A drop-down Resources menu is now part of the navigation bar on the DXFG website. This menu gives access to resources describing several digitalisation initiatives.

It should be noted that these initiatives are under development by DXFG members. They are shared here for the benefit of others who may be interested.

Provision of these resources does not constitute an endorsement by the DXFG

Checksum document verification

Digital documents are carefully checked before being issued by a national metrology institute. However, once outside the organisation, documents may be corrupted.

A simple way to verify the integrity of a document is to compare its digital checksum with a checksum evaluated when the document was issued.

The resource discusses how checksum verification can be implemented as an online service and provides a simple working example that runs on a local host.

Readable PDF/A-3 documents containing digital files

The PDF/A-3 digital file format allows documents to be stored for a long time (archived). The format is specified by an ISO standard.

As well as being readable, PDF/A-3 documents may contain other types of file (e.g., spreadsheets). This feature makes the PDF/A-3 format an attractive tool for incremental migration towards fully machine-readable documents. It allows metrology institutes to tailor reporting to suit their clients.

The resource shows how open-source software can be used to generate PDF/A-3 documents. It also shows how open-source software can produce high-quality human-readable content for metrological documents.