PDF/A-3u as an archival format for Accessible mathematics
Abstract
Including LaTeX source of mathematical expressions, within the PDF document of a text-book or research paper, has definite benefits regarding `Accessibility' considerations. Here we describe three ways in which this can be done, fully compatibly with international standards ISO 32000, ISO 19005-3, and the forthcoming ISO 32000-2 (PDF 2.0). Two methods use embedded files, also known as `attachments', holding information in either LaTeX or MathML formats, but use different PDF structures to relate these attachments to regions of the document window. One uses structure, so is applicable to a fully `Tagged PDF' context, while the other uses /AF tagging of the relevant content. The third method requires no tagging at all, instead including the source coding as the /ActualText replacement of a so-called `fake space'. Information provided this way is extracted via simple Select/Copy/Paste actions, and is available to existing screen-reading software and assistive technologies.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1406.6126,
title = {PDF/A-3u as an archival format for Accessible mathematics},
author = {Ross Moore},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1406.6126},
year = {2014}
}
Comments
This is a post-print version of original in volume: S.M. Watt et al. (Eds.): CICM 2014, LNAI 8543, pp.184-199, 2014; available at http://link.springer.com/search?query=LNAI+8543, along with supplementary PDF. This version, with supplement as attachment, is enriched to validate as PDF/A-3u modulo an error in white-space handling in the pdfTeX version used to generate it