Validate your PDF output yourself

NextPDF publishes downloadable evidence for its PDF/A, PDF/UA, PAdES, and ISO 32000-2 claims. Each claim pairs a downloadable file with the command to check it. Together, they make the claim independently verifiable.

The showcase contains real engine output, and each sample is downloadable. You can inspect it with the same open-source tools an auditor would use.

Step 1: structural integrity with qpdf

Start with qpdf. Its --check mode parses the file as a conforming reader does and reports structural problems—broken cross-reference tables, bad object streams, and related errors:

# Install: apt install qpdf  /  brew install qpdf
qpdf --check invoice.pdf

# A clean file reports: "No syntax or stream encoding errors found"

# A malformed one tells you exactly where it broke.

Run it against a PDF produced by NextPDF. Structural errors appear in the report. CI runs qpdf --check as a build-blocking gate, so structural failures stop publication.

Step 2: file-level profile checks with veraPDF

For archival and accessibility claims—PDF/A and PDF/UA—the industry-standard validator is veraPDF, the reference implementation maintained under the PDF Association. It checks a file against the full conformance rule set and gives you a pass/fail with the exact failed clauses:

# Run the selected PDF/A profile check (auto-detected, or pass --flavour):
verapdf --flavour 2b report.pdf

# Run the selected PDF/UA tagged-accessibility profile check:

verapdf --flavour ua1 report.pdf

# Exit code 0 records a passing profile check. The report lists every rule result.

The PDF/A-2b and PDF/UA-1 sample targets pair with these veraPDF commands. Download the sample, run the validator, and review its rule report.

External validators determine file-level conformance

veraPDF reports whether the file conforms to the selected format rules. Legal accessibility, archival status, and authority acceptance also depend on the document content: meaningful tags, correct language, and accurate data.

NextPDF builds output that targets and supports conformance. Validator output records the file-level result. Your content, certificates, and process determine the broader legal and regulatory outcome.

Why this matters more than a benchmark

Run qpdf --check and verapdf in your terminal, on your machine. Their results give you reproducible evidence before you adopt the engine.

• Browse the downloadable samples: showcase.
• See the engineering posture behind them: Trust Center.
• Reproduce it end to end in five minutes: /try.