Organisations that hold content in born-digital PDF format can ingest this directly into a Veridian collection—without needing to convert them into METS/ALTO. This can significantly reduce costs while still providing a sufficient level of usability for most use cases.

For some projects, this can reduce processing requirements and provide a practical route to online access. However, direct PDF ingestion is not appropriate for every collection. The decision should consider the structure and quality of the files, available metadata, required search and navigation features, preservation plans, and the needs of collection users.

This article explains how born-digital PDFs differ from scanned PDFs, how the Veridian ingestion process works, and when direct PDF ingestion may be a suitable option.

What is a born-digital PDF?

A born-digital PDF is created directly from digital source material rather than produced by scanning a physical item.

Examples can include:

• Newspapers exported from publishing software
• Magazines and newsletters created through desktop-publishing tools
• Reports produced electronically
• Digital editions supplied by a publisher

A key difference between born-digital PDFs vs. scanned PDFs lies in the reading order of the text. In scanned PDFs, OCR software can sometimes struggle to correctly interpret complex layouts—such as multi-column formats, headlines, sidebars, and image placements—resulting in a jumbled or illogical reading order. Born-digital PDFs, by contrast, have the correct reading order embedded in their structure from the outset.

This is a major advantage, as one of the most time-consuming—and therefore costly—steps in preparing METS/ALTO is ensuring that text blocks appear in the correct reading order. With born-digital PDFs, this step is already taken care of.

Related reading: What is METS/ALTO?

When did born-digital PDFs become common?

Introduced in 1993 by Adobe, born-digital PDFs began gaining traction in the late 1990s with the rise of desktop publishing tools, but only became common in mainstream publishing in the early to mid-2000s.

If a collection includes content published from around 2005 onwards—particularly newspapers, internal archives, magazines, community newsletters, or smaller regional titles—there’s a good chance that born-digital PDFs may be available.

How does direct PDF ingestion into Veridian work?

Veridian Software can provide online access to suitable born-digital PDFs. Our team works with the organization to assess the files, define the required metadata, and prepare the content for ingestion.

Clients receive file-naming and directory-structure guidance for organizing each delivery batch.

A typical structure for daily newspaper issues may look like this

<Batch Name>
└── <Publication Code>
    └── <Year>
        └── <Month>
            └── <Day>_<Edition>
                └── <issue-level PDF>

An actual example for The Daily News, covering multiple editions in June 2012, might be:

Batch1
└── TDN
    └── 2012
        └── 06
            ├── 22_01
            │   └── TDN-2012-06-22_01.pdf
            ├── 23_01
            │   └── TDN-2012-06-23_01.pdf
            ├── 23_02
            │   └── TDN-2012-06-23_02.pdf
            └── 24_01
                └── TDN-2012-06-24_01.pdf

When is direct PDF ingestion a good option?

Direct ingestion may be a practical choice when:

• Suitable born-digital PDFs already exist
• Embedded text can be extracted reliably
• Reading order is sufficiently accurate
• The available metadata supports the required search and browse experience
• Issue-level access meets the institution’s needs
• METS/ALTO are not required by the preservation or access environment
• The project does not require detailed page- or article-level structure

This route can reduce the need for OCR, layout analysis, and structural conversion. The actual savings will depend on the condition and consistency of the files, metadata requirements, quality-control work, and desired collection functionality.

What do we recommend?

When suitable born-digital PDFs already exist and detailed METS/ALTO structure is not required, direct ingestion can offer a practical route to making the content available through Veridian.

When it comes PDFs that are not born-digital, we recommend continuing with the industry-standard approach of converting source materials into METS/ALTO. This ensures the highest possible quality and functionality for digital collections. While scanning to PDF may seem like a lower-cost option upfront, the actual difference in cost between producing scanned PDFs and creating METS/ALTO is often minimal—while the difference in quality can be substantial.

For organizations that hold large collections of scanned PDFs created through earlier projects, our team can assess representative samples and advise whether direct ingestion, additional processing, or conversion would provide the most appropriate outcome.

Need help assessing your PDF collection?