An Intelligent Document can be nearly any kind of document — a tax form, a mortgage application, or a government report — that is electronic, familiar, and easy to use. Intelligent Documents retain the best characteristics of paper documents, such as a familiar look and feel, while adding powerful business logic capabilities, such as data validations and routing instructions. These features allow for more efficient interaction with enterprise applications while still providing the ability for people to access and interact with the data when necessary.

Intelligent Documents comprise three components:

Presentation: Provides the familiar look and feel of paper documents and forms to help accelerate user adoption of electronic processes and support compliance requirements.

Business logic: Delivers intelligence that allows authors to manage document access rights and embed business logic — such as calculations and validations — directly into documents.

XML transport and schema: Enables enterprises to capture data in an openstandards format and move it to people and applications based on the rules of the business.

Because they are based on Adobe® Portable Document Format (PDF), Intelligent Documents include these additional components:

Security features: With support for electronic signatures and document control, enterprises can better protect document authenticity, integrity, and confidentiality. Security features are tied to the document, so they provide enhanced security even when the document moves outside of a controlled network.

Archiving capability: Ideally suited for archiving purposes, Intelligent Documents can lock down content to create auditable documents of record — especially important for government agencies and highly regulated industries.