Adobe’s Portable Document Format (PDF) is an established file system for the storage and presentation of electronic texts in a consistent and flexible way.  It operates according to similar principles as the HyperText Markup Language (HTML) used for web pages on the Internet, in that it allows hyperlinking, searching, and bookmarking.  PDF, however, also moves much further beyond the limits of HTML, in that it preserves the richness of a printed document (fonts, graphics, and layout are duplicated in PDF exactly as they were prepared in the original application) and allows for sophisticated querying and navigation around the electronic text in a way that is currently impossible (or at least highly difficult to sustain) in HTML.  Moreover, any and all additional elements (fonts, images, colour, sounds, and movies) are embedded directly into a single file, allowing for complete and compact portability.  These factors make PDF the ideal file format for the distribution of compact, searchable academic documents.  It is our hope at Cardiff Corvey to make PDF the document format of choice for the dissemination of materials as part of standard academic interchange.

In order to browse a PDF file it is necessary to install the Adobe Acrobat Reader®: this is a freely distributable application, able to run on a multitude of operating systems, including Windows (3.1, 9x, NT), MacOS, Unix, Solaris, and many others.  This again substantiates the claim of PDF to be as universal as HTML is via the world-wide web: in fact, many web sites do employ PDF either as a supporting format to HTML or as a primary vehicle for the dissemination of information.  In fact, PDF is being strongly championed by a number of people as the document format of choice for the new ‘e-books’ which will be appearing over the next few years.  For more information on Adobe Acrobat and related applications, please visit the Adobe website: www.adobe.com.

To view the files provided in the Cardiff Corvey you will need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader® 3.0 or higher (the current version is 6.0) installed on your system, as our documents are all prepared in the Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format® (PDF).  You can download the latest versions of the Reader by clicking on the Acrobat Reader logo.

Last modified 3 July, 2003 .
This document is maintained by Anthony Mandal (Mandal@cf.ac.uk).