PDF is a file format that offers significant advantages. The software to read PDFs is free, and the formatting of PDFs remains intact, even if the reader does not have the same fonts on his device. PDFs are also easy to create. All you need is a source file, i.e. a file created in any app. Free plugins are available for Windows, while Mac users don’t need them as they can save files as PDFs from any application.

This makes PDF (Wikipedia) an ideal format for distributing texts such as manuals, newsletters, brochures, press releases, reports, annual reports, ebooks, etc. The recipient doesn’t need to have Word, Affinity Publisher, InDesign, Excel, Pages, etc., and can read PDFs on Windows, Linux, macOS, iOS, iPadOS, and Android.

The problem

PDFs also come with serious disadvantages. If you need to make more than the most basic of edits to a PDF, you have no other choice than to open the source file in the program in which it was created, modify the file, and create a new PDF. Continue reading PDFs are a one-way street →