It’s unlikely that anyone reading this blog hasn’t heard of a PDF file. In fact, I’m 99% sure that just about every user has at least one PDF file on their device. But, just because you have PDF files doesn’t mean you actually understand what they are or how they are used.

PDF stands for Portable Document Format. The format was developed by Adobe in the 90s and it’s still widely used today. Adobe and other companies offer software to simply read PDFs, to create PDFs and to edit PDFs.

Why use a PDF instead of a Word document? There are a number of reasons and I’ll share a primary one today and another tomorrow.

The Number One Reason: A PDF allows you to embed pictures and fonts within the document so that others can see the document as you actually created it. Let’s look at an example regarding fonts. I’ve created a Word document using a special font called Easter Sunrise. Since it’s unlikely that you have this font, if you were to open my document in Word, it would look something like this: click HERE.

For me to get you to see the document as I created it, I can do one of two things: I can send you the font and have you install it or I can change my Word document into a PDF. The latter option is the easier of the two. To view the document I created using the Easter Sunrise font as a PDF, click HERE.

There’s a major difference in how the document looks, isn’t there? What I did with a font can also be done with pictures and the layout of the document.

Read tomorrow’s blog to find out the second major reason PDFs are so popular and how you can create your own.