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PDF at a glance
Adobe introduced PDF in the early 1990s as part of the Acrobat family. Adobe later handed the specification to ISO, and PDF 1.7 became ISO 32000-1 in 2008.
XPM at a glance
XPM
Before today's relatively small set of mainstream consumer image formats dominated everyday use, desktop software, workstations, GUI systems, and early graphics tools produced many specialized raster formats with local importance.
Format comparison
| Feature | PDF | XPM |
|---|---|---|
| File type | Document | Image |
| Extensions |
|
|
| MIME type |
|
|
| Created year | 1993 | 1989 |
| Inventor | Adobe | Daniel Dardailler, Colas Nahaboo (Groupe Bull) |
| Status | active | legacy |
| Primary use cases |
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|
| Vector scaling | Supported | Not supported |
When to use each format
When to use PDF
- Your source file is already in PDF.
- Preserve source expectations before exporting to XPM.
- PDF is commonly used in document workflows.
When to use XPM
- Your target workflow expects XPM.
- Improve delivery compatibility with XPM.
- XPM is commonly used in image workflows.
FAQs
Why convert PDF to XPM?
Convert to XPM when maintaining or restoring X11-era icon assets or other historical Unix interface graphics.
It is useful where text-based icon compatibility matters more than modern compression.
What changes when converting PDF to XPM?
This conversion changes how the format behaves in downstream tools and delivery environments.
Moving to XPM removes vector scaling.
What should I review after converting PDF to XPM?
Validate output quality on representative files and confirm the target format behaves correctly in the destination workflow.
Format resources
Related conversions
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Need more PDF tools? Check out PDFHQ.io.
Explore specialized PDF workflows on PDFHQ.