Click the image to enlarge or click here to see the pdf version of the map
With the increasing popularity of personal and desktop computers in general and Internet in particular, digital media has increasingly gained popularity as a mean for transfer documents, and maps are part of this revolution.
Different types of file formats can be used to transfer documents like maps. Due to its visual character, maps are better represented in image file formats like GIF - Graphics Interchange Format, JPEG - Joint Photographic Experts Group format, and PNG - Portable Network Graphics format.(Click HERE for more details)In recent years another file format has become very popular for transferring digital documents, especially in the World Wide Web: the PDF file. PDF stands for Portable Document Format. PDF is a universal file format that preserves the fonts, images, graphics, and layout of any source document, regardless of the application and platform used to create it. PDF files are compact and complete, and can be shared, viewed, and printed by anyone with free Adobe Reader® software or plug-ins.
In ArcGIS, all the image formats mentioned above as well as the pdf format are accessible through the export utility under the file menu. The pdf file of this lesson map was created using this option. You can compare the pdf against the jpg image to see the superior quality of pdf files.