# Invalid PDF/A-1B with Charter-BT (Bitstream Charter) and Mathdesign

My PDF-As created with pdflatex using the Mathdesign / Charter BT (Bitstream Charter) fonts fail validation with VeraPDF. This minimal example:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage[a-1b]{pdfx}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[bitstream-charter]{mathdesign} % when commented out verification passes

\begin{document}
\pagestyle{empty}
This is just a test.% "The font programs for all fonts used within a conforming file shall be embedded within that file, as defined in PDF Reference 5.8, except when the fonts are used exclusively with text rendering mode 3"
\clearpage
$\partial$ % "For every font embedded in a conforming file and used for rendering, the glyph width information in the font dictionary and in the embedded font program shall be consistent."
\end{document}


Fails with two validation errors (see comments). Is there any way to solve these issues? I cannot use a different font, as the use of Charter BT and thereby Mathdesign are prescribed by our university's "corporate design"... as is the PDF/A-1B requirement.

While the (unanswered) question 'design size mismatch' with bitstream-charter from mathdesign partially addresses the second issue as well (I am not getting any "design size mismatch" errors in my pdflatex log, but according to VeraPDF there are mismatches), I couldn't find anything re the first issue.

I am using TexLive 2018 and VeraPDF 1.12.1.

• The fonts are embedded, so verapdf is problem getting it wrong. See e.g. tex.stackexchange.com/questions/426946/… – Ulrike Fischer Dec 3 '18 at 13:11
• @UlrikeFischer I am using VeraPDF 1.12.1. That issue was (allegedly) fixed in 1.11.19. – Joe Dec 3 '18 at 13:12
• And so what? It could have more bugs. pdftex does embed all fonts in your example (unless you changed some configuration quite heavily). – Ulrike Fischer Dec 3 '18 at 13:16
• @UlrikeFischer Assuming it is a different variant of the previous bug, that still leaves the other issue. – Joe Dec 3 '18 at 13:20