Web Design in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition

Portable Document Format (PDF)

PDF (Portable Document Format) is a technology developed by Adobe for sharing electronic documents. The remarkable thing about PDF files is that they preserve the fonts, colors, formatting, and graphics of the original source document. Ideally, a PDF document looks exactly the way it was designed, regardless of the platform, hardware, and software environment of the end user. It can be viewed on the screen or printed out to a high-quality hardcopy.

PDF existed before the Web, but the two make great partners—PDF is the ideal file format for sharing documents, and the Web provides a highly accessible network for distributing them. You can make any document into a PDF file and make it available from a web page. The advantage, of course, is that you have precise control over fonts and layout.

Forms, documentation, and any other materials that rely on specific formatting are good candidates for PDF files. For example, the IRS makes tax forms available for download in PDF format so taxpayers can print them out at home.

PDF files are not necessarily static. They can contain links to online material and other PDF files. With Adobe Acrobat, authors can even create interactive PDF forms that can be filled out, automatically updated, and submitted online. PDFs can also be dynamically generated based on user input.

With the control PDF offers over presentation, it’s tempting to want to use it for all online material. It’s important to understand that PDF is not a ...