Why do people seem to insist on using PDF to scan and sent documents?

I learned long ago that a PDF file uses up mass amounts of memory compared to a JPG file, for example. Also, PDF just reminds me of an electronic Fax….poor reproduction and quality, where as a JPG is a photograph with a much higher quality.

When I was on my own at the jail I always used JPG. After I got sick I got transferred to an outside office, two person office, the other person being my boss, she complained constantly about the computers hanging up. The computer that was assigned to me was used by another teacher who had taken my place at the jail. They’re both really computer illiterate. That computer was so screwed up, it would take literally minutes to open ANYTHING. I got it cleaned up and had no more hanging up issues…unless I messed with a PDF file, so I only got into them when I absolutely HAD to, then I deleted the download immediately.

I didn’t work on Fridays and Judy did. Every Monday morning my computer was hanging up like mad. It would literally take 2 or 3 minutes to open anything. So, as part of my Monday morning procedures, I spent 15 minutes cleaning up the mess, and was good to go until the following Monday. If my boss had known what I was doing, I would have gotten into trouble, but I could NOT do my job under those circumstances.

It got to the point where my boss would say, “Is your computer hanging up?”
Me, “No. No problems at all.”
Boss, “Well, I’m hung up and when Judy works here on Fridays we both have problems but you never do. I don’t understand that.” Trust me…it WAS accusatory!

I just had to bite my lip. I knew from experience that if I suggested using a different format for our downloads and files she would have vetoed it on the grounds of:
1. We have always used PDF.
2. JPG is a picture file (“you idiot” implied) not a document file. We are not sending pictures, we are sending documents (you idiot.)”

So are there any benefits to using PDF that I don’t know about? I know that sometimes you can copy it into Word, and fill questions out on the computer (takes a little doing, though) and you can’t do that with JPG, but if all you’re receiving is a pre-completed file, why not use JPG?