What's the easiest way to convert an PDF v1.3 to v1.4?

TidBITS Talk
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I had to upload my passport to a government site. I scanned it with ScannerPro by Readdle. The site wouldn’t accept it because it was PDF v1.3 instead of v1.4.

After trying various things, like trying to “print but save as PDF” from Preview, and trying a few so-called-free-but-not-really-free online sites, I ended up asking Gemini.

First it suggested opening the file with TextEdit and changing the first line from 1.3 to 1.4. But that didn’t fool the government site.

Finally they had me install Ghostscript and Homebrew in my Mac Terminal and I executed this command to get it done:

/usr/local/Cellar/ghostscript/10.06.0_1/bin/gs -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -dCompatibilityLevel=1.4 -dNOPAUSE -dQUIET -dBATCH -sOutputFile=GOVERNMENT_READY.pdf input.pdf

That worked, and the government site was happy.

But is there an easier way in case this happens again? Maybe use a different scanner app?

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The latest version of Libre Office can convert it to PDF 1.7!

Open the scan in Libre Office
Then export it as a PDF (Do not print it and save the result).

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But will the government site accept a PDF 1.7 file or have a hissy fit and demand it be 1.4? :laughing:

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Interesting issue. How do you even know what version a pdf is? I clicked on one in Finder, opened its Info window and there was nothing about its pdf version…

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LO 26.2 let’s you choose between 6 option formats.

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You can control-click the PDF’s Finder icon and tap ‘Get Info’. The version number is in the More Info section. If the PDF is open, Open Tools>Show Inspector. The file information (including the PDF version number) is in the first section (denoted by the sheet with the folded corner).

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Doh! thanks @aforkosh ! The document I used for this had a filename longer than my screen is high and when I scrolled I didn’t notice the version in More Info! Sorry!

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I finally had a chance to try this today. It was quick and easy. It seems I had used an older version of Libre Office years ago, but I just updated it. Thanks.

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In this case yes. :slight_smile: The site said 1.4 or later.

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My iMac is maxed out at High Sierra, so LO 7.4.7.2 is the highest that will run on it and it exports PDF 1.6. However my MacBook Pro is maxed out at Monterey but can still run LO 26.2.0.3 where I can choose 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, 1.7, 2.0:2017 or 2.0:2020.

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I recently had to upload (to a third-party contractor: no pucker factor at all, right?) a photo of my driver’s license from my iPhone in order to authenticate my Login.gov credentials with Medicare. (My passport was also an option.) I don’t know if it was transmitted by the third-party outfit’s app in RAW format or (more likely) as a JPEG. But that reminded me that in the last year or so, I’ve had to upload photos of both sides of my driver’s license to “pre-register” for medical appointments. Based on at least one experience over the past several years, such systems don’t like PDFs at all. When I export an iPhone photo as a JPEG, that appears to satisfy whatever requirements they may have. And by saving those images (in a suitably obscure location and form), I have them around for the next time I’m preparing for a medical visit, and the next time, and….

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