XAdES / PAdES / CAdES

XAdES, PAdES and CAdES are the three standard digital signature formats defined by ETSI for the eIDAS regulation. XAdES (XML Advanced Electronic Signatures, EN 319 132) signs XML documents, PAdES (PDF, EN 319 142) embeds the signature token directly in the PDF — this is the format used by Certyneo to produce files verifiable offline in Acrobat Reader. CAdES (CMS, EN 319 122) applies to arbitrary binary streams. Each format comes in profiles (B-B, B-T, B-LT, B-LTA) offering increasing guarantees: time-based validity, qualified time-stamping, proof of long-term archiving.