Exstream CE 25.3 PDF/UA output fails PAC on Figure elements without bounding boxes

Symptom

PAC reports a Figure element with no bounding box. The finding appears for PNG, BMP, and JPEG images regardless of how they are placed: in the page, in a story, in text, in an overlay, or from an external SSD. Some SVG placements do not produce the finding.

This happens even though CE 25.3 added a PDF connector setting that makes PDF/UA configuration considerably easier than in earlier releases.

Cause

The new connector setting improves the output configuration, but the generated tag structure still depends on the object type and its placement. Raster image placements do not all receive a valid bounding box in the tagged structure, and that is what PAC flags.

One caution about the SVG results: an SVG passing PAC is not proof that its tag is semantically correct. The absence of a PAC finding can mean the object was tagged differently, not that it was tagged well. PAC checks machine-verifiable structure; it cannot judge whether a figure is correctly described.

Fix

There is no design-side workaround that reliably adds the missing bounding box to a raster figure in this release. What you can do:

1. Enable the PDF/UA output configuration and build the smallest document that contains one image.
2. Run PAC separately against PNG, BMP, JPEG, and SVG versions of the same figure and inspect the tagged structure for each, not only the PAC verdict.
3. Classify each image as decorative or informative, and supply alternative text and document language metadata where the design supports them. Those findings are yours to fix regardless of the bounding-box defect.
4. If a raster figure still fails, preserve the PDF, the source design, the driver settings, and the exact hotfix level, and raise a release-specific support case.

Do not claim PDF/UA conformance from the connector setting alone. Conformance claims need a clean PAC run plus a human check of reading order and alternative text, on the actual production output.

Record the engine build with the PAC result

Accessibility regressions of this kind are release-specific. A document that passes PAC on one hotfix level can fail on another, so record the exact engine build with every test result. If your organization commits to PDF/UA in customer communications, make the PAC run part of the release pipeline rather than a one-time project activity.