Files labeled PDF have been produced with Portable Document software, in order to make them display reasonably close to their paper counterparts on almost any computer, and print reasonably well to almost any printer.  Portable Document software takes in a document's images, graphics, tables and text with applied bold, underlining, italics,  font sizes and appearances, and creates a specially coded file.  The resulting PDF formatted file contains all information needed to display the original file as originally created, complete with all nuances of the original document, including graphics and text styles.

PDF files can contain a Table of Contents which is "hot" so clicking any entry takes you directly to a spot in a multiple-page document.  The browser software also permits searching most PDF documents for occurrences of a string of text that interests you.  

You can  make printouts of  all or part of the documents as text only, or with all graphics and styles, to the limits of your print device.  With most computer printers, the result should be quite similar to the original document.

To use a PDF file, a reader program (or browser plug-in) must be installed on your machine to display, print, and navigate through the Portable Document Format file.  The Adobe Acrobat Reader program is available for downloading free from Adobe's website at www.adobe.com.

Adobe Acrobat reader plug-ins are available for most of the popular web browsers, enabling the browser to use and display PDF files inline one page at a time, while the document is still downloading.  Please see applicable licenses for use of the reader and plug-in programs.

Adobe and Acrobat are trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated and may be registered in certain jurisdictions.