Help needed for correctly tagging XDP file using form designer app

[SmrithiG1]

Hi,

We have a requirement to render accessible PDF from XDP (XFA based) from Adaptive form.

We are able to render static PDF which is tagged from Adaptive form (using XDP custom template) using Output service API.

The issue that we need help is with the tag structure.

The tags structure generated in the static PDF has tags something like shown below:

using <Div>, <Set>, <Form>.

The expected tag structure is as shown below:

Can we achieve this tag structure. Any help would be great.

Thanks, 

[Pranay_M]

Hi @SmrithiG1,

The format of the structure that you see in the tagged PDF is as per the industry standard and follows ISO regulations guidelines. We are not supposed to make any changes to the structure as this can affect the accessibility and readability for the form.

Thanks
Pranay

[SmrithiG1]

HI @Pranay_M , Thank you for the response.

The below tagged PDF, is by using the autotagging feature in Acrobat Pro.

The first screenshot is by rendering the PDF from Adaptive form using Output Service API.

In order for the accessibility and readability to work as expected we need the tag structure similar to auto Tag feature in Acrobat Pro. 

Hence checking if there is any way to render tagged PDF from Adaptive form using Output service and having a good tag structure? 

[Pranay_M · Accepted solution]

Hi @SmrithiG1,

The Auto-Tag feature in Adobe Acrobat Pro produces a reasonably rich and semantically meaningful tag tree (headings, paragraphs, tables, alt text) from visual layout — and you're asking if something similar is possible when rendering PDFs from AEM Adaptive Forms via the Output Service. To answer your question, No, there is currently no direct way to generate Acrobat-style auto-tagged PDFs from AEM Adaptive Forms using the Output Service, unless you're rendering from an XDP template that manually defines that tag structure.

This is primarily because, XFA XFA-based forms rendered content is primarily HTML/CSS/JS — not semantically structured like an accessible PDF. Exporting this to PDF (via Output or other services) produces visually correct tagged PDFs but will not have the same structure as the Acro Forms. Also,  Acrobat uses layout-based heuristics and text recognition to infer logical reading order and tag types (e.g. headings, paragraphs, lists). Output Service does not do this.
Having said that in both case the PDF is 100% accessible following the latest ISO standards.

Thanks
Pranay

[SmrithiG1]

Hi @Pranay_M , Thank you for your detailed response.

We are using XDPs (XFA based), but now we can understand that the tagging of rendered PDF when we use Output service API is not as good or matching, when we run Auto tag feature using Acrobat Pro. Thanks.