Dear list, I have this minimal sample: \setupbackend [format=PDF/A-3a, intent=sRGB IEC61966-2.1, profile={sRGB.icc,default_gray.icc}, level=0] \setuptagging[state=start] \setupcolors[cmyk=no] \startTEXpage[offset=1em] \externalfigure[transparent] \stopTEXpage \stoptext The external figure is available from http://pdf.ousia.tk/transparent.pdf (and output file at http://pdf.ousia.tk/transparent-pdf-a-3a.pdf). Using veraPDF (http://verapdf.org/), the output document doesn’t comply with the validation profile requirements. As Luigi wisely predicted, external images may be problematic. I get one error, because of the color of the external figure: https://github.com/veraPDF/veraPDF-validation-profiles/wiki/PDFA-Parts-2-and.... The PDF object in question is the following: 12 0 obj << /Type /XObject /Subtype /Form /FormType 1 /BBox [ 0 0 316.896 215.5669 ] /Group << /Type /Group /S /Transparency /I true /CS /DeviceRGB >> /Resources 21 0 R /Length 71 >> stream q 0.188235 0.392157 0 rg /a0 gs 28.348 187.219 260.203 -158.871 re f Q endstream endobj Well, this is a minimal sample, but my real document is much bigger. Is there any way to convert the stream to something that ConTeXt can handle directly? Many thanks for your help, Pablo -- http://www.ousia.tk