Invented by Adobe Systems and perfected over 15 years, Portable Document Format (PDF) lets you capture and view robust information — from almost any application, on any computer system — and share it with virtually anyone, anywhere. Individuals, businesses, and government agencies around the world trust and rely on PDF to communicate their ideas and vision.
Liberating information and the flow of ideas
Now an open standard — PDF is now a formal open standard known as ISO 32000. Maintained by the International Organization for Standardization, ISO 32000 will continue to be developed with the objective of protecting the integrity and longevity of PDF, providing an open standard for the more than one billion PDF files in existence today.
Multiplatform — PDF files are viewable and printable on virtually any platform — Mac OS, Microsoft® Windows®, UNIX®, and many mobile platforms.
Extensible — More than 1,800 vendors worldwide offer PDF-based solutions including creation, plug-in, consulting, training, and support tools.
Trusted and reliable — More than 250 million PDF documents on the web today, along with countless PDF files in governments and businesses around the world, serve as evidence of the number of organizations that rely on PDF to capture information.
Rich in file integrity — PDF files look like original documents and preserve source file information — text, drawings, video, 3D, maps, full-color graphics, photos, and even business logic — regardless of the application used to create them.
More secure — Digitally sign or password-protect PDF documents created with Adobe® Acrobat® or Adobe LiveCycle® software.
Searchable — Leverage text-search features in documents and metadata.
Accessible — PDF documents work with assistive technology to help make information accessible to people with disabilities.
Learn more
- PDF Technology Center on Adobe Developer Connection
Refer to the hub of information about PDF and related technology, products, and solutions.
- Adobe Acrobat software development kit (SDK)
Use the SDK — now available free of charge — to create software and plug-ins to interact with and customize Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Reader® software.
- PDF Library SDK
Implement and develop powerful, flexible PDF solutions in desktop environments as well as on a wide range of server platforms.
Next steps
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