| File Description |
Cross-platform document created by Adobe Acrobat or a program with the Acrobat plug-in; commonly used for e-mail attachments or for saving publications in a standard format for viewing on multiple computers; usually created from another document instead of from scratch.
PDF files may contain text, images, forms, annotations, outlines, and other data; they preserve fonts and formatting electronically across multiple platforms and appear the same on the screen as they will when printed on paper; Google and other search engines now index PDF documents, which can be viewed in a Web browser using the free Adobe Reader plug-in.
PDFs can also be created in Mac OS X by selecting "Print..." from an application's File menu; then instead of clicking "Print," choose "Save as PDF" from the PDF drop-down menu in the lower-left corner of the window.
PDF files can be created and edited with Adobe Acrobat, a commercial program; they can be opened and viewed using the free Acrobat Reader.
View the PDF definition for more information. |