| It's not possible to conceive our life without computers. Personal computer is an indispensable instrument of our everyday life. We apply PC for working in the office and for entertainment at home. Listening to music, viewing video, playing computer games, surfing the Internet and a large number of other operations are possible with the help of computer. The PC is also a valuable means of storing and exchanging information. There is a number of file formats nowadays applied for a diversity of purposes. One of the most widespread formats for exchanging documents is these days PDF format. PDF stands for portable document file and is an open standard for documents exchange. The major function of PDF format is displaying two-dimensional documents without dependence on application software, hardware and operating system. Every PDF document can consist of fonts, texts, images and two-dimensional vector graphics.
PDF format was invented by Adobe Systems in 1993 and nowadays it constitutes the most widespread way of exchanging 2D documents amongst users of personal computer. Nowadays even three-dimensional drawings can be applied to PDF documents with the help of special computer programs. From the very beginning portable document file was a proprietary format, but not so long ago it was officially released like an open standard and was also published by the ISO (International organization for standardization).
In addition to the function of displaying 2D info PDF format gives a possibility to edit files, to copy the text to another document, to make a snap of any part of the document, to print the PDF document etc. But meanwhile, when creating the PDF document you get an opportunity to limit or to prohibit the rights of editing to other users. As a matter of fact, it is even possible to prohibit all the actions except for looking through the document. In this case you'll be sure that nobody can copy info or print the exchanged PDF file. PDF format is widely used for electronic manuals, books, guides and tutorials. |