Can anyone recommend a good (and if possible, free) tool to check the accessibility of a PDF? Additionally, any good resources you can recommend on creating/designing accessible PDFs? Please RT for reach! #a11y
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I’ll ask my colleagues at work! I think they might know some online validators. Acrobat Pro is your best bet for more involved stuff, but it’s very much not free 😬! In terms of creating them, the product I work on , PrinceXML, can output accessible PDFs from HTML+CSS.
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- PAC: more comprehensive than the accessibility checker in Acrobat Pro, a bit slow. access-for-all.ch/en/pdf-lab/pdf
- VIP PDF reader: renders PDF from the tag structure. Unusably slow for larger documents, IIRC. access-for-all.ch/en/pdf-lab/500
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- pdfGoHTML: plugin for Acrobat, converts tag structure back to HTML.
- PDF checker: online checkers.eiii.eu/en/pdfcheck/
- PAVE (couldn't get it to work)
- CommonLook PDF Validator (untested)
Relevant page:
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Hope that helps! We should really add these tools to our documentation too, so this is a good reminder for us - thanks! It's a more recent thing that we haven't had a chance to document. Ours is a paid program, so no pressure, but if it's useful: princexml.com
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Wow, thanks so much for all of these resources!! I'm so grateful!! 🙏🏼 I came across a few of these while looking it up, but it's useful to know that people have tried them ☺️
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As for PDF creation, I never considered creating pdfs from HTML & CSS (only ever did this with InDesign & Quark Xpress since I have a background in layout & print, or using Prawn in Ruby when it had to be generated in-app). I’ll keep PrinceXML in mind since it seems super useful!
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Yeah, no problem! There are pros and cons to every approach. As I say, no pressure - there is a trial with a watermark if you need to experiment first. We also keep an eye on the forums if you need any help!