Please stop using PDF documents on your website and in your online communications. Unless you are a lawyer. Online PDF documents are:
- Hard to read on mobile (PDFs are not mobile-first)
- Hard to navigate
- Challenging for visually impaired users
- Unpleasant for the user experience.
Reading a restaurant menu on a PDF document on your smartphone is frustrating. Even worse is to have to download a PDF flyer just to learn about a company, a product, or an event. Did I mention that, if your browser is not properly configured, reading a PDF can require using the clumsy, heavy Acrobat Reader? What about the horrible experience of clicking on links inside a PDF document?
PDF is a very important and valid tool for exchanging static documents, despite Adobe’s various attempts to transform it into an interactive platform that poorly duplicates the web page experience. But PDF and Acrobat never worked well on smartphones or for interactive activities.
PDF’s Story
The PDF was born from a simple mission: make digital files act like paper.
- The Problem (1990): Adobe co-founder John Warnock launched “The Camelot Project” because documents looked different across computers. A file sent from a Mac to a PC would often lose its fonts and layout.
- The Launch (1993): Adobe released the Portable Document Format (PDF). It was initially a flop because the software to read it cost money, and the files were too large for dial-up internet.
- The Pivot: Adobe made the Acrobat Reader free. When the IRS adopted it for tax forms in the mid-90s, it became the global standard for “official” documents.
- The Legacy (2008): Adobe released the PDF as an open standard (ISO), ensuring that any device, from your phone to your tablet, could open one without needing Adobe software.
The takeaway: The PDF won because it was the first format to prioritize visual consistency over editability.
