The regular PDF files do not include all fonts but rather expect that the PDF Reader on the devive (PC, tablet,…) has those fonts installed locally. This could make PDF files unreadable in the future when they are viewed on devices that do not have those fonts.
PDF/A in its various incarnations promises a way out of this dilemma by including alls required font definitions in the PDF file, and restricting certain other elements such as hyperlinks. The great disadvantage is that such PDF files get really big.
My question: Shall we anyway move to PDF/A in scientific publishing? If yes: which of the variants?
Or should we rather promote a non-PDF format such as HTML5?
Opinions welcome!
Manfred
Quo vadis CEUR-WS.org? 