Adobe launched PDF (Portable Document Format) in June 1993, with
Acrobat Reader (free, to read PDF documents) and Adobe Acrobat (for a
fee, to create PDF documents). As the "veteran" format, PDF was
perfected over the years as a global standard for distribution and
viewing of information. It "lets you capture and view robust
information from any application, on any computer system and share it
with anyone around the world. Individuals, businesses, and government
agencies everywhere trust and rely on Adobe PDF to communicate their
ideas and vision" (excerpt from the website). Adobe Acrobat gave the
tools to create and view PDF files, for a number of languages and
platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux). Acrobat Reader was available for PDAs,
beginning with the Palm Pilot (May 2001) and the Pocket PC (December
2001). Between 1993 and 2003, over 500 million copies of Acrobat Reader
were downloaded worldwide. In 2003, Acrobat Reader was available in
many languages and for many platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux, Palm OS,
Pocket PC, Symbian OS, etc.), and approximately 10% of the documents on
the internet were available in PDF.