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Wikipedia (the free encyclopedia) has this to say :                                 

" Portable Document Format (PDF) is...

... an open standard for document exchange. This file format, created by Adobe Systems in 1993, is used for representing documents in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. Each PDF file encapsulates a complete description of a fixed-layout flat document, including the text, fonts, graphics, and other information needed to display it.

In 1991 Adobe Systems co-founder John Warnock outlined a system called "Camelot" that evolved into the Portable Document Format (PDF).

While the PDF specification was available for free since at least 2001, PDF was originally a proprietary format controlled by Adobe, and was officially released as an open standard on July 1, 2008, and published by the International Organization for Standardization as ISO 32000-1:2008. In 2008, Adobe published a Public Patent License to ISO 32000-1 granting a royalty-free rights for all patents owned by Adobe that are necessary to make, use, sell and distribute PDF compliant implementations. "

" Adobe's PDF specifications :

Adobe changed the PDF specification several times and continues to develop new specifications with new versions of Adobe Acrobat. There have been nine versions of PDF with corresponding Acrobat releases:

    1993 – PDF 1.0 / Acrobat 1.0
    1994 – PDF 1.1 / Acrobat 2.0
    1996 – PDF 1.2 / Acrobat 3.0
    2000 – PDF 1.3 / Acrobat 4.0
    2001 – PDF 1.4 / Acrobat 5.0
    2003 – PDF 1.5 / Acrobat 6.0
    2005 – PDF 1.6 / Acrobat 7.0
    2006 – PDF 1.7 / Acrobat 8.0
    2006 – PDF 1.7 / Acrobat 8.2
    2008 – PDF 1.7, Adobe Extension Level 3 / Acrobat 9.0
    2009 – PDF 1.7, Adobe Extension Level 5 / Acrobat 9.1 "


These days there are a number of programs available that facilitate the creation and/or ability to read PDFs ( whose filenames end in the suffix .pdf ), but Adobe Acrobat probably remains the best-known :

Adobe Acrobat is a family of application software developed by Adobe Systems to view, create, manipulate, print and manage files in Portable Document Format (PDF). All members of the family, except Adobe Reader (formerly Acrobat Reader), are commercial software, while the latter is available as freeware  and can be downloaded from Adobe's web site. Adobe Reader enables users to view and print PDF files but has negligible PDF creation capabilities. Acrobat and Reader are widely used as a way to present information with a fixed layout similar to a paper publication.

Here at OnlineDTP.com, depending on Client's needs (some computers are "picky" and "don't like" the most recent versions!), we typically output in one of the following specifications :

    2000 – PDF 1.3 / Acrobat 4.0
    2001 – PDF 1.4 / Acrobat 5.0
    2003 – PDF 1.5 / Acrobat 6.0
    2005 – PDF 1.6 / Acrobat 7.0
    2006 – PDF 1.7 / Acrobat 8.0

NOTE: 

Support for the CMS (Content Management System) which has been used to create these web pages for the past decade is being discontinued at the end of 2022. The pages will still be visible until the end of 2023, but it won't be possible to add any new content after December 2022.

:-(