I was recently asked the question at the title of this topic by someone who felt a little embarrassed about asking it openly, fearing he'd be ridiculed or something as if he was a clueless n00b. I told him that the only stupid question is the one that you DON'T ask. I answered it to that user, and I copied the answer here for the benefit of others who don't know the answer. (The topic will be locked when I post this, but if you have a burning question, go ahead and unlock it if you feel the need.)
PDF is a file format called Portable Digital Format, developed by Adobe Systems, Inc. It's intended as a single file format that can be viewed on any computer and the file will look the same no matter what configuration or operating system is being used.
If I sent you a Microsoft Word document or an Excel spreadsheet and you didn't have the same version or fonts or operating system as I do (and sometimes even if you do), it may not look the same on my computer and on your computer, particularly if there's any complex formatting on it. If your version of Word or Excel was too old and I used the newest version with the newest file format for making a .docx file or an .xlsx file, you might not even be able to open the document.
But if I convert the file to a .pdf format before sending it to you, you could read it on any computer, and you'd need only a PDF reader program. Mac computers come with Preview, which is capable of reading most PDF files, and most popular operating systems have a version of the free program Adobe Reader available for download from adobe.com. To create a PDF file, most Windows computers would need additional software - Adobe Acrobat is the most powerful and flexible, but the full version is very costly. Mac computers have a built-in function allowing you to "print" a PDF instead of a paper hard copy using the Print function - instead of sending the command to the printer to print it out, a converter makes a copy of the file in the PDF format, which you can then save or send to anyone, confident that they should be able to see exactly what you see without any hardware or software issues.
I think that covers it pretty well. Any further questions I probably wouldn't be able to answer - check adobe.com to see if your answer is there. Good luck, and may the Force be with you...
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