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Document format

PDF converter

A .pdf file is a Portable Document Format document, designed so a page looks identical on every screen and printer. Fonts, images, vector drawings, and layout travel locked inside the file itself, which is why contracts, invoices, and forms are almost always exchanged as PDF.

Private for supported formats — processed in your browser

Convert supported files

Runs on your device

Drop PDF files here

Batch files can each use a different output. Nothing uploads for local conversions.

Working inputs include camera RAW, browser-local audio/video, PDF, CBZ/CBR comics, office documents, ebooks, markup, 3D models, structured text, images, and archives.

Where PDF comes from

Adobe released PDF in 1993 as the product of its Camelot project, championed by co-founder John Warnock, and gave Acrobat Reader away to drive adoption. The format left Adobe's sole control when ISO 32000-1 standardized it in 2008, and PDF 2.0 followed as ISO 32000-2 in 2017.

How PDF works

  • Built from a graph of numbered objects located through a cross-reference (xref) table, so viewers can jump straight to any page without reading the whole file.
  • Page content is a PostScript-derived operator stream that paints text, paths, and images onto a fixed coordinate grid.
  • Each stream picks its own compression: Flate for text and vectors, DCTDecode (JPEG) or JPEG 2000 for photos, JBIG2 and CCITT for scans.
  • Fonts can be embedded and subset, guaranteeing exact glyphs on machines that lack the original typeface.
  • Incremental updates append changes to the end of the file, which is how digital signatures and annotations avoid rewriting the document.

When to use PDF

  • Contracts and agreements that need e-signatures and a tamper-evident layout.
  • Print-ready proofs sent to commercial printers.
  • Long-term archiving of invoices and statements using the PDF/A profile.
  • Fillable government and HR forms.
  • Manuals and reports distributed to readers on unknown devices.

Strengths and limitations

Strengths

  • Renders identically everywhere, from phones to press equipment.
  • Open ISO standard with viewers built into every modern browser.
  • Supports signatures, encryption, forms, and attachments in one container.
  • Bundles its own fonts and images, so nothing external can go missing.

Limitations

  • Fixed layout makes editing and text reflow painful after the fact.
  • Text extraction can scramble reading order in multi-column designs.
  • Scanned PDFs contain images of text, not text, until OCR is applied.
  • Files balloon quickly when images are embedded without recompression.

Compatibility

Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android all preview PDFs out of the box, and Chrome, Firefox (via pdf.js), Edge, and Safari ship their own viewers. Word and LibreOffice can import PDFs for editing, though layout is approximated rather than preserved. In-browser tools can render and extract pages entirely client-side with pdf.js, which is how this site converts them.

Carries both a classic Info dictionary (title, author, dates) and an embedded XMP packet; both survive resaves, and PDF/A actually requires the XMP copy.

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