by this International
Standard. In order for PDF/UA conforming files to be truly accessible, requirements on conforming
readers and conforming assistive technology are also stipulated herein. By itself, PDF/UA does not
necessarily ensure that the visual appearance of the content accurately reflects any original source
material used to create the conforming file. For example, the process used to create a conforming file
might substitute fonts, reflow text, downsample images, or use lossy compression. Organizations that
need to ensure that a conforming file is an accurate representation of original source material may need
to impose additional requirements on the processes that generate the conforming file beyond those
imposed by this International Standard. In addition, it is important for those organizations to implement
policies and practices regarding the inspection of conforming files for correct placement of accessibility
information.
AIIM (an accredited standards developing organization) maintains an ongoing series of application
notes for guiding developers and users of this International Standard. These application notes will
be displayed, when available, at http://www.aiim.org/pdfua/app-notes. AIIM will also retain copies
of the specific non-ISO normative references in this International Standard that are publicly available
electronic documents.
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INTERNATIONAL STANDARD ISO 14289-1:2014(E)
Document management applications — Electronic
document file format enhancement for accessibility —
Part 1:
Use of ISO 32000-1 (PDF/UA-1)
1 Scope
This part of ISO 14289 specifies the use of ISO 32000-1:2008 to produce accessible electronic documents.
This part of ISO 14289 is not applicable to:
— specific processes for converting paper or electronic documents to the PDF/UA format;
— specific technical design, user interface, implementation, or operational details of rendering;
— specific physical methods of storing these documents, such as media and storage conditions;
— required computer hardware and/or operating systems.
2 Normative references
The following referenced documents are indispensable for the application of this document. For dated
references, only the edition cited applies. For undated references, the latest edition of the referenced
document (including any amendments) applies.
ISO 32000-1:2008, Document management — Portable document format — Part 1: PDF 1.7
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, W3C Recommendation, 11 December 2008. Available from the
Internet .
3 Terms and definitions
For the purpose of this document, the following terms and definitions apply.
3.1
assistive technology
AT
software and/or hardware used by a person with a disability that provides alternative controls and/or
renditions to facilitate their access to and usage of available functionality and information
3.2
alternate description
description of a structure element and its children
[SOURCE: ISO 32000-1:2008, 14.9.3]
Note 1 to entry: ISO 32000-1 uses both “alternate text” and “alternate description” to refer to the same item.
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3.3
dictionary
associative table containing key-value pairs, specifying the name and value of an attribute for objects,
which is generally used to collect and tie together the attributes of a complex object
[SOURCE: ISO 32000-1:2008, 4.17]
3.4
interactive reader
reader that requires or allows human interaction with the content and other objects contained in the
document during the software’s processing phase
Note 1 to entry: A file viewing tool is an example of an interactive reader; a raster image processor is an example
of a reader that is not interactive.
3.5
Portable Document Format
PDF
file format defined in ISO 32000-1:2008
3.6
reader
software application that is able to read and process PDF files appropriately
[SOURCE: ISO 32000-1:2008, 2.2]
3.7
replacement text
text that is an exact replacement for the structure element and its children in cases where an AT device
needs to read the element inline with the surrounding content
[SOURCE: ISO 32000-1:2008, 14.9.4]
3.8
writer
software application that is able to write PDF files
[SOURCE: ISO 32000-1:2008, 2.3]
4 Notation
PDF operators, PDF keywords, the names of keys in PDF dictionaries, and other predefined names are
written in bold font; operands of PDF operators or values of dictionary keys are written in italic font.
Some names can also be used as values, depending on the context, and so the styling of the content will
be context specific.
EXAMPLE 1 The Default value for the TR2 key.
Token characters used to delimit objects and describe the structure of PDF files, as defined in
ISO 32000-1:2008, 7.2.1, may be identified by their ISO/IEC 646 character name written in upper case in
bold font followed by a parenthetic two digit hexadecimal character value with the suffix “h”.
EXAMPLE 2 CARRIAGE RETURN (0Dh).
Text string characters, as defined in ISO 32000-1:2008, 7.9.2, may be identified by their ISO/IEC 10646
character name written in uppercase in bold font followed by a parenthetic four digit hexadecimal
character code value with the prefix “U+”.
EXAMPLE 3 EN SPACE (U+2002).
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ISO 14289-1:2014(E)

5 Version identification
The PDF/UA version and conformance of a file shall be specified in the metadata stream that is the value
of the Metadata key in the Catalog using the PDF/UA Identification extension schema defined in Table 1.
The Identification schema namespace URI is http://www.aiim.org/pdfua/ns/id/. The required schema
namespace prefix is pdfuaid.
Table 1 — PDF/UA Identification schema
Property Value type Category Description
pdfuaid:part Open Choice of Integer Internal Required PDF/UA version identifier
pdfuaid:amd Open Choice of Text Internal Optional PDF/UA amendment identifier
pdfuaid:corr Open Choice of Text Internal Optional PDF/UA corrigenda identifier
The value of pdfuaid:part shall be the part number of this International Standard to which the file
conforms. If the file conforms to a version of this International Standard that is defined by an amendment
to a part, then the value of pdfuaid:amd shall be the amendment number and year, separated by a colon.
The values of the pdfuaid:part, pdfuaid:amd and pdfuaid:corr properties do not by themselves
determine conformance with any part of this International Standard.
6 Conformance requirements
6.1 General
ISO 14289 defines a file format for representing electronic documents known as “PDF/UA” and also
defines how conforming readers and conforming assistive technology (AT) process such documents.
The version number of a file may be any value from 1.0 to 1.7, and the value shall not be used in
determining whether a file is in conformance with this part of ISO 14289.
NOTE The proper mechanism by which a file can presumptively identify itself as being a PDF/UA file of a
given conformance level is described in Clause 5.
6.2 Conforming files
Conforming files shall adhere to all requirements of ISO 32000-1:2008 as modified by this part of
ISO 14289. A conforming file may include any valid ISO 32000-1:2008 feature that is not explicitly
forbidden by this part of ISO 14289. Features described in PDF specifications prior to ISO 32000-1:2008
which are not explicitly defined in ISO 32000-1 should not be used.
NOTE A conforming file is not obligated to use any PDF feature other than those explicitly required by
ISO 32000-1 or this part of ISO 14289.
A conforming file shall contain PDF/UA version identification as defined in Clause 5.
A conforming file shall adhere to all file format provisions in Clause 7.
6.3 Conforming reader
A conforming PDF/UA reader shall adhere to conforming reader provisions in ISO 32000-1:2008 as well
as to all reader requirements of this part of ISO 14289.
NOTE A conforming reader can also be integrated with conforming assistive technology.
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ISO 14289-1:2014(E)

6.4 Conforming assistive technology
A conforming AT shall adhere to all provisions in Clause 9.
7 File format requirements
7.1 General
All real content shall be tagged as defined in ISO 32000-1:2008, 14.8. Artifacts (ISO 32000-1:2008,
14.8.2.2.2) shall not be tagged in the structure tree.
Content shall be marked in the structure tree with semantically appropriate tags in a logical reading
order. Content that does not render and does not have a rendered equivalent shall be marked as an
artifact.
NOTE 1 Because they are not considered real content, artifacts are not present in the structure tree according
to ISO 32000-1:2008, 14.8.2.2. Real content consists of graphics objects in page content with semantic significance.
Artifacts are graphics objects outside of the real content.
NOTE 2 This content also applies whether or not the content is included in one or more optional content groups.
Non-standard structure types are permitted. However, they shall be mapped to the nearest functionally
equivalent standard type, as defined in ISO 32000-1:2008, 14.8.4, in the role map dictionary of the
structure tree root. This mapping may be indirect; within the role map a non-standard type can map
directly to another non-standard type, but eventually the mapping shall terminate at a standard type.
NOTE 3 Non-standard structure types are types other than those defined in ISO 32000.
Standard tags defined in ISO 32000-1:2008, 14.8.4, shall not be remapped.
Flickering, blinking, or flashing shall not be used (WCAG 2.0, Guideline 2.3).
Information shall not be conveyed by contrast, colour, format or layout, or by combinations thereof,
unless the content is tagged to reflect all intended meaning.
NOTE 4 WCAG 2.0, Guideline 1.4 explains issues regarding contrast, colour and other formatting for
accessibility.
All information conveyed with sound should also be available without sound.
The Metadata stream in the document’s catalog dictionary shall contain a dc:title entry, where dc is the
recommended prefix for the Dublin Core metadata schema as defined in the XMP specification, which
clearly identifies the document. A document information dictionary may be present in a conforming file
and an ISO 14289-1 conforming reader shall ignore it.
The ViewerPreferences dictionary of the document’s Catalog dictionary shall be present and shall
contain at least the key DisplayDocTitle with a value of true, as described in ISO 32000-1:2008, 12.2,
Table 150.
Documents consisting of raster-based images may be processed to generate machine-readable content.
In such cases, errors resulting from the content-generation process shall be corrected and the content
shall be tagged according to Clause 7.
NOTE 5 Methods used for correcting such errors are dependent on the tools used for processing documents
consisting of raster-based images.
Files claiming conformance with this International Standard shall have a Suspects value of false
(ISO 32000-1:2008, Table 321).
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ISO 14289-1:2014(E)

7.2 Text
Content shall be tagged in logical reading order. The most semantically appropriate tag shall be used for
each logical element in the document content.
Character codes shall map to Unicode as described in ISO 32000-1:2008, 14.8.2.4.2. Characters not
included in the Unicode specification may use the Unicode private use area or declare another character
encoding.
Natural language shall be declared as discussed in ISO 32000-1:2008, 14.9.2 and/or as described in
ISO 32000-1:2008, 7.9.2. Changes in natural language shall be declared. Changes in natural language
inside text strings (e.g. inside alternate descriptions) shall be declared using a language identifier as
described in ISO 32000-1:2008, 14.9.2.2.
Stretchable characters such as parentheses or brackets (often drawn by combining several individual
glyphs to form the appearance of a single glyph) shall be tag
...