Converting a document to PDF is good for a number of reasons. PDF (Portable Document File) is a very commonly used format across the Internet and available on a variety of platforms. Acrobat reader is free, and universally compatible, meaning that PDF documents appear exactly the same on different systems. Microsoft Word documents can only be viewed on platforms that support Microsoft Word. Save Space, Save Time. PDF files also contain a complete description of a 2D document that include the same text, fonts, images, and 2D vector graphics that compose the document. PDF files do not encode information that is specific to the application software, hardware, or operating system used to create or view the document. This feature ensures that a valid PDF will render exactly the same regardless of its origin or destination (helpful when printing). You may also read and write PDF files for free. Reasons to convert to PDF:

• PDF documents resides in a single file, and take up less space.
• PDF contains already-interpreted results of the PostScript source code, so it is less mputation- intensive and faster to open, and there is a more direct correspondence between changes to items in the PDF page description and changes to the resulting appearance of the page.
• PDF supports true object transparency.
• PDF also allows font embedding to ensure that the "proper" fonts are displayed.

Accessibility: PDF can be accessible to people with disabilities. Current PDF file formats can include tags (essentially XML), text equivalents, captions and audio descriptions, and other accessibility features (unless the PDF is generated from a scanned document). Acrobat Pro and Distiller are the two most commonly used programs to convert PDF documents. Acrobat Pro allows you to create PDF documents, adds icons in a number of the windows programs (see examples below). Pro works for most people who need to convert a limited number of files to PDF. Acrobat Distiller is best at creating PDF files from PostScript applications (including desktop publishing software). It is most helpful to use when multiple documents must be converted, as Pro should be used as a default when creating PDFs (although other options such as PDFonline are available). Converting Files to PDF: Many software packages have PDF conversion options built-in after Acrobat Pro is installed. In Microsoft Word for example, converting files to PDF is as simple as clicking the icon in the taskbar, selecting print to PDF in print options, or selecting Convert to PDF from one of the menu bars: In Internet Explorer a web-page can be similarly converted to PDF (if Pro is installed) by clicking on the PDF icon: For More on how to convert files to PDF, or to convert online from anywhere, check out PDFonline.