PDF

PDF stands for Portable Document Format. PDF files are created by Adobe Acrobat and are widely supported standard for distributing print quality documents electronically. PDF was first created in 1993 and has gained in popularity because of the free distribution of the reader and Adobe's decision to make the format an open standard that vendors can write tools for without paying royalties. PDF is sometimes considered a successor to PostScript, although they do not technically fulfil the same role. Since the PDF reader operates on both Mac and PC, the format has achieved critical mass despite various attempts to compete with it such as Flash Paper (developed by Macromedia who Adobe later acquired). Adobe InDesign also has native support for PDF and most corporate desktop rollouts include a copy of the reader as standard.