PDF files are a lot like democracy, to paraphrase Winston Churchill. PDFs are a lousy way to move documents around, but the alternatives are worse. I hate PDF files. Portable Document Format is a benevolent monopoly by Adobe, which created the format and sets the standards for its development. They distribute an Adobe Reader, free, but if you want to create and edit PDFs, you have to buy a version of its big brother, Adobe Acrobat, starting at $299. Acrobat is a wonderfully descriptive name for the entire PDF situation.
