======Isartor Test Suite======
The Isartor test suite is named after the location of the first meeting of the Technical Working Group, a medieval gate towards the river Isar in the center of Munich/Germany. This test suite comprises a set of files which can be used to check the conformance of software regarding the PDF/A-1 standard. More precisely, the Isartor test suite can be used to "validate the validators": It deliberately violates the requirements of PDF/A-1 in a systematic way in order to check whether PDF/A-1 validation software actually finds the violations.
=====Basic Principles=====
The Isartor test suite has been constructed according to the following basic principles:
***Atomic:** A test file attempts to examine a particular aspect of the standard. Wherever possible test files avoid to touch more than one aspect of the standard.
***Complete:** The Isartor test suite provides full coverage of all requirements in the PDF/A-1 standard.
***Self-documenting:** The test files contain intrinsic information about the expected result of performing the test.
***Traceable:** Each test is based on a specific clause in PDF/A-1 which can easily be identified.
***Reproducible:** All test files (with only a few exceptions) have been created programmatically with a documented change history. This creation process support reproducibility.
Through a rigid quality assurance and testing process a lot of effort has been spent to make sure that all test files adhere to these basic principles.
=====What the Test Suite checks=====
The Isartor test suite for PDF/A-1b deliberately violates each requirement of the PDF/A-1b standard in order to check whether validation software detects all possible kinds of violation of the standard requirements, and whether it provides appropriate explanation for rejected nonconforming documents.
A PDF/A validator which completely passes the Isartor test suite is known to implement all required checks.
For the sake of simplicity, only a single aspect of the standard is violated at a time. However, in a few cases this is not possible because of interdependencies among multiple aspects of the standard.
The test requirements (assertions) are the inverse of requirements in the standard. For example, PDF/A-1 mandates that fonts be embedded, so the test suite contains several documents where the fonts are deliberately not embedded. PDF/A validators must report this standard violation in order to pass the test.
=====Who created the Test Suite?=====
The Isartor test suite is a project of the PDF/A Competence Center. Test suite development has been carried out by the Technical Working Group (TWG) of the PDF/A Competence Center. Members of the TWG are volunteers from member companies of the PDF/A Competence Center. All companies who send TWG delegates are software vendors. Individual TWG members are experts in the field of PDF and/or standardization. Most members are involved in the design, development, and testing of software for creating, processing, or validating PDF/A documents. Several TWG members are also members of TC 171 SC2, the ISO committee which defined PDF/A-1 and is now working on PDF/A-2.
Design and structure of the Isartor test suite have been devised by the TWG. Test files have been created by a core group after thoroughly discussing the respective criteria in the standard. All test files have been formally reviewed by at least two other members of the TWG.
====Acknowledgements====
Isartor test suite files have been contributed by the following founding members of the PDF/A Competence Center:
* PDF Tools AG www.pdf-tools.com
* PDFlib GmbH www.pdflib.com
* callas software GmbH www.callassoftware.com
Extensive reviews of the test suite have been performed by the above companies plus the following:
* intarsys consulting GmbH www.intarsys.de
* SEAL Systems AG www.sealsystems.de
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