Convert Documents into Encrypted PDFs for Archiving

There are many industries with regulatory or compliance reasons for retaining records and documents, whether for their internal reference or external audiences. The reasons that companies are required to preserve their documents are many, but the needs to implement are similar. There are two primary drivers when securely archiving documents:

1. The documents must be compatible and accessible to current and future software viewers, and
2. The documents must be secured in a responsible manner, accessible only when and by those necessary.
   

As a common example, healthcare companies dealing with PII (personally identifiable information) and more specifically PHI (protected health information) must ensure that this data is securely encrypted and preserved for long-term storage while simultaneously being accessible to the healthcare providers and patients on demand. This can be a daunting task for a company processing hundreds of thousands of documents, and maintaining legal requirements for them to be accessible for decades. Legal, manufacturing, finance, and many other industries have very similar regulatory requirements.

The pdfRest API Toolkit provides a single workflow to automate this and similar workflows. By calling the Convert to PDF API tool, documents in more than a dozen popular formats can be converted to standard PDF files. The files can then be chained to the Convert to PDF/A API tool, which standardizes them to the PDF/A (A for Archive) format, ensuring full compatibility with document viewers for decades to come. Finally, documents are finished with a pass through Encrypt PDF, which applies AES 256 encryption to the file with a symmetric key, providing the security you and your customers require. When the file is needed again, pass it back through the same Encrypt PDF API tool with the same key to unlock the file for distribution.

This solution, and many more, are possible when combining the capabilities of the many tools within the pdfRest API Toolkit. Take a look at the other Solutions we've helped customers implement, reach out to us for more information on your particular needs, or try the tools for yourself with a free Guest API Key and interactive demo!

Note: Passing the document through Encrypt PDF temporarily breaks PDF/A compliance, but the file retains the compatibility changes gained from Convert to PDF/A. Decrypting the document will return it to a valid PDF/A state.

Convert Word to PDF Code Example   |   Load this into API Lab↗

    curl -X POST "https://api.pdfrest.com/pdf" \ 
        -H "Accept: application/json" \ 
        -H "Content-Type: multipart/form-data" \
        -H "Api-Key: xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx" \
        -F "file=@PATH_TO_FILE/pdfRest.docx" \
        -F "output=pdfRest_pdf" \ 
        -F "compression=lossless" \ 
        -F "downsample=150" \ 
        -F "tagged_pdf=on" \

Convert to PDF/A Code Example   |   Load this into API Lab↗

    curl -X POST "https://api.pdfrest.com/pdfa" \ 
        -H "Accept: application/json" \ 
        -H "Content-Type: multipart/form-data" \
        -H "Api-Key: xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx" \
        -F "file=@PATH_TO_FILE/pdfRest_pdf.pdf" \ 
        -F "output=pdfRest_pdfa" \ 
        -F "output_type=PDF/A-2b" \ 
        -F "rasterize_if_errors_encountered=on" \
        

Encrypt Code Example   |   Load this into API Lab↗

    curl -X POST "https://api.pdfrest.com/encrypted-pdf" \ 
        -H "Accept: application/json" \ 
        -H "Content-Type: multipart/form-data" \
        -H "Api-Key: xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx" \
        -F "file=@PATH_TO_FILE/pdfRest_pdfa.pdf" \ 
        -F "output=pdfRest_encrypted" \ 
        -F "new_open_password=gy$djKDnc28&7khDH!" \

Convert to PDF

Convert to PDF/A

Encrypt PDF