The Portable Document Format (PDF) is a file format developed by Adobe in 1993 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. PDFs are widely used for sharing and storing digital documents that need to be preserved in their original formatting. They are often used for eBooks, user manuals, legal forms, and scanned documents. PDF files can also include interactive elements such as clickable links, form fields, and multimedia. PDFs are known for their reliability in representing the exact layout of a document, regardless of the device used.