ODT and PDF are file formats commonly used with text documents. While ODT is associated with Sun Microsystems’s Open Office / Star Office, PDF is associated with Adobe System Incorporated’s Acrobat / Adobe reader.

ODT or Open Document Text Document is an XML (eXtensible hypertext Markup Language) format for open sourced text documents. It was developed by OASIS as a part of the Open Document 1.0 specification and is widely in place of the DOC format. ODT was made keeping industrial standards in mind. PDF or Portable Document Format is the format created in 1993 by Adobe Systems. Files are usually converted from other formats to PDF and are used for viewing on multiple computers. They have the extension PDF. It is primarily used to facilitate document exchange and represent documents with data in the form of text, images and vector graphics.

Open Text Documents can be opened in all Open Office compatible applications which include Neo Office, Abi Word and KWord. Other programs which support this format are Microsoft Word 2010, Corel Word Perfect Office X5, etc. Adobe Acrobat is used for creating and editing PDF documents. Adobe Reader, Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Illustrator and Adobe InDesign are the primary programs associated with them. Some of the other programs which can open PDF are Inkscape, Corel Word Perfect Office X5, Foxit Reader, etc. PDF can also be viewed on the web with the help of the Acrobat plug-in.

Both formats are similar in nature. The primary difference between them is that PDF is more commonly used as a medium for data presentation rather than data storage. On the other hand, ODT is usually used only for storing data. PDF is more popular and widely used than ODT.