PDF has been around since the early 1990s and has become the de facto standard for digital business document format. This format is used by maintain customer records, invoice clients and send correspondences. Even home users are using this format to archive tax documents, receipts and other important personal records. With PDF, what you see on screen is how it will appear if printed. Unlike a Microsoft Word document or a document in other native applications, there is no re-pagination or re-flow of text when viewing or printing from different computers. PDF document will look the same regardless of the computing platform or operating system used. They are easy to share and many devices (e.g., computers, smart phones) support this format "out-of-the-box". The list below summarizes the key benefits of Adobe PDF file format.

• PDF documents always look exactly the same, for all senders and receivers of a document. Unlike native word processing documents, there's no re-pagination or missing font issues.
• PDF file format is very compact, so file size is small enough to easily e-mail to your recipients.
• PDF documents is viewable by any computer platforms (Apple® Macintosh®, Microsoft® Windows® or any flavor of the UNIX® operating system).
• PDF files (created from either digital files or scanned from hard copy) can be made searchable. This allow anyone the ability to easily find the exact PDF pages containing your keyword or phrase. This makes sifting through pages of documents to find what you are looking for efficiently and accurately.
• PDF documents can be magnified hundreds of times, with minimal degradation of quality, making it easier to read or view fine details.
• View PDF documents, there is no need to purchase software. Adobe Acrobat® Reader is available at no charge from Adobe's website.
• To edit PDF documents (e.g., add, delete and re-order pages), you will need to purchase and install Adobe Acrobat.
• PDF documents act as color, electronic fax machines but with much higher quality and speed. Documents can be distributed worldwide for practically no cost and can then be printed in any quantity anywhere.
• PDF file format is ideal for archiving, since the look and feel of documents is retained and the document size is compact.
• PDF file format is essential for business documents like agreements and forms that must retain their exact appearance for legal reasons. For example, this may apply to application forms, tax returns, licence agreements, tender documents, quotations, invoices and logos.

PDF IS FASTER, BETTER, CHEAPER
All these advantages translate into faster, costly effective and easier viewing, navigating, storing and printing of your business documents. Digital, document workflow throughout your company can become more reliable, with PDF documents maintaining their high quality, regardless of where they are sent or who views the documents. PDF is truly a global, document exchange format.