Portable Application Description (PAD) is an XML file format promulgated by the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP), an international software industry group based in the US.
The PAD format defines information about each software title such as the title and author, price and description, screenshot, information link, buy link and download link. The PAD standard is supported by more than two hundred software download sites, making it far easier to submit and update information automatically.
The ASP provides free PADGEN software for Windows to generate your own PAD files. For Mac users, see PADMaker for Mac.
Once generated, these files can be submitted to a number of download sites using a variety of tools.
PAD can be extended, such as with the PADGEN Affiliates Extension.