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Welcome to the Portable Document Format (PDF) Page


What is Portable Document Format (PDF)?
PDF is a graphically oriented file format designed for electronic interchange; it was developed by Adobe Systems Inc. for use with its Acrobat software.

In a PDF file, any page in a publication can be displayed or printed by a user in a form virtually identical to the page that appeared in the publication (including richly formatted text, graphics, and colours). The PDF format is derived from PostScript, the page description language developed by Adobe. A PDF file is much smaller than a corresponding PostScript file, which makes it more suitable for electronic delivery.

PDF files can be enhanced with hyperlinks to other parts of the document, to other files, to other addresses on the World Wide Web, and to other applications. Adobe has released a free Acrobat reader for PDF files. With the Acrobat reader, a user can view and print PDF files; in addition, a user can extract text into ASCII or Rich Text Format (a file format that preserves some of the font and formatting characteristics of a document) and perform searches on the document.

Download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader

Download: All versions from Adobe Systems Incorporated, USA

Last updated 13/11/97. All material copyright Parliament of Australia.
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