I am always amazed at how fast the technology world changes. Two or three years ago, the only method of creating PDF (Portable Document Format) files was to pay close to $300 for Adobe Acrobat. Indeed, Adobe created a great market for this product when it gave away the reader free of charge and then charged a high price for the matching program that creates PDF files. It reminds me of the story of Gillette's making millions by giving away razors free of charge and then making a big profit on the sale of razor blades. For several years, Adobe raked in millions of dollars as the only company to offer a program to create PDF files. Then the world changed.
A couple of years ago new programs appeared from other suppliers that would create PDF files. These early clones were awkward to use and did not always make a faithful reproduction of the original document. Fonts and images sometimes were not accurately reproduced. Technology advances quickly, however. Soon, newer programs appeared with each one easier to use and better able to faithfully reproduce the original.
NOTE: If you have been using computers for more than a few weeks, you probably have already encountered PDF files. They are documents that can be created on almost any platform (Windows, Macintosh, Linux, UNIX, etc.) and then read on almost any platform. They are very popular on the web as well as in business. It is the only practical method available today of delivering content to a wide number of users on different platforms and always knowing that the reader sees exactly what you want him or her to see.
PDF files also have the advantage in that it is difficult to "break" these files. While anyone can read them by eye, it takes some work to extract information electronically from a PDF file and then paste it into a word processor or other application. However, there are several programs now available that will decode PDF files so that "security" is not as good as it used to be.
The latest versions of Macintosh's operating system include the capability to create PDF files from any word processor, spreadsheet or most other applications. Linux users can also do the same. Windows, however, lagged behind for a while. However, that has now changed.
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