I have been using Portable document formats or PDFs to present and share my documents for a long time. From sharing study material in PDFs as a student, to now, sharing presentations and portfolios in the same format.
In all these years of using PDFs, I’ve observed various advantages and benefits of saving files in this format, and this is what I’ll discuss with you in this article.
Not only that, but I’ll also share with you ways to save and edit PDFs, and some of the challenges that you might encounter in all this. So, without wasting any more time, let’ get started with today’s topic
The Advantages of the PDF Format
The thought of shifting to other file formats did not cross my mind in all the time I’ve used PDFs, and I’ll share with you four major advantages of the PDF format that held me here all these years-
Graphic integrity – I don’t want my shared files to reach the receiving party with any inconsistencies in layouts, images, and typography. PDFs help me ensure the same and preserve the visual quality of the elements no matter where and how the document is viewed and printed.
Convenience – I can access PDFs virtually on any device, or operating system. Unlike several other file formats, I don’t need any specific software to open PDFs. This feature makes it a universally accessible and convenient way of presenting documents.
Security – I understand the hesitation of sharing sensitive and confidential information virtually, and that is why I use the robust security options offered in PDFs like setting passwords and encrypting data to restrict access.
Compactness – I know sharing large files can be a little complex at times. But using this format helps me compress my large files into smaller sizes, that too without compromising the quality.
FUN FACT PDFs can hold hidden or embedded elements that are invisible to the reader, such as metadata, annotations, or form data. You can even embed multimedia like videos, audio clips, and interactive elements in a PDF.
Benefits of Saving Files in PDF Format
After I told you about the overall advantages of the PDF format, now it’s time to discuss the benefits of saving files in PDFs.
1. Preserving the Original Appearance of the Document
In all these years of using PDFs, never once have I experienced any issue with the consistency in the elements of the document. When viewing the document on a different device or software, I have always found the fonts and layouts exactly like originally created.
2. Easy to Share
Due to its small size and universally accepted properties, I never had any difficulty in attaching the documents to emails or sharing them on different platforms.
3. Data Protection
As I told you before, PDFs can be encrypted and protected with passwords, making it a secure way of sharing and storing files.
Challenges of Saving Files as PDFs
I discussed the advantages and benefits of saving files as PDFs, but it does not end there. There are some challenges you might encounter while saving files as PDFs and in this section, I’ll throw some light on the same
1. Conversion from Other Formats
My frustration levels reach the sky when I have to manually fix the display issues that occur due to the conversion of files from Word or Excel to PDF.
2. File Size
Even though I counted the compactness of PDFs in its advantages, it can also turn into a disadvantage. I’ve faced the issue of high loading time and problems in sharing PDFs when working with high-resolution images and complex graphics.
3. Editing Documents
I would not recommend using PDFs if you need to make frequent changes to your file, PDFs are not designed for easy text manipulation.
Saving Files to PDF
There are multiple ways of saving files to PDF, I’ve enlisted the easiest ones for you as
Converting scanned documents to PDF – I use this when I need to create a PDF for scanned images that are already available to me.
Using common programs – I use common applications like Microsoft Word or Adobe Acrobat that allow me to export files directly into PDFs.
PDF conversion tools – I prefer using Word to PDF online, which is an online PDF conversion tool. It makes this conversion process much easier for me.
How to Edit a PDF File
I am sure many of you must have doubts about editing PDFs, but no need to worry because, in this section, I’ll address all those doubts.
I have often found myself in situations where I need to edit my resume or any other document that I have inadvertently saved only in PDFs. That is why I decided to install SwifDoo PDF for Windows, which not only allows me to edit the text, formatting, and graphics of my documents but also enables me to perform more complex actions such as adding multimedia content.
DO YOU KNOW? Raster and vector are the two common file types you’ll encounter while working with digital photos, graphic designs, etc. Most PDF files are vector files. However, PDF files can also be saved as raster files, depending on the program used to create them.
In Closing
There is no doubt that PDFs are one of the most widely used file formats, after all, it has various advantages and benefits as I mentioned above in this write-up. But do not forget about the challenges and disadvantages I told you.
In the end, I hope you find the information mentioned in this article useful, and that it answers your questions concerning portable document format.
