Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF)

Files on this server ending in a .pdf extension are in Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF). The PDF format allows for a much higher level of page formatting and layout than is possible with the current versions of HTML, and is somewhat easier to implement when the original source document is generated by an application which doesn't have the ability to translate to HTML.

To view a PDF document you will need a PDF viewer. The general procedure to follow is to download a viewer appropriate to your environment and web browser (Eg. Microsoft Windows 3.x, Windows 95, Windows NT, Apple MacIntosh, or Unix/X; Browser: Netscape, Internet Explorer, or Mosaic), install the viewer as per included instructions, and then revisit this site to read those documents that are presented in the PDF format.

Downloadable Resources:

The following selection of viewers is but a sample of the most commonly available tools:

> Adobe Software: Adobe Acrobat Reader

[ Get Acrobat ]

The Adobe Acrobat PDF viewer is available for most popular desktop platforms as either a standalone viewer, or a plugin. No additional supporting software is required; simply download the appropriate version of Acrobat for your system, and install.

Acrobat and the Acrobat logo are trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated.

> XPDF: X Window PDF Viewer

XPDF is an X Window based PDF viewer for Unix or VMS systems. To use this software you'll need a C compiler, the X Window development environment, and a little bit of time and patience to build and install the software. Since the process of building and installing software is not a straightforward one, this isn't recommended for the novice user.

> Aladdin Ghostscript: A PostScript and PDF Interpreter

Aladdin Ghostscript has been a long-time favorite as a PostScript interpreter that supports the viewing of PostScript documents and their conversion to other formats. Recent versions of Ghostscript have begun to include native support for reading and writing PDF files. In concert with the GSView or Ghostview packages, Ghostscript makes a very nice PostScript or PDF viewer. Binaries for Windows 3.x, Win32 systems, and OS/2 are all available from the Ghostscript FTP site. Unix and VMS users will again require a C compiler and other appropriate development tools, or access to a prebuilt binary distribution.

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