Portable Document Format (PDF) is a flexible, cross-platform, cross-application file format. Based on the PostScript imaging model, PDF files accurately display and preserve fonts, page layouts, and both vector and bitmap graphics. In addition, PDF files can contain electronic document search and navigation features such as electronic links. PDF supports 16‑bits-per-channel images. Adobe Acrobat also has a Touch Up Object tool for minor editing of images in a PDF. For more information about working with images in PDFs, see Acrobat Help.

Photoshop recognizes two types of PDF files: Photoshop PDF files and generic PDF files. You can open both types of PDF files. When you save PDF files, Photoshop saves them as Photoshop PDF files by default. Deselect Preserve Photoshop Editing Capabilities in the General section of the Save PDF dialog box to save a generic PDF file.

Photoshop PDF files

Created using the Photoshop Save As command with Preserve Photoshop Editing Capabilities selected in the General section of the Save PDF dialog box. Photoshop PDF files can contain only a single image.

Photoshop PDF format supports all of the color modes (except Multichannel mode) and features that are supported in standard Photoshop format. Photoshop PDF also supports JPEG and ZIP compression, except for Bitmap-mode images, which use CCITT Group 4 compression.

Generic PDF files

Created using the Photoshop Save As command, with Preserve Photoshop Editing Capabilities deselected in the General section of the Save PDF dialog box, by creating a PDF presentation in Photoshop, or by using applications other than Photoshop, such as Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Illustrator. They can contain multiple pages and images. When you open a generic PDF file, Photoshop rasterizes the image.