What is PDF? Wikipedia refers to PDF as: “The Portable Document Format (PDF) is a file format used to present documents in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. Each PDF file encapsulates a complete description of a fixed-layout flat document, including the text, fonts, graphics, and other information needed to display it.” Simply speaking PDF is an electronic “hard copy” document.

Born 23 years ago before the Internet era PDF is still a king of electronic document formats; an universal choice for the fixed-layout, self-contained documents so vital to businesses across the globe.

Popularity of PDF

Duff Johnson, an Executive Director at PDF Association, has done a lot of research in the field of popular document formats and we are happy to share one of his finding below:

HTML and HTM files are not included in the survey because they are mainly web content pages. HTML can contain some text but may not be a document. Only “popular” document types that can be downloaded from the hosting website without changes in appearance and functionality were considered for this survey.

Johnson also points out that many websites include far more content in PDF pages than in HTML. “If your website is a .gov, .org or .edu, the chances are good that >80% of your actual text is in PDF files. Of course, the vast majority of .com sites include far more HTML than PDF… but where documents are a meaningful part of the content they often represent a high proportion of volume in both text and traffic.”

PDF support and continuity

As it was mentioned before, PDF is 23 years old. It is an open standard since July 1 2008 and published by the International Organization for Standardization as ISO 32000-1:2008, at which time control of the specification passed to an ISO Committee of volunteer industry experts. According to PDF Association, PDF 2.0 is feature-complete and it will replace current PDF 1.7 version this year.

Unencrypted wrapper document
Numerous enhancements for print and rendering-related features
New annotation types to support projections, rich media, 3D annotations
Geospatial features
Navigators, to support graphical representation of embedded files
Major enhancements to digital signature technology
Associated files (introduced with PDF/A-3)
Enhanced encryption
Pronunciation hints
Tagged PDF has several new standard structure elements and attributes
This proves that PDF is still relevant as ever and you will most likely be getting PDF forms from government websites or reading user-guides for your new gadgets in PDF format in years to come.

Why PDF is the best format for forms?

Archiving: When compressed PDF files can be very compact, so it is ideal for storage. File layout is kept unchanged and can be viewed on all platforms. Additionally, PDF files are searchable, making archived documents and items much easier to find, categorize, and organize.
Business and Legal Documents: PDF’s are essential for business and legal documents and forms that must retain their exact appearance. These important documents must retain their integrity and security. With the PDF format, you can secure your documents so that no one can change the wording of an application or the terms of an agreement.
Accessibility. PDF forms guarantee compliance with the Federal Section 508 regulations.
Offline functionality. Unlike webforms, PDF forms do not always require internet connection to work.
Workflow flexibility. PDF functionality allows the form to be both the capture tool and the resulting record.
Printing. While printing a fillable PDF form may sound like a step backwards, it is still a very common case. Surprisingly, not a lot of form solutions on the market are printer-friendly.
Digital signatures. PDF forms provide users with powerful tools to identify forms authors or users and protect forms from tampering. Following certain guidelines make PDF forms legally-binding.

About the Author

PDF Share Forms

PDF ShareForms LLC is the world’s leading PDF forms integration company, with customers all around the globe, serviced by a global network of high quality partners and service providers. PDF ShareForms LLC delivers innovative enterprise and on-demand software that empower organizations integrating their PDF forms with document repositories, quickly and easily.About products Award winning PDF Share Forms Enterprise solution enables businesses to create and manage PDF forms in Microsoft SharePoint 2010 and 2013 without additional development or constraints of HTML forms. It is the only out of the box solution that enables integration of industry standard PDF forms with the Microsoft SharePoint platform and free Adobe Reader. It differs from other solutions on the market by such unique features, such as full offline mode support and native PDF form support. With ShareSync you can access your data and work with PDF forms from any iOS device, even if there is no internet connectivity. ShareSync supports SharePoint 2010, SharePoint 2013, and SharePoint Online (Office 365).