Acrobat - Information on PDF Files

This document explains what PDF files are and how to view them.

PDF (Portable Document Format) - 

  • A file format developed by Adobe Systems as a means of distributing compact, platform-independent documents.
  • PDF documents are superficially similar to HTML;
    • a PDF document may contain images and text, as well as hyperlinks
    • However, as PDF is based on a variant of PostScript, each document is completely self-contained--packing text, graphics, and fonts into a single file.
    • Because PDF documents are World Wide Web accessible--yet display and print exactly as intended--print publishers often favor PDF over HTML.
  • PDF files can be viewed with the Adobe Acrobat Reader or the Acrobat Reader Web-browser Plug-in, both of which can be downloaded for free from Adobe.
  • PDF files can be created with the full version of Adobe Acrobat.


Keywordsacrobat reader adobe .pdf pdf portable document format wiscworld   Doc ID910
OwnerJeff W.GroupDoIT Help Desk
Created2001-02-09 19:00:00Updated2023-06-08 09:30:02
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