A Note to the Reader: The primary HDF5 user documents are the online HTML documents distributed with the HDF5 code and binaries and found on the HDF5 website. Several users have expressed a desire for documents in an alternative format:

• Some have requested a version that can be reasonably printed in a single print operation.
• Others have requested an easily searchable version.

This PDF file has been created expressly to meet these needs.

The reader will note that each section of this document looks very much as the corresponding HTML page would look in a web browser. That is not accidental as the HTML version remains the HDF5 development team's primary documentation vehicle.