Tagged PDF support

[vaibhav-ps]

how do we make it accessibility compliant. Can we add tags using hexapdf? how to use task in hexapdf. Would it help

[gettalong]

Adding convenience support for tagging is one of a couple of things I'm currently working on.

It is currently possible to add tagging manually to a PDF created with HexaPDF. It is doable but rather cumbersome.

[vaibhav-ps]

Thanks for the response.
I am working on a feature that sends attachment as a pdf through a mail or messaging tool twillio. Manually adding tags will not work out. Any other suggestion? Also I was going through PDF/A Conformance A1, A2, A3, A4 - what are these.

• It's mentioned that PDF/A-1b supports tagging. Is that true? Can we achieve it?
• I am already using prawn in my app, would it better switching to hexa in terms of accessibility?

[gettalong]

It is very hard to add tags to an already existing document because you would need to analyze the contents and determine what is a heading, a paragraph, a table and so on. So that part will not be in HexaPDF. However, the actual adding of tags could be done with HexaPDF.

PDF/A is a special version of PDF that has to meet stronger criterias (like allowing only embedded fonts) so that PDF/A documents are more independent of the environment they are viewed in and so that the will be viewable for a long time.

Yes, there are various subsets of PDF/A that required a tagged PDF. Have a look at https://hexapdf.gettalong.org/documentation/pdfa/ to see what HexaPDF currently supports. Since HexaPDF dosesn't currently supporting tagged PDF, the subsets of PDF/A that need tagged PDF cannot be achieved with HexaPDF at the moment.

As for Prawn: There is currently not much difference as neither Prawn nor HexaPDF supported tagged PDF. However, tagged PDF is on the near future roadmap for HexaPDF. Please be aware that HexaPDF is AGPL, so you would need a commercial license when using HexaPDF in a commercial product.

[vaibhav-ps]

That answers all my query. Thank you so much @gettalong.