Created by Adobe Systems in 1993 Portable Document Format is a format for publishing and transmitting electronic documents. John Warnock introduced a system called “Camelot” that grew into a Portable Document Format. This format is a two-dimensional document as it is independent of the application software, hardware, and operating system. It includes a vivid description of a fixed-layout two-dimensional document. This document composes of two-dimensional vector graphics, images, text and fonts. The file format has changed and improved many times with the first version in 1993 and the latest version in 2008.
A Portable Document Format constitutes three different types of technology. There is a technology called font embedding or replacement system to retain the original formatting of the document. A PDF includes a subset of the Post Script programming language to generate the graphics as well as layout. A structured storage system is another technology used to compress the data wherever appropriate. The components of a PDF file are primarily different types of objects. It consists of Boolean values that represent true or false values. It also contains numbers, names, arrays, strings, dictionaries and collections of objects. A Portable Document Format is composed of vector graphics, raster images and text. The vector graphics are composed of ‘paths’. ‘Paths’ are lines and cubic Bezier curves. These ‘Paths’ can be stroked, filled or used for clipping. The raster images in a Portable Document Format represent dictionaries with an associated stream. The dictionary explains properties of an image and the stream contains an image data. The text in a PDF represents textual elements in page content streams. These text elements specify certain positions to draw the characters. The PDF file has security features to protect the file from viruses and from any kind of alternation. One can encrypt the PDF file for digital signature for authentication. You can Convert PDF To Word with PDF conversion software and use applications easily.
The PDF underwent a revision in 1996 introducing password-protected feature, device-independent color and threads and links. The1996 version of PDF brought Interactive page elements, advanced color features and much more. PDF introduced digital signatures and JavaScript actions in 2000. The 2003 version brought cross reference streams, object streams and linked multimedia. The 2008 version has also brought enhanced and advanced features to simplify any kind of work process.
