Does anybody agree with me when i say that the PDF thing is a REALLY REALLY stupid format? I mean, it’s like making a bunch of text into an image, magnifying it’s file size like 300 times. And if you want images and text and lines and stuff, just use a flipping html or something. And you can’t even copy and paste stuff out of it. It has to be the stupest thing i’ve ever seen invented. Why would ANYBODY EVER USE IT?!
Pooba
I worked in a newspaper and they use it a lot because of it saves print quality post script format that you can send to a printer or another newspaper. You’re right, for the average person, its uses are limited.
As for companies it is an advantage that copy/paste is disabled. It makes for a document that cannot be altered by the average computer user.
As for consumers I’d say that it also has its advantages in that it is so easy to print a copy of it that looks good and doesn’t need to be formatted.
It is short for Printable Document Format, after all. 
Well, considering that it’s supposed to be good for printing stuff, it’s not that stupid. But, for average user it’s not very usable, I agree on that.
it’s it short for portable document format?
Hm, I think there are more stupid formats around.
Some of the advantages are already mentioned.
The file size depends on the Destiller settings and these on the use (high quality print, online publishing etc.)
For important documents it is an advantage that you can’t easyly alter the document and that you can’t copy/paste.
Something like the Dave Williams thing is hard to achieve with PDF documents but it would be easy with html documents (scientific papers, business reports etc.)
You don’t have to care about browser compatibility and printer compatibility. Your layout will always look the same.
You have a full searchabel document, you can index it and have a register, linking between different pages or other documents is possible.
etc.
All this would be hard to achieve with html or an other format.
I’d wish more blender tuts would be in PDF format, because doing a tut online while blendering is a bit annoying (only have 1 monitor) and printing web pages often is crap.
BTW, this is my monkey post.
Congrats.
Well, for myself, I use PDF format a lot for sending quotes to customers, emailing drawings to customers that do not have AutoCAD, or another CADprogram to open the files.
For b usiness, it is a great format. For everyday, everybody use, it is a definite pain in the ass.
BgDM
While it can be a pain, I find it very useful to do a web capture of tutorials and turn them into PDFs that I can then print out and have sitting beside my computer. But then again, you can’t really call me an average user either.
And it does stand for Portable Document Format, not printable.
it’s a strange format I agree, but you can copy paste from it by clicking the big T button in acrobat (I was shocked when I heard that). no image copying tho…
Roel
Someone may have already said it, but the big advantage of PDF is that it is cross-platform, and what you see is what print. This is why it so much more useful if you are delivering e-books or scentific papers etc. because everybody can see them with a 3rd-party PostScript viewer or Acrobat Viewer. Also, authors can set controls about what can be done with the document and put in bookmarks for chapters.
A marvellous idea, that anybody with a computer can see the same document the same way.
Pity that the official Acrobat Creator is so expensive though…
Hey, Goofster, the newest version of Acrobat Reader allows image copying already! (or maybe it’s just a “good bug”? 
)
YOU think it’s annoying! At school I can’t even access PDF’s exep through the google ‘view as html’ thing!
Yeah, I’m a little late on this, but PDF really is designed for layout and printing. It also has some nice portable features like embedded fonts which are great for foreign scripts (Arabic, Hebrew, Elvish … ). And in my experience, they’re generally a lot smaller than their Postscript counterparts.
And, you don’t even need Adobe’s software to make them (did anyone say GS/LATEX?)
Oh crap, you’re right!! I was so sure when I typed that I ‘knew’ it I didn’t even question. Perhaps I could pay a bit much more attention in the future. 
well i know my dad uses pdf format to attach a neverremovable © copyright symbol to his documents etc. Then he can safely e-mail his work not having to be afraid of someone stealing his ideas.