An unsung hero of Innovation – the PDF

Innovation is a word we hear a lot these days. A word we all hear too much and most often undeserved in its use. When you hear the word Innovation, there are some usual suspects that come to mind – iPhone, iPad, Facebook, Twitter, FourSquare, even the Internet itself. But I’ll bet there’s one innovation that you use everyday that you never think twice about – the PDF.

I was recently working in an office where the culture was really old school. Every document that was made, every version that was revised, was printed for review. I was astounded by the sheer volume of paper that was being printed, just to be thrown away. It was so tremendously wasteful that for the first time in a long time I had to stop and consider how much office environments have changed, and the things that made the change possible.

While I certainly can’t speak for how most office environments work, I can speak to what I’m used to. Throughout my career, I have been in increasingly paperless environments where documents are emailed, posted online for review and shown on projectors or screens for group reviews. It was something that evolved over time, something I never took notice until I was in an office environment where time had apparently stood still.

As I thought about the things that I was used to doing in a more paperless office, it made me think about the PDF and how much it has changed the way I work, and I would wager the way a lot of people work…and live.

What you see is what you get

As a designer, one of the biggest problems I used to face was presenting documents. There was no way to send a Quark file to a client to review, or an Illustrator file, or Photoshop file. Things had to be printed and mounted, resulting in a huge waste of materials, time and energy.

The fact that now I can literally just save any file that I am working on in an instant, from any program, that will look exactly how I intend it to look, had become lost on me. I can’t seem to recall the first time I did it, but I can barely remember life before it. This evolution is so fundamental and significant that in and of itself it makes the PDF a hero. But wait, there’s more…

Remember all those instruction manuals?

When you used to buy a computer, or software, and the volume of instruction manuals that came with it? I used to have shelves of these books that were out of date within months (or even weeks) of receiving them.

Now when you buy nearly any piece of hardware, electronics or software, the manual is provided online. If you lose it, just download another one. It will always be the latest version.

Now this is really just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the volume of documents, brochures, instructions, forms and more that we now routinely use PDFs for. Just think how many times a day you use a PDF – A health insurance form, an application, work documents, news articles, marketing brochures, etc. – and you’ll start to appreciate your friend the PDF.

A better brochure

Beyond just making these documents electronic, the PDF is also incredibly interactive and collaborative. Advanced PDFs can be as interactive as web sites with links, rollovers and embedded media. PDFs also contain the ability for commenting and markup that is incredibly sophisticated.

It’s good and good for you

If I were a more diligent man I would find some statistics or do some research to demonstrate the impact of the PDF of the environment. But I’m not. Luckily, I think a little common sense can illustrate what I’m trying to say.

So as my mind was considering how much paper is saved by the PDF, I also started to consider the other implications. If we’re printing less brochures, forms and documents, that means we’re using less electricity, less harmful inks and chemicals in industrial presses and even in office printers. While my mind can envision how this exponentially adds up, I would love to know any kind of statistics on the real impact to the environment. So, if you’re reading this and you’re a smarty, send along some facts.

Where’s the love?

The PDF is a workhorse of innovation, so why is it something that seems to be so taken for granted? I feel like the more I think about it the more I could write about great things it does and ways it has created fundamental shifts in the way we work and live.

Is it not shiny like an iPhone? It doesn’t have cute animal illustrations like Twitter? Maybe because it just always seems to work and be there when we need it?

You may be thinking, “but the internet is also what makes most of this possible too”. And yes, you are right. But I think the internet certainly gets the praise it deserves. But someone has to love the PDF.

Whatever the reason, I’m clearly guilty of ignoring it too. It was only when I was in an environment where we weren’t using it did I miss it and gain a real appreciation for it. So this article is both my atonement and shout out to the PDF. Let’s give it some of the recognition it deserves, the PDF is a BFD.