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PDF File Format

Short Name PDF
Long Name Portable Document Format
Typical File Extensions .pdf
Contains Page Description


PDF is a document storage format developed by Adobe. In order to view PDF files on your computer, you will need the free Acrobat Reader software available from Adobe.

PDF is very good at reproducing paper documents on screen, including large multi-page documents, and is also excellent for printing them. For this reason it tends to be favored for distributing or archiving electronic versions of paper documents.

On the negative side however, some users (including me) find typical PDF files a little awkward to read on screen as compared to web pages (see for example, PDF: Unfit for Human Consumption by Dr Jakob Nielsen). For this reason, I would recommend that you use PDF only when you need to electronically reproduce the appearance and layout of paper documents (or for documents that you know will be printed), but consider other formats (such as HTML) when simply distributing/publishing information on the web.


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