PDFDocument

A PDF document is a file in the Portable Document Format, designed to present documents independent of software, hardware, or operating systems. It was created by Adobe Systems in 1993 and has since been standardized as ISO 32000.

A PDF typically contains a fixed-layout description of a document that may include text, embedded fonts, vector graphics, raster images, annotations, form fields, and interactive elements or multimedia components.

PDFs support features such as metadata, outlines (bookmarks), encryption, digital signatures, and access permissions. They can also embed fonts and color profiles to preserve appearance across devices and viewers.

The format is widely used for final versions of documents intended for printing or distribution, including manuals, reports, forms, and e-books. PDF files are created from source documents using various applications and can be viewed with many software tools.

In programming contexts, pdfdocument may refer to a class or object representing a PDF file, offering APIs to load, render, search, extract text and metadata, and modify pages. Examples appear in libraries such as PDFKit and other platform SDKs.

Security and accessibility are important considerations: PDFs can be encrypted, digitally signed, or password-protected, and modern versions support tagged content and reading order to aid assistive technologies.