What are PDF’s
PDFs were invented by Adobe and stands for Portable Document Format and is one of the main file types used for people and organisation who want to distribute files.
Why PDF’s are particularly possible and very useful is they can be used and look the same by pretty much all devices, including, computers, laptops and mobile devices.
Files made by specific software packages such as Microsoft Office, require both the creator and reader to have the Office software installed on their computer.
If each user has a different device with different software installed and different fonts, the file can look very different.
PDFs don’t have that problem as all information needed for each particular file is drawn from that file, not the computer, resulting in the PDF looking the same on every device.
Use still need a PDF viewer
When you receive a PDF from someone, downloaded or in your email, you still need some software on your computer to open the file.
The latest Windows operating system like Windows 10 have a web browser bulit into it called Microsoft Edge which does a good job of operning PDFs, however a lot of people still dont feel comfortable with it.
The prefered software for most people is Adobe Acrobat Reader which is completely free and made by the same company who invented PDFs.
Can be downloaded here.
Suddenly Your Computer Can’t Read PDF’s
This can happen for a few reasons.
- PDF Viewer is broken and needs to be reinstalled.
- Viruses.
- Operating System Corruption
A lot of the time we loose the ability to read PDF’s on our computer or laptop is because we have accidentally downloaded something which has tried to confuse your computer.
There are many programs out there, specially fake media players or fake media downloaders which trick you into installing their software on your computer which mess with file type associations.
This basically means it tells your computer to open PDFs with the wrong programs.
Other times it can be viruses and they can not only spy on what you are doing but also corrupt your operating system.
