What is XFA?

XFA, which stands for "XML Forms Architecture", is a family of proprietary XML specifications designed to support both static and dynamic forms within PDF documents.

XFA forms offer advanced features such as interactive and dynamic content, calculations, and connections to databases.

However, due to its proprietary nature and limited support among PDF processors, XFA was deprecated in PDF 2.0 (ISO 32000-2:2020) and is no longer recommended. It was permitted in PDF versions 1.5 to 1.7.