What is PDF?

A frequent problem in exchanging documents and files with other people is that not everyone has the same software applications, fonts and graphics support on their computer systems.  This leads to difficulties in displaying and printing documents with rich media information in them.

Portable Document Format is a standard created by Adobe Systems Corp. for the secure and reliable distribution and exchange of electronic documents and forms around the world.  PDF is a universal file format that preserves the fonts, images, graphics, and layout of any source document, regardless of the application and platform used to create it.  Adobe PDF files are compact and complete, and can be shared, viewed, and printed by anyone with free Adobe Reader (or Adobe Acrobat) software.

Get free software to read PDF files

Adobe Reader is available for most computer platforms, and some, such as Linux and Apple's OS X, have built-in PDF support.  If you don't have Adobe Reader or Acrobat installed on your system, you can visit Adobe Systems' Web site to download their free Adobe Reader.