Jan
8
Written by:
Project Complete
1/8/2010 2:20 PM
Once upon a time, a long time ago as far as computers are concerned, it was seemingly impossible to share documents with anyone. If their computer had the same program (and usually the same version) of software as yours did, there wasn't too much problem. But if you created a really cool drawing with some illustration software you had on your computer but nobody else you knew had the same software, well then you might as well fold it up and mail it "snail mail" style. But then the folks at Adobe realized that sharing files was becoming a problem as the whole computer world grew, and came up with a nifty program called Acrobat.
As its name implies, Acrobat can do some good tricks, but what it really does best is create PDF documents out of virtually anything you can produce on your computer. PDF stands for Portable Document Format, which makes sense since it takes the document and changes it into one that's portable, meaning you can take it (or in this case email it) anywhere. Most major software programs now include a way to save the document in PDF, so you may not even need to buy Acrobat.
A PDF document is smaller in size than the original, which means that it emails more quickly and takes up less disc space than an original would. Unless you have the Adobe Acrobat program, you can only read a PDF document, but sometimes that's all you want to do anyway. And Adobe Acrobat Reader is free to download, so if you don't already have it on your computer, and someone sends you a PDF document, you just download the free software, install it, and you're good to go.
One of the cool tricks of Acrobat is that when you save a document as a PDF, you can choose to save it for viewing on the web or for print. If you just want to read a document on the web, you only need to have it 72 dpi (dots per inch) because a higher resolution would be a waste of space since monitors can only display up to 72 dpi. However, if you've created a big ad that has a lot of graphics and is a huge file, you still want the quality to be good when you print it, so it should be at least 200 or 300 dpi. Acrobat can save your ad in PDF for print, allowing it to be a smaller size to send to the printer, but still a high resolution so that it looks as good in print as you envision it.
PDF may stand for portable document format, but we think it's a Pretty Darn Fine way to go!