U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida e-filing PDF requirements

Requirements at a glance

File size	Documents over 50 MB are rejected. Split them into parts or attachments of 50 MB or less.
Text-searchable	Required S.D. Fla. CM/ECF Administrative Procedures § 3G(5): filings must be text-searchable; scans need OCR (exhibits whenever possible)
PDF/A	Not required S.D. Fla. CM/ECF FAQ: PDFs meeting the PDF/A standard are accepted
Page size	8½ × 11 in (US Letter) S.D. Fla. L.R. 5.1(a)(3) and (b): 8½ × 11 in, including CM/ECF filings (exhibits exempt)
Not allowed	Passwords or security settings, JavaScript, Files embedded inside the PDF, Audio, video or 3D content

Scan at 300 dpi in black and white, with OCR turned on (Administrative Procedures § 3G(1)).
Mac: Safari-made fillable forms and Word "Best for printing" PDFs are rejected.

What is the maximum PDF file size for U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida?: Documents over 50 MB are rejected. Split them into parts or attachments of 50 MB or less.
Do PDFs have to be text-searchable?: Yes. Source: S.D. Fla. CM/ECF Administrative Procedures § 3G(5): filings must be text-searchable; scans need OCR (exhibits whenever possible). Scanned pages need OCR before filing; see how to make a PDF text-searchable.
Is PDF/A required?: No. The court's published rules don't require PDF/A.
Can I file a password-protected PDF?: No. Source: S.D. Fla. NextGen v1.6 notice: password-protected PDFs are rejected. See how to remove PDF security.
Can the PDF still have fillable form fields?: Flatten them to be safe. Source: S.D. Fla. NextGen v1.6 notice: fillable PDFs should not be filed; flatten them by printing to a new PDF. See how to flatten a PDF.