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What is PDF?

• PDF stands for Portable Document Format. PDF is the most commonly used file format developed by Adobe in 1990.
• It is an open standard file format and handled via ISO (International Organization of Standardization).
• PDF file extension is .pdf.
• PDFs are independent of S/W, H/W, or OS. Through the PDF, we can exchange documents easily.
• You can open the PDF on any platform; the document layout will look the same.
• PDFs can contain images, text, hyperlinks, video, embedded fonts, forms, interactive buttons, and more.
• To view the PDF, we just need a PDF reader. There are many applications available that can open PDFs such as Adobe Acrobat Reader, web browsers, and even word processing apps.

Advantages of PDF

Following are the advantages of PDF:

• Graphic Integrity
  A PDF displays the same content in the same layout on the different operating systems, software, or device.
• Multi-Dimensional
  A PDF can contain images, text, videos, vector graphics, audio files, hyperlinks, interactive fields, buttons, text boxes, animations, 3D models, etc. We can add these all things into one PDF and organize it as a report or presentation.
• Secure
  PDF offer options to protect the content of the PDF or a whole PDF document. We can set different levels of access in PDF, such as watermarks, digital signatures, or passwords.
• Convenient
  PDFs are easy for us to create and read.
• Compact
  PDFs can store a large amount of information, and they can be compressed. That means we can easily reduce the size of the PDF that is easy to exchange.
• PDF Reader is Freeware
  We can view, read, and print the PDF file with freeware. PDF readers can be downloaded free from the internet on computers and mobile phones. This means we can say we don’t need to pay to read the PDF document from any device.
• E-signing Feature
  PDF is only in the file format that can allow e-signing, which is a process that is as legally binding as hand-writing a signature on a document.

Disadvantages of PDF

Following are the disadvantages of PDF:

• Limited OS Support
  We can use the PDF only under Mac and Windows operating systems. Linux or UNIX users can’t create or view the PDF files. It is better to use alternative formats such as HTML or RTF, which supports all platforms.
• Difficult to Edit
  The main goal of PDF was to protect the content and layout of a document with different platforms or apps. That’s why PDFs are not easy to edit, and instead of update, recreate the entire document is easy.
• Different Types
  There are two types of PDF files, first is native, and the second is scanned. A Native PDF has been converted directly from an electronic file, such as MS Word, and a Scanned PDF is one that has been created by scanning a physical paper document through a scanner to produce an image of the document.
  From native PDF, you can copy and paste the text anywhere, but scanned PDFs have limited flexibility.

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