marking graphics/icons as artefacts? | Community
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C
CØK
Level 4
February 24, 2026
Solved

marking graphics/icons as artefacts?

  • February 24, 2026
  • 4 replies
  • 53 views

We have desktop-only version of AEM Forms Designer 6.5.21. We save and publish forms as static and Reader-extended PDFs only. We need to tag graphic elements - circles, illustrations, icons - as artefacts, but it is not possible in AEM to assign such items a role. And as you know, we cannot remediate XFAs in Acrobat. This is a problem for WCAG 2.1 level AA compliance. 

Is this something that is coming in a future update?

    Best answer by AmitVishwakarma

    ​@CØK  Yes — if you “flatten out of XFA” using the Acrobat workarounds, you end up with a non‑fillable PDF.

    The official guidance for editing/remediating XFA forms in Acrobat is: Save as EPS or Print to Adobe PDF -> this flattens the XFA, and removes all form fields, layers, interactive objects, buttons, and JavaScript. The result is just static page content you can tag and remediate in Acrobat.https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/desktop/troubleshoot/pdf-viewing-editing-issues/cannot-edit-xfa-forms.html

    https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/desktop/troubleshoot/pdf-viewing-editing-issues/cannot-edit-xfa-forms.html

    So in your setup (Desktop AEM Forms Designer 6.5.21 only):

    You cannot:

    • Keep the form XFA + fillable and
    • Mark graphic/draw objects (icons, circles, checkbox boxes, decorative art) as Artifact for PDF/UA.

    Designer 6.5.21 only added Artifact control for text blocks, not for graphic/draw objects.https://experienceleague.adobe.com/en/docs/experience-manager-65/content/release-notes/cumulative-features-enhancements

    That means today your real choices are:

    1. Stay XFA + fillable
      • Accept that decorative graphics will still show up as figures/paths and be flagged by checkers, or redesign to avoid purely decorative art where possible.
    2. Produce a second, non‑XFA PDF for accessibility
      • Flatten (or otherwise convert) to a traditional/tagged PDF and remediate in Acrobat — but that file won’t be the interactive XFA form your users fill.

    There isn’t a hidden switch in Designer that lets you set Artifact on graphics while keeping an interactive XFA PDF; that capability simply does not exist in the product today.

    4 replies

    C
    CØKAuthor
    Level 4
    February 24, 2026

    Question edited

    L
    lisab94981616
    Level 2
    February 26, 2026

    Hi ​@CØK - I think this API may help, if I’m understanding your question correctly. Is this what you’re looking for? https://developer.adobe.com/document-services/apis/pdf-accessibility-auto-tag/

    C
    CØKAuthor
    Level 4
    February 26, 2026

    No; it is not possible to remediate XFA forms (forms developed in AEM Forms Designer) using Acrobat. What I am looking for is the ability to assign a role of “Artifact” to any element that is decorative. On a side note, the square around items such as checkboxes - which we do have to include since many end users work with paper copies of forms - also end up being identified as untagged objects by accessibility checkers, meaning, they are graphical elements that are not possible to mark as decorative only.

    For other items, such as static text, objects can be given a role as “Artifact”. Why is this not an option for graphics?

    I’ll try to attach a screen shot to my original question. The Scales of justice are decorative only and do not need to be read by screen readers. 

    L
    lisab94981616
    Level 2
    March 1, 2026

    ​@CØK  - Really sorry if this is still off-base, but if the form is hosted online and the decorative image (or icon) is pulling from AEM Assets, it looks like you can add a “ “ within the description field of the asset properties in AEM Assets, and then use the image core component checkbox to pull the empty alt text from the description field of Assets, or, within the image core component you can also mark the image to be ignored by screen readers on the authored forms page if it is purely decorative.

    W3 says that if an image is decorative, a single space within alt text is best practice.

    That documentation is here: https://www.w3.org/WAI/tutorials/images/decorative/

    Documentation on the image component is here:

    https://experienceleague.adobe.com/en/docs/experience-manager-core-components/using/wcm-components/image

    Your second point, about paper copies of forms, makes me wonder if the forms are served as PDFs at any point in the journey, and if so, W3 has this tutorial on Acrobat Pro about marking icons as artifacts: https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20-TECHS/PDF4.html
     

    Hope this helpful. Happy to be an extra pair and help you research this if you’d like, apologies if there’s a gap in my understanding here.

    C
    CØKAuthor
    Level 4
    February 26, 2026

     

    AmitVishwakarma
    Community Advisor
    AmitVishwakarmaCommunity Advisor
    Community Advisor
    March 2, 2026

    Hi ​@CØK ,
    In AEM Forms Designer 6.5.21 you can mark text blocks as Artifact, but you cannot mark graphics/icons (images, circles, rectangles, checkbox boxes, etc.) as artifacts in XFA PDFs, and you also cannot fix that later in Acrobat because Acrobat’s remediation tools don’t work on XFA forms.

    If you need WCAG 2.1 AA/PDF/UA today:

    • Render your XDP as a tagged, non‑XFA PDF (flatten out of XFA).
    • Open that PDF in Acrobat Pro and mark decorative graphics as artifacts there. https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/create-verify-pdf-accessibility.html
    • Staying in XFA, there is currently no supported way to make those decorative graphics true artifacts; the standards‑compliant path is to convert to a tagged non‑XFA PDF and remediate in Acrobat.

    Thanks,
    Amit

    Amit Vishwakarma - Adobe Commerce Champion 2025 | 16x Adobe certified | 4x Adobe SME
    C
    CØKAuthor
    Level 4
    March 2, 2026

    When you say “flatten out of XFA”, that also means a non-fillable form, right? Which is really not what we want.

    AmitVishwakarma
    Community Advisor
    AmitVishwakarmaCommunity AdvisorAccepted solution
    Community Advisor
    March 2, 2026

    ​@CØK  Yes — if you “flatten out of XFA” using the Acrobat workarounds, you end up with a non‑fillable PDF.

    The official guidance for editing/remediating XFA forms in Acrobat is: Save as EPS or Print to Adobe PDF -> this flattens the XFA, and removes all form fields, layers, interactive objects, buttons, and JavaScript. The result is just static page content you can tag and remediate in Acrobat.https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/desktop/troubleshoot/pdf-viewing-editing-issues/cannot-edit-xfa-forms.html

    https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/desktop/troubleshoot/pdf-viewing-editing-issues/cannot-edit-xfa-forms.html

    So in your setup (Desktop AEM Forms Designer 6.5.21 only):

    You cannot:

    • Keep the form XFA + fillable and
    • Mark graphic/draw objects (icons, circles, checkbox boxes, decorative art) as Artifact for PDF/UA.

    Designer 6.5.21 only added Artifact control for text blocks, not for graphic/draw objects.https://experienceleague.adobe.com/en/docs/experience-manager-65/content/release-notes/cumulative-features-enhancements

    That means today your real choices are:

    1. Stay XFA + fillable
      • Accept that decorative graphics will still show up as figures/paths and be flagged by checkers, or redesign to avoid purely decorative art where possible.
    2. Produce a second, non‑XFA PDF for accessibility
      • Flatten (or otherwise convert) to a traditional/tagged PDF and remediate in Acrobat — but that file won’t be the interactive XFA form your users fill.

    There isn’t a hidden switch in Designer that lets you set Artifact on graphics while keeping an interactive XFA PDF; that capability simply does not exist in the product today.

    Amit Vishwakarma - Adobe Commerce Champion 2025 | 16x Adobe certified | 4x Adobe SME
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