The American company Amazon is a recognized powerhouse when it comes to all things related to books. Their proprietary eBook readers dubbed the Kindle which was first released in 2007 is a testament to this. The .azw file format is the filename extension associated with eBooks designed to be read on Amazon's proprietary Kindle device and through their free but closed source Kindle software for smartphones, PCs, and Macs. The format is incompatible with any device other than kindle and its associated software. In order to open files saved in this format on non-kindle devices, one would have to convert the file to another format such as the open ePub format or PDF. Some converters can also convert other formats into .azw files which can later be opened on a kindle device or application.
The .pdf file format extension was developed by Adobe systems in 1993 as a means of presenting documents in a consistent manner across different platforms, hardware, operating systems, and applications. The format was not released as an open source document format until 2008, though minimal proprietary technologies still controlled by Adobe Systems exist in the format. Every .pdf document carries with it the necessary meta information required to properly reconstruct the text, fonts, and graphics used to produce the document. This ensures that documents will be viewed in exactly the same way the author intended regardless of the device used to open the document. From conception to date, Adobe Systems has continued to support the format adding features with every iteration of the standard including hardened algorithms for document encryption and privacy. Today, many freely available readers exist allowing you to open and view .pdf documents and create or convert other file formats such as .jpeg and .doc into .pdf documents.