Browse all MIME types

application/pdf

PDF keeps layout stable across platforms, which is why teams reach for it when contracts, reports, and print-ready assets cannot shift in transit.

application
Usually already encoded

Content-Type header

Content-Type: application/pdf
Common extensions
.pdf

How teams usually encounter it

This page maps the media type to the file extensions and delivery behaviors developers usually care about: browser parsing, upload validation, cache correctness, and asset handling.

Compression signal

application/pdf is usually already compressed or stored in a binary-heavy format, so extra transfer compression tends to help less.

Server config snippets

Use these when a server is missing the right extension-to-MIME mapping or you want the expected header to survive a proxy, CDN, or custom asset bucket setup.

Nginx
types {
  application/pdf pdf;
}
Apache
AddType application/pdf .pdf

Magic bytes / file signature

When you need to validate uploads or investigate a mislabeled file, the signature often starts with 25 50 44 46.

Operational shortcut

If a browser downloads this asset instead of rendering it correctly, check the response header first, then verify the extension mapping on your origin and edge cache. .pdf is the fastest sanity check for teammates reviewing the file outside the app.

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