Common PDF format

[Steve Tucknott <stevetucknott yahoo co uk>]

I am running Linux (FC4) and using Evince to view PDF files created by ghostprint's PCL6 and had supposed that PDF was a 'transportable' format that gave the same results irrespective of the viewer, but if I view and print the pdf file in Evince I get different results than when I view/print in Xpdf. I even downloaded Adobe for Linux and tried both that and a MS Windows version. All the viewers gave different results (there was even a difference between the Adobe Windows/Linux versions).
How can I get a truly portable PDF? I'm ok to just use Evince under Linux, but I must see the same result under Evince as would be seen by Adobe under XP. Why is there a difference in the first place - as the PDF file remains constant?

Any pointers would be appreciated.

Regards,

Steve Tucknott