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Not sure what PDF stands for or how to make it work for you? You've come to the right place to find out some answers. PDF stands for "Portable Document Format." It is a technology developed by Adobe based on a language called Postscript. There are two big advantages to using PDF. First, PDF preserves the original look of the document almost exactly: fonts, photos, graphics and layout all appear as they do in the original. For the Los Angeles Times, this means we can provide you a version of the paper that looks just like the one that lands on your doorstep, a crossword puzzle that prints out easily, and graphics that look even more detailed than the ones in the paper. The second advantage is that documents described in Postscript are device-independent. Which, in English, means that anyone with the right software using Apple Macintosh, Microsoft Windows (3.1 or 95), Windows NT, and Sun and Hewlett Packard workstations can view any PDF document. In addition, files that are described in Postscript can be printed on any printer that speaks the Postscript language, regardless of what kind of computer is connected to the printer. Likewise, regardless of what type of computer creates a PDF file, it can be viewed on any computer with Adobe Acrobat software. In order to view PDF files, you must use PDF-reading software. Happily, the PDF reader software is free! The Acrobat Reader is available for many platforms. The full documentation is available at the Adobe Web site. You can download Macintosh (5,099,136 bytes), Windows 3.1 (3,916,243 bytes) and Windows 95 (4,018,104 bytes) versions directly. The DOS version is out of date and will not work with Times files. The Reader can read any PDF document, not just those served up by the browser. Once the Reader is installed, it works seamlessly with your web browser (if you have the most recent version of your browser)--in other words, there's no jumping back and forth between programs. In addition, the software will allow you to begin viewing the document before it has finished downloading, much the way Real Audio sound begins playing a file as soon as it has enough of the sound to play. To do this, you will need the latest version of Netscape (at least 3.0 for bug-free performance) or another browser that fully supports Netscape plug-ins. However, it takes a lot of memory to run the Reader at the same time as Netscape, so you may want to download the PDF file and view it offline. This is the best approach if you're on a computer that's short of memory. Need More Help? |