Portable Document Format
In one sentenceA file format that looks the same on every device. Great for sharing and printing, harder for AI to read cleanly than plain text.
What it means
A PDF locks the layout of a document: fonts, pages, images. Most AI tools can now read PDFs directly, including scanned ones and charts, because they are Multimodal.
Under the hood, a PDF can hold real text (easy to read) or just pictures of text (needs OCR, optical character recognition). Complex layouts like columns and tables can confuse AI.
How to use it
- Upload a PDF and ask for a summary, key numbers, risks or talking points.
- Your LinkedIn profile can be saved as a PDF (More, then Save to PDF): a fast way to give AI your full background.
- For very long or messy PDFs, ask the AI to convert it to Markdown first, check it, then work from that.
In evyAI
The evyAI agent accepts PDFs, so you can attach a LinkedIn profile PDF and ask it to research that person.
Related terms
Still fuzzy? Ask the evyAI agent to explain PDF with examples for your business.
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