Help centre · Documents and evidence
PDF/A, and password-protected copies
PDF/A, the archival format
The completion certificate is PDF/A-2b (ISO 19005-2): every font is inside the file and nothing depends on anything outside it, so it opens and looks the same for as long as it’s kept.
The signed document is PDF/A-2b too when the uploaded file allows it, on every plan. Many everyday PDFs can’t be, because of fonts the viewer supplies, CMYK colour or layers, and those stay ordinary PDFs that look exactly as before. Refrendo only calls a file PDF/A when its own check of the finished file passes, and the certificate’s Signed document format line says which it is. A PDF exported as PDF/A, such as with Word’s “PDF/A compliant” option, is the likeliest to qualify.
An administrator can require PDF/A for the organisation from the Team page (Business and above). A PDF that can’t be kept in PDF/A form is then turned away at upload, with how to fix it, and a request whose supporting PDFs can’t be is stopped before it is sent, so nothing fails after people have signed.
Password-protected copies
Anyone who can download the signed document or the certificate can tick Protect with a password and take a copy that opens only with a password: one they choose, or one Refrendo makes and shows once. The copy uses AES-256.
Neither the copy nor the password is kept, so a forgotten password just means downloading again. Every protected copy is recorded in the audit trail.
A protected copy is for sharing. The certificate’s fingerprint is of the original, unprotected file, and a protected copy isn’t PDF/A, because the standard doesn’t allow encryption.
Still stuck?
Email support@refrendo.com.au and a person will reply.