User:Omphalographer/On the matter of PDF uploads

 This page is an essay; it contains the advice and/or opinions of one or more Commons contributors.
It is not a Commons policy or guideline, and editors are not obliged to follow it. Please update the page as needed, or discuss it on the talk page.

This page in a nutshell: Please avoid uploading written content as PDF files.

• PDF files are impractical, verging on impossible, for other users to edit. Wikis are supposed to be a collaborative effort, not just a single user dropping off a finished document.
• The MediaWiki software treats PDF files like images, and only displays the first page in thumbnails and other previews. Reading the full document requires multiple clicks, and the reading experience is not integrated with the wiki.
• Text in PDF files is not accessible to the wiki's search features, and sections of longer documents cannot be linked to. This makes it exceedingly difficult for readers to find relevant content in these files.

That depends on what you're uploading:

An encyclopedia article I've written

Encyclopedia articles belong on your language's Wikipedia.

An essay or instructional piece I've written

That sounds like it might belong on Wikibooks or Wikiversity. Head over there and see if it'd be a fit.

My CV or autobiography

Please don't upload these. Wikimedia is not an appropriate place for these documents.

A picture

Please don't upload images as PDF. Photographic images should be uploaded as a JPEG file; vector graphics should be SVG.

Because, in some cases, there's no viable alternative.

Most legitimate PDF uploads fall into four basic categories:

1. Official government publications which were released in PDF format.
2. Published academic papers which have been released under an open license and are referenced from project wikis.
3. Scans of out-of-copyright books used on Wikisource.
4. Slides for presentations made within the Wikimedia organization, or at its events.