About Portable Document Format (PDF) and Adobe Acrobat Reader

Some documents on this site are available for viewing in Portable Document Format (PDF). PDF makes it possible to make available documents with formatting that is too complicated for the basic formatting language of the World Wide Web – Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). PDF files can generally display and print much finer detail than HTML documents or the graphics formats generally used on the Web: GIF and JPEG. PDF is especially useful for making documents that have already been produced in print available on the Web.

To view and print PDF files, you must have installed Adobe Acrobat Reader version 3 or above (version 5 is recommended). Adobe Acrobat Reader is a free program from Adobe Systems, Inc. Versions of Acrobat Reader are available for all major computer operating systems. Most web browsers can be configured to automatically launch Acrobat Reader when PDF files are encountered.

Adobe Acrobat Reader is available for download from Adobe's website. To install on your computer, follow the easy instructions included with the Acrobat Reader software. Then, double-click any PDF file to view or print it.