Without getting too technical, why is the PDF format used instead of, say, a digital photo?

Question

Are the files smaller or something? I know PDF's can sometimes be filled out, but usually they can't, so it seems like it's pretty much just a photo.
I ask because I often photograph documents to email to people and wonder if there's a better way.

Answer 1

In simple words, PDF is a non-editable word document. It contains everything that is there is a document with additional security features. Moreover, you can restrict other features like printing, copying text, etc in a PDF document.

A photograph document cant replace a PDF simply because the "textual" features that a PDF provides (for formatting etc) can never be provided by a photograph.

Answer 2

PDF are smaller than bitmapped images.
Photo's can be compressed but it is usually a lot easier to compress before rendering than after. (Rendering is the process of creating the image by the machine.)
By the way, TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) is usually the best compression format for forms.

Answer 3

PDF's are not used to send images. They are used to send documents. It is highly portable (adobe makes their reader for windows, linux and mac, and mac has built in pdf support).

Additionaly, pdf's are smaller than word documents.

If you want to send images, use JPG for photos, png for small color images.

Answer 4

yes it is significantly smaller and basically it is just popular. sure you can use a image file