PDF stands for "portable document format". Essentially, the format is used when you need to save files that cannot be modified but still need to be easily shared and printed. Today almost everyone has a version of Adobe Reader or other program on their computer that can read a PDF file.

Important: Once you have saved a document as a PDF file, you cannot convert it back to a Microsoft Office file format without specialized software or a third-party add-in.

The Portable Document Format (PDF) is a file format developed by Adobe in the 1990s to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. Based on the PostScript language, each PDF file encapsulates a complete description of a fixed-layout flat document, including the text, fonts, vector graphics, raster images and other information needed to display it.

PDF was standardized as ISO 32000 in 2008, and no longer requires any royalties for its implementation.

PDF files may contain a variety of content besides flat text and graphics including logical structuring elements, interactive elements such as annotations and form-fields, layers, rich media (including video content) and three dimensional objects using U3D or PRC, and various other data formats.

The PDF specification also provides for encryption and digital signatures, file attachments and metadata to enable workflows requiring these features.

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