Yahoo to deliver ads through Adobe PDFs

Dating back to the first half of the 1990s, Adobe's PDF -- Portable Document Format -- was initially created to compress memory-intensive PostScript formats down into fixed documents that would ensure all recipients saw the same thing, regardless of what sort of computer they were using -- no broken images, no wonky font issues, no pagination shambles. The PDF has since evolved, adding dynamic forms, edit tracking, bookmarks, sticky notes, links, character recognition, management rights and scores of other obscure features that rarely come up outside of a Kinko's.

Like Adobe's other flagship products -- Photoshop, Illustrator -- Acrobat and the PDF own that market. There are likely a handful of open-source and Linux-based contenders, but the PDF is by far the web's go-to memory-efficient format for anything from one-page forms to thick annual reports.

Creating a PDF, though, doesn't come cheap. Many folks don't realize that the free Acrobat Reader they downloaded won't actually build a PDF and is far less capable than the full Acrobat application. Acrobat 8 retails for around $300 (Acrobat Professional will run you another $150), or you can generate your PDFs through Adobe's website for $10 a month (or $100 yearly).

It'd be great if Yahoo's ad initiative somehow bankrolled online PDF creation, but that ain't gonna happen. What with its market dominance and no serious challengers, Adobe has a sweet thing going, and it's not in its interest to start giving away PDF generation for free.