Implementations
PDF-viewing software is generally provided free of charge, and many versions are available from a variety of sources (List of PDF software).
There are many software options for creating PDFs, including the PDF printing capabilities built in to Mac OS X and most Linux distributions, OpenOffice.org, Microsoft Office 2007 (if updated to SP2), WordPerfect 9, Scribus, numerous PDF print drivers for Microsoft Windows, the pdfTeX typesetting system, the DocBook PDF tools, applications developed around Ghostscript and Adobe Acrobat itself as well as Adobe FrameMaker. Google's online office suite Google Docs also allows for uploading, and saving to PDF.
Raster image processors (RIPs) are used to convert PDF files into a raster format suitable for imaging onto paper and other media in printers, digital production presses and prepress in a process known as rasterisation. RIPs capable of processing PDF directly include the Adobe PDF Print Engine from Adobe Systems and Jaws and the Harlequin RIP from Global Graphics.
Read more about this topic: Portable Document Format