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Creating a PDF can involve compressing a file, making it take up less storage space. They can be viewed on almost all devices. PDF files aren’t typically created from scratch, but are usually converted, saved or ‘printed’ from other documents or images before sharing, publishing online or storing. It is maintained by the International Organisation for Standardization (ISO). The PDF format is now a standard open format that isn’t just available under Adobe Acrobat. The format has evolved to allow for editing and interactive elements like electronic signatures or buttons. It was developed by Adobe so people could share documents regardless of which device, operating system, or software they were using, while preserving the content and formatting. PDF stands for ‘Portable Document Format’ file. This compression can affect quality, but this loss of quality isn’t noticeable to most users. JPG is a ‘lossy’ format, meaning that it is compressed to save storage space and make it easier to share. JPEG stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group, which is the name of the committee that standardised the format. However, you can usually adjust settings to save into other formats if needed.
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Many cameras, smartphones, and basic photo or drawing programs will automatically save into JPG format. JPGs are 2D pixel-based ‘raster’ images, which makes them better for photographs or scans, rather than digital illustrations which are often better as ‘vector’ images. JPG is a universal format which can be opened by almost all image-viewing or -editing programs, by web browsers, and by certain other apps, and they’re supported by most devices. JPG, or JPEG, is one of the most widely used digital image formats.
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