In the world of document management, few tools have been as foundational—yet as misunderstood—as Adobe Acrobat Distiller. Once a centerpiece of professional PDF creation, Distiller has become a specialized tool. This write-up explores what Distiller is, how it works, and whether it still matters. The Core Purpose: Conversion, Not Creation Adobe Acrobat Distiller is not for creating PDFs from scratch. Instead, its primary job is conversion . Specifically, it converts PostScript ( .ps ) and Encapsulated PostScript ( .eps ) files into Portable Document Format (PDF) files.