"What is a 'PDF' file and how do I read it?"

This book is distributed as a PDF ("Portable Document Format") file, a nifty Adobe invention that does a good job of displaying text layout and fonts exactly as the author intended them to look.

To read the book, you will need software such as Adobe Acrobat Reader (version 4 or higher). Most likely, you already have this installed on your computer. If not, visit the Adobe website to download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader software. It's available for all versions of Windows since 3.1, all versions of the Macintosh OS since the 68000 series, Linux, Sun Solaris SPARC, IBM AIX, HP-UX, OS/2 Warp, and (if you have a PDA or pocket computer), the Palm, Pocket PC, and Symbian operating systems.

Be sure to take a few minutes to set up Adobe's "CoolType" feature, especially if you use an LCD display. This can improve the clarity of fonts quite a lot. Select Edit... Preferences... Display from the Adobe Acrobat Reader menu.