Since its initial launch in 1993, the main virtue of this type of file is to facilitate the exchange of digital documentation reliably, also hence its name “Portable Document Format” or PDF. Today it is one of the most widespread formats on the Internet due to its great versatility of use and perhaps the most used by companies, governments, and educational institutions.
PDF documents are simply files that can be transferred from one device to another and can contain images, graphics, text, small forms, etc… The wonderful thing about this type of file is that we can generate a PDF from other documents and/or images and everything will look exactly the same since it will preserve all the data, structure, and format of the original file, even if they come from different sources.
PDF is one of the most versatile formats worldwide. Among its advantages are the optimization of size, its ease of viewing, that we can generate a PDF from other documents, and the inclusion of some interactive elements. Today, knowledge such as how to convert PDF, how to rotate PDF, and how to sign PDF is important for every office worker.
Did you know that a PDF can be viewed on any device? Yes, it is one of the most versatile formats worldwide. Another of the great advantages is that it can not only achieve a small size (very important for reasons of online viewing, since the loading of our document for viewing on our website, browser or simple download is reduced) and also because if we work in the cloud, viewing and sharing this type of document is much easier. Also remember, that even having a small size originally, there is always the possibility of optimizing a PDF even more (depending obviously on the global content it has, the size of the pages, and the different elements).
What are PDF documents used for or what could they be used for?
We show you some examples:
A PDF is very useful and provides great advantages if we add a small and simple autofill or autocomplete form. We give you a practical and concrete example: a client contacts a company to contract certain services, a meeting is prepared and agreed upon to explain and specify certain details and later a contract or budget is sent to the possible client. Until here “the usual”. How does this quote come to us? Well, in the best of cases in a PDF document, but it can also reach us, and in a way, it is “something usual”, that it reaches us in a text document, Excel, etc… with the result that we may see all “manga by shoulder”, that we cannot open it because perhaps our work program does not recognize it or we do not have it updated, etc.
Surely this has happened to you! So that the document reaches us correctly and is more comfortable for everyone, we recommend using the PDF format and also being able to add a page or section with a small form for the client to fill in each field with the data of the company and other details, and also with the option that Acrobat allows us to sign or add a signature. All this prevents us from having to print our contract or budget, waste paper, sign it, scan it, save it again, etc… and thus waste much more time. The way we tell you about everything is much more comfortable, we save paper and speed up and facilitate the sales process.
Another use of the PDF that we can recommend is that you use it to join several image files (JPG, PNG, etc…) in a single document. As simple as selecting and dragging or from the same program selecting several images. We give you a practical example: a company related to the construction sector that does work in different places and takes photos of the different works that are finished, as well as finishes and qualities of certain products or elements such as windows, floors, platforms, etc already placed on site and that serve for clients to get an idea of what the final result is like or how it could be. As a result, we would get together with a huge number of different images and to avoid sending such a tidal wave to our client, the most comfortable thing is to put everything together in a single PDF document, much more comfortable when viewing and sending (especially taking into account that there are still people and companies that do not work in the cloud).
If we open a PDF with Adobe Acrobat, we will also find the option to optimize, we will reduce the size of our PDF so that it weighs and occupies a little less. Obviously depending on the number of pages, images, and graphics that we have. In our case, every time a client requests a virtual catalog, we already start from a base and we would not need to make use of this option, since directly all the material that you provide us will be optimized beforehand so that your final catalog weighs as little as possible. We think of everything! We always keep this in mind, because on many occasions we work with catalogs with hundreds of references, graphics, product photos, a high volume of pages, etc. What sometimes makes our document have a considerable weight (the megabytes that we are dealing with). If your catalog is previously optimized, it will weigh much less, it will be faster to load on your website and you will be able to download or transfer the file to your customers more quickly.
