An acronym for Portable Document Format for Archive. A PDF-A is a specialized subset of the PDF designed specifically to digitally preserve electronic documents. The PDF-A is different from the PDF in that it omits certain features not suited for storing an electronic document over a long period of time.

While most federal and state courts require parties to electronically upload PDF versions of documents through their electronic filing systems, some courts require parties to upload PDF-A versions of the documents. For example, the US District Court for the Southern District of New York requires parties to upload PDF-A versions of documents filed through the Case Management/Electronic Case Filing system (SDNY ECF Rule 13.2).

For more information on electronically filing documents, see Practice Note, Filing Documents in Federal District Court: Filing Electronically.