几乎所有的软件都有一种特定的格式，在创建新文档或文件时，它会自动默认使用这种格式，但有时所选择的格式在直觉上似乎没有意义。有鉴于此，今天的超级用户问答帖子回答了一位好奇读者的问题。

今天的问答环节是由SuperUser提供的，SuperUser是Stack Exchange的一个分支，是一个由社区驱动的问答网站分组。

问题

超级用户读者vico想知道为什么扫描仪使用PDF作为默认保存格式：

A lot of scanning software has PDF set as the default format for newly created documents. Why is this?

As I understand it, scanned documents are pixel based pictures like those in cameras. I am unaware of any cameras that store pictures using the PDF format.

What does the PDF format bring to the table such that it is often set as the default?

为什么扫描仪使用PDF作为默认格式？

答案

超级用户贡献者Atzmon为我们提供了答案：

There are several advantages to PDF files versus JPG or other graphic formats:

• Self contained; you can OCR the text and keep the searchable text with the original bitmap (which is something most scanners can try to do automatically as part of the scan process)
• Securable at the file level itself without using additional tools or relying on operating system specific features
• Cannot be altered without leaving digital footprints
• Can include metadata, which helps with filing and searching
• Compressible with good control over the compression type and level
• Supports multiple pages

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图片来源：NPS图书管理员（Flickr）