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Back in 1993, Adobe Systems introduced the Portable Document Format (PDF) for the flexible presentation of electronic information which would be independent of the application software, hardware, and operating system in use. Today this format is still in use, and is widely used. The flexibility of the PDF meant that regardless of which computer system you use or version, (PC, MAC, Linux, Unix) you could read any document that was created on any platform. From books, user guides, papers, and articles, just about any electronic document can be converted to PDF for the universal distribution between systems.
How do I create a PDF?
First off, with any electronic document format you will need an application to create it. Fortunately, the creation of a PDF could not be simpler and there are a variety of tools and software applications around. Adobe have Acrobat (www.adobe.com/acrobat) which is their flagship tool for PDF creation and document workflow. This application however is expensive, but thankfully there are alternatives out there.
For a fraction of the cost of Adobe Acrobat, a great PDF creation tool Jaws PDF which provides similar functionality for the creation and editing of PDF files, another alternative might be Cute PDF. Apple MAC OSX (from Tiger and above) has PDF printing capabilities built into the operating system where by you can print direct from your application and create a PDF file, just like printing to a connected device. Microsoft also has a free downloadable plug-in to their Office 2007 suite that will also allow this functionality, as does the likes of free and open source applications, Open and Star Office.
How do I convert to a PDF document?
Converting or creating a document to the PDF allows you to have control over a number of areas, from securing the content, (disabling the ability to make edits, copying text and cutting graphics) thus protecting your intellectual property, to determining the physical size of the created file with respect to the quality and resolution of its embedded graphics and fonts. The PDF format also provides the ability to create anchor points, thumbnails and hyperlinks to ensure easy navigation within large documents.
Another interesting point for creating a PDF version of your Microsoft Word document for example, is the removal or stripping of metadata from within a document once the file has been saved or exported to a PDF. Metadata is the hidden or embedded information that relates to your created document, and is used for indexing and historical information. The date, time and author of the first and subsequent iterations of a document are all detailed within metadata, together with the operating system it was created on, change history, comments, undeleted text, and the details relating to the editor and subsequent editors are all referenced. The BBC had an interesting story on the issues relating to metadata back in August 2003.
How do I read a PDF?
Once you have created a PDF or if you get sent or download one, you will want to read it, and thankfully PDF reader applications for a variety of operating systems are free.
Adobe Reader is the most popular of these applications, and can be downloaded from Adobe’s website. Other readers that are available are, Foxit Reader, and Drumlin PDF Reader.
Summary
At Limephusion, we use the PDF extensively both on our website and our in-house documentation, and we find it very flexible and useful for our clients and in-house staff, in fact this document is produced in it.
If you haven’t created any of your documents into PDF, give it a try, as you can see there are a number of applications and tools available that are largely free and easy to use.