Glossary

AcroForm

Acrobat Form Technology

The standard interactive form technology in PDF documents, supporting text fields, checkboxes, radio buttons, and digital signatures.

Annotation

PDF Annotation

A markup element added to a PDF page, such as highlights, comments, stamps, or drawing shapes.

Bates Numbering

A sequential numbering system used in legal documents for identification and retrieval.

Bookmark

PDF Bookmark

A navigational element in a PDF outline that links to a specific location within the document.

Color Management (PDF)

PDF Color Management

The use of ICC color profiles and output intents in PDF to ensure consistent color reproduction across devices and print workflows.

Content Stream

PDF Content Stream

A sequence of operators and operands in a PDF that describe the appearance of text, graphics, and images on a page.

Cross-Reference Table

PDF Cross-Reference Table

An internal PDF structure that maps object numbers to their byte offsets, enabling random access to objects.

Digital Signature

PDF Digital Signature

A cryptographic mechanism embedded in a PDF to verify document authenticity and integrity.

Document Catalog

PDF Document Catalog

The root object of a PDF that contains references to the page tree, outlines, and other document-level information.

Encryption

PDF Encryption

Password-based or certificate-based protection that restricts access to PDF content.

Flattening

PDF Flattening

The process of merging interactive elements (forms, annotations) into the static page content of a PDF.

Font Embedding

PDF Font Embedding

Including font data within a PDF file so the document renders correctly regardless of fonts installed on the viewer's system.

Form Field

PDF Form Field

An interactive element in a PDF that allows users to input data, such as text boxes, checkboxes, and dropdowns.

Incremental Save

PDF Incremental Save

A PDF update method that appends changes to the end of the file without rewriting the entire document, preserving digital signatures.

Linearization

PDF Linearization

A PDF optimization technique that enables fast web viewing by reorganizing the file for incremental loading.

OCR

Optical Character Recognition

Technology that converts images of text into machine-readable text data.

Page Tree

PDF Page Tree

A hierarchical structure in PDF that organizes pages, allowing efficient access to any page in the document.

PDF

Portable Document Format

A file format developed by Adobe that preserves document formatting across platforms and devices.

PDF/A

PDF for Archiving

An ISO-standardized subset of PDF designed for long-term digital preservation of documents.

PDF/E

PDF for Engineering

A PDF standard (ISO 24517) optimized for engineering workflows, supporting 3D artwork, geospatial data, and interactive content.

PDF Layers

PDF Optional Content Groups

Named visibility layers in a PDF that allow content to be shown or hidden, used in CAD drawings and multilingual documents.

PDF Optimizer

PDF File Optimizer

A tool that reduces PDF file size by compressing images, removing unused objects, and optimizing the document structure.

PDF Portfolio

PDF Portfolio Package

A PDF container that bundles multiple files of different formats into a single organized PDF document.

PDF Redaction

PDF Content Redaction

The permanent removal of sensitive text or images from a PDF, replacing content with black boxes and removing underlying data.

PDF Signature

Digital PDF Signature

A cryptographic signature embedded in a PDF that verifies the signer's identity and ensures the document hasn't been altered.

PDF/UA

PDF/Universal Accessibility

An ISO standard (14289) ensuring PDF documents are accessible to people using assistive technology like screen readers.

PDF/VT

PDF for Variable and Transactional Printing

A PDF standard (ISO 16612-2) optimized for high-volume variable-data printing like personalized marketing and invoices.

PDF/X

PDF for Exchange

An ISO standard subset of PDF designed for reliable prepress graphics exchange in printing.

Redaction

PDF Redaction

The permanent removal of sensitive content from a PDF, replacing it with black bars or blank space.

Tagged PDF

A PDF with structural tags that define reading order and content hierarchy for accessibility.

Watermark

Document Watermark

A visible or invisible mark embedded in a document to indicate ownership, status, or confidentiality.

XFA

XML Forms Architecture

A legacy Adobe XML-based form technology in PDF that supports dynamic layouts and rich form logic, deprecated in PDF 2.0.