PDF

Abbreviation with 2 meanings

PDF
Stands forPortable Document Format
Meanings2
CategoriesTechnology & Computing, Units & Measurements

PDF has two meanings. It stands for Portable Document Format (file format) or Probability density function (statistics).

Meanings of PDF at a glance

#PDF stands forContext
1Portable Document FormatTechnology & Computing › File Format
2Probability density functionUnits & Measurements › Statistics

1. Portable Document Format

Technology & Computing · File Format Abbreviations

Document format that preserves text, fonts, images, layout and vector graphics exactly, so a file looks the same on any device, operating system or printer. It is the standard for forms, contracts, invoices, manuals, academic papers and print-ready files.

Example: Please sign the lease and email it back as a PDF.

Adobe co-founder John Warnock outlined the idea in his 1991 "Camelot" project, and Adobe released PDF with Acrobat 1.0 in 1993. It became an open international standard, ISO 32000-1, in 2008, and PDF 2.0 followed as ISO 32000-2. PDFs can include fillable forms, digital signatures, encryption and even JavaScript, which attackers sometimes abuse. Specialized subsets include PDF/A for archiving, PDF/X for printing and PDF/UA for accessibility.

2. Probability density function

Units & Measurements · Statistics Abbreviations

A function describing the relative likelihood of a continuous random variable taking values near a point; probabilities are areas under its curve. The bell-shaped normal curve is the best-known PDF.

Example: The PDF of the standard normal distribution peaks at about 0.399 at x = 0.

Density values can exceed 1, since only the total area must equal 1. Discrete variables use a probability mass function instead. In Excel, NORM.DIST(x, mean, sd, FALSE) returns the PDF and TRUE the CDF. Outside statistics, PDF almost always means the Portable Document Format.

More file format abbreviations

  • ODS – OpenDocument Spreadsheet
  • ODT – OpenDocument Text
  • OGG – Ogg (container format)
  • OTF – OpenType Font
  • PDF/A – Portable Document Format for Archiving
  • PKG – Package installer file
  • PNG – Portable Network Graphics
  • PPT – Microsoft PowerPoint presentation (legacy binary format)

See all 125 file format abbreviations →

More statistics abbreviations

  • OLS – Ordinary least squares
  • OR – Odds ratio
  • p – p-value
  • PCA – Principal component analysis
  • PI – Prediction interval
  • PMF – Probability mass function
  • PPV – Positive predictive value
  • Q1 – First quartile

See all 88 statistics abbreviations →

Edited by the AbbreviationList.com team. Spotted an error or a missing meaning? Contact us.