Soft copy

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A soft copy is essentially the unprinted digital document file. It can usually be viewed through a word processing program. It can be transported from one computer to another through email. Keeping a digital copy of a document can allow easy editing of it later on. See hard copy for information about printed documents.

There are many advantages of using soft-copies of work over traditional printed documents. The clear advantage is that there is no need for the resources such as paper or ink. Multiple copies of the same document can be keep in different 'versions', allowing the user to easily backtrack to an earlier version.

Distinctions are now being made between electronic hard copies that are not editable, such as an Adobe .pdf file and true "soft" copys in Word or Excel that can be edited.