Adobe PDF use in analytical information storage and archiving

The use of Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) in analytical information storage and archiving is discussed. PDF format is open and well documented allowing other software vendors to work with PDF formatted documents without resort to licensing the format from Adobe. A single PDF form contains data entry fields for all the possible information to be captured for all the different types of analyses carried out in a company. This information can be used to control the presentation layer restricting the available fields to those relevant to the actual user. PDF document structure can be explained in a three tier model of a Presentation Layer, a Business Logic Layer, which contains the intelligence and possible interconnectivity information making the PDF document into a flexible configurable expandable object, and finally the XML layer. The Adobe lifecycle suite of products thereby adds substantially more functionality especially around workflow and document security.