From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Adobe Acrobat
Adobe Acrobat
Adobe Acrobat
History
Since the early 1990s, the Acrobat product has had sever-
al competitors, some of which used their own document
formats, such as:
• AnyView from Binar Graphics
• Common Ground from No Hands Software
• Envoy from WordPerfect Corporation
• Folio from NextPage
• Replica from Farallon Computing
• WorldView from Interleaf
• DjVu from AT&T Laboratories/DjVu
Project/LizardTech/Varolmak/Caminova
By the late 1990s PDF had become the de facto standard,
and the others had become largely historical footnotes.
This in turn has led to many more competitors for Adobe
Acrobat, providing both free and commercial programs
Screenshot of Adobe Reader X running on Windows 7
that create or manipulate PDF, such as Ghostscript, Foxit,
Developer(s) Adobe Systems Nitro PDF and Nuance Communications. Adobe also al-
lows Acrobat plug-ins to be developed by third parties,
Stable release 10.1.2 (January 10, 2012 (2012-01-10)) [±]
which can add extra functions within the Acrobat pro-
Operating system Microsoft Windows gram.
Mac OS X
GNU/Linux Product names
Android
iOS
BlackBerry Tablet OS
Size • 51.29 MB[1]
• 465.1 MB[2]
Type Desktop publishing software
License Proprietary
• Commercial software
• Freeware
Website • www.adobe.com/acrobat
• get.adobe.com/reader
Adobe Acrobat is a family of application software devel-
oped by Adobe Systems to view, create, manipulate, print
and manage files in Portable Document Format (PDF).[3]
All members of the family, except Adobe Reader (former-
ly Acrobat Reader), are commercial software, while the
latter is available as freeware and can be downloaded
from Adobe’s web site. Adobe Reader enables users to Adobe Reader X computer icon
view and print PDF files but has negligible PDF creation
capabilities.[4] Acrobat and Reader are widely used as a Adobe has changed the names of the products in the
way to present information with a fixed layout similar to Acrobat family regularly, also splitting-up, joining, or
a paper publication. discontinuing products. Initially, the name "Acrobat"
was used as the parent name to a suite of products which
included Acrobat Reader, Acrobat Exchange and Acrobat
1
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Adobe Acrobat
Distiller. Over time Acrobat Reader became Adobe Read- • Acrobat Distiller 1.0, a software application that
er; and, Acrobat Exchange was simplified to Acrobat. creates a PDF file from a PostScript source
Between version 3 and 5, Standard and Professional ver-
sions were one product simply called Adobe Acrobat. Version 2.0
As of December 2010, the current main members of Acrobat 2.0 was first released in September 1994 for Win-
the Adobe Acrobat family are:[5] dows and Macintosh. It included:
• Adobe Reader X (10.0.0) • Support for PDF version 1.1
• Adobe Acrobat X (10.0.0) • Acrobat Exchange 2.0
• Adobe Acrobat X Standard • Acrobat Catalog, which creates searchable indexes
• Adobe Acrobat X Pro for PDF files. Searching required a special version of
• Adobe Acrobat X Suite Acrobat Reader or Acrobat Exchange.
• Acrobat.com Acrobat Professional 2.0 was also released, which includ-
ed Acrobat Exchange plus Distiller.
Adobe also released the first Acrobat Plug-ins SDK; al-
lowing third party developers to create plug-ins for the
Acrobat Exchange application.
Version 3.0
Acrobat 3.0 was released in November 1996. It was the
first release to support Windows 95, and the last to sup-
port Windows 3.1. It was also the first version to display
PDF files inside web browsers, and the first to support
form-filling. Later, an update to version 3.02 introduced
extended forms capabilities and JavaScript. Adobe Acro-
bat 3.0 included:
• Support for PDF version 1.2
• A free Reader that allows searching (It was not part
of the default download)
• Acrobat Catalog
• A Distiller printer driver.
The computer icon for PDF files Version 4.0
Acrobat 4.0 was released in April 1999. It included:
Unlike most other Adobe products, such as members • Support for PDF version 1.3
of Adobe Creative Suite, members of Adobe Acrobat fam- • Support for Public key infrastructure (PKI) and
ily do not have icons that display two letters on a colored digital signatures via plug-ins
rectangular shape. Adobe also released Distiller Server 4.0, a version of Dis-
tiller for Windows, Linux and Solaris that is licensed to
Product history multiple users, as well as Acrobat Business Tools 4.0, a limit-
ed version of Acrobat.
Version 1.0
Version 5.0
Acrobat 1.0 was originally released on 15 June 1993 for
Macintosh. It was later for DOS and Windows 3.1. This Acrobat 5.0 was released in May 2001. It included support
was not available in single copies and was not initially for PDF version 1.4 and was the last version to support
free, with Acrobat Reader originally priced at $50 per Windows 95. Acrobat 5.0.5 was the first to be able to run
user.[6] After a while, the Internal Revenue Service of the native in Mac OS X, but also ran in Mac OS 9.
United States purchased a right to distribute Reader 1.0, This version did not include PDFWriter in Macintosh
effectively making it seem free to those who obtained it release.[7]
that way. Acrobat Reader 5.1, the subsequent version of Acro-
Adobe Acrobat 1.0 included: bat reader supported the Adobe LiveCycle Reader Exten-
• Support for PDF version 1.0 sions for forms saving
• Acrobat Exchange 1.0 (included PDFWriter printer Adobe also released Distiller Server 5.0 and Acrobat Ap-
driver and Acrobat Exchange application) proval 5.0, a limited version of Acrobat mainly sold to peo-
2
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Adobe Acrobat
ple who wanted to digitally sign PDF files or save fill-in The Adobe Acrobat 7 family saw multiple changes. Adobe
forms. Acrobat 7 Professional for Windows now included Adobe
LiveCycle Designer 7.0. Adobe Elements 7.0 was also re-
Version 6.0 leased which was still only sold through volume licensing
Acrobat 6.0 was released in July 2003. This version intro- outlet but dropped the minimum licenses limit to 100 li-
duced significant changes to the family of Adobe Acrobat: censes. Finally, another edition of Adobe Acrobat, Acro-
• Adobe Acrobat Standard 6.0 was released. It is a bat 3D, was added to the family.
limited version of Acrobat Professional that includes Adobe Acrobat 3D included all of the functionality of
Distiller but lacks Adobe Catalog, form design Acrobat Professional 7.0 as well as updated support for
features and pre-press support. embedded 3D computer graphics, tools for capturing 3D
• Adobe Acrobat Elements 6.0 was introduced. It content from OpenGL applications, and the Adobe Acro-
enabled PDF creation but was aimed at the corporate bat 3D Toolkit for converting CAD documents to PDF ob-
market and was only volume-licensed for a jects. Also included is a version of the capture tool for in-
minimum of 1000 licenses. It was available for stallation on Unix.
Microsoft Windows only. Acrobat 7 further dropped support for Windows 98
• Acrobat Elements Server 6.0, a server software Second Edition and Windows Me. However, Adobe re-
version of Acrobat Elements, was introduced. leased editions of Adobe Reader for Linux, Solaris (SPARC
• Adobe Acrobat Reader was renamed Adobe Reader. only), HP-UX and IBM AIX.
• Distiller printer driver was renamed Adobe PDF.
• PDFWriter was discontinued. PDFWriter was a Version 8.0
printer driver used to create PDF files. It was
discontinued in favor of the Adobe PDF printer
driver to Distiller.
• A new version of Adobe Catalog was included, which
was not compatible with earlier products for
searching.
• Support for many operating system was dropped.
Mac OS 9 was no longer supported. No version of
Adobe Acrobat for Linux or Unix was released. Adobe
Acrobat Standard did not support Windows 95 and
Windows 98, although it supported Windows 98 SE.
Adobe Acrobat Professional ceased to support
Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows Me.
This version included:
• Support for PDF version 1.5
• Support for PKI (without a plug-in) via Microsoft
CryptoAPI
Adobe Reader 8 running on Windows Vista
• Support "Reader enabling", allowing Adobe Reader
to save, sign or annotate PDF files if the PDF file
Adobe Acrobat 8.0 was released in November 2006:[10] It
allowed
included:
Version 6 of the application was criticized for its per-
• Support for PDF version 1.7
formance. Adobe Acrobat 6 is slow to load and use. The
• Acrobat 8 Elements, which was withdrawn before its
Acrobat 6 plug-ins for web browsers was also criticized
expected release in mid-2007.[11] But it is bundled
for suffering from low performance and potentially ren-
with RoboHelp 7 as a Distiller prompting that the
dering one’s web browser non-responsive.[8]
product had been finished.
• Acrobat Connect (formerly Macromedia Breeze), a
Version 7.0
support application and an online personal meeting
Adobe Acrobat 7.0 was released in January 2005:[9] It was rooms to collaborate in real time for up to 15
the first version to include a mandatory product activa- participants
tion. It included: A later update 8.1 on June 2007 was released in order to
• Support for PDF version 1.6 support Microsoft Office 2007, Windows Vista, and 64-bit
• Support for Adobe Policy Server rights management Windows operating systems.[12] Also in September 2007,
• Support for embed 3D object information from the Adobe Reader 8.1.1 released for Linux and Solaris
.u3d Universal 3D format (SPARC) users.
3
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Adobe Acrobat
Adobe Acrobat 8 family saw a handful of changes. Adobe Acrobat 9 family includes a new member: Adobe
Acrobat 3D was now able to produce embedded PRC file Acrobat 9 Pro Extended for Microsoft Windows. This
format, a highly compressed format for geometry and product includes Adobe Presenter as well as the features
graphics which requires Reader 8.1 to display. It also sup- of Acrobat 3D.
ported Product Manufacturing Information and many Adobe Reader 9 drops support for Adobe Reader Ex-
different CAD formats. tensions 5 and 6 which permit Adobe Reader client soft-
Acrobat Connect Professional (formerly Macromedia ware to save changes to filled-in forms in PDFs. Adobe
Breeze) was also added to the family. It allowed scalable Reader Extensions 6.1 and newer are still supported. Le-
interactive web conferencing and multiple personal gacy PDFs will still be viewable, however they will open
meeting rooms for everyone across an enterprise. with the following warning:
The Mac OS X version of Adobe Acrobat Pro saw a “ This document enables Reader capabilities ”
significant favor: Adobe Acrobat for Macintosh was in that are no longer enabled in this Reader ver-
Universal binary and ran on both PPC and Intel. sion.[15]
Version 9.0 Adobe Acrobat 9 family also dropped the multiple doc-
ument interface. Previous versions of Adobe Acrobat
opened multiple PDF files in the same window. Acrobat
9 however, only supports the single document interface
scheme, wherein each PDF file is opened in an instance of
Adobe Acrobat.[16]
Version 10.0
Adobe Acrobat X (version 10.0) was released on Novem-
ber 15, 2010.[17][18] It included sandboxing protection for
Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 and protect-
Adobe Acrobat 9.0 Pro Extended showing the Wikipedia article
for Adobe Acrobat in PDF format under Windows 7 ed mode while dropping support for Windows 2000 as
well as Macs running on PPC.
Adobe Acrobat 9.0 was released in July 2008:[13][14] It in- Adobe Reader X is available for Windows, Mac OS,
cluded: Android and iOS.[19][20][21][22] Support for Linux is not
• Support for PDF version 1.7 planned.[23] The latest version of Adobe Reader X is 10.1.1
• Support for Adobe extensions to PDF 1.7 For Android and IOS :10.1.0, and 10.1.2 for Windows and
• The ability to create Acrobat forms was in Acrobat Mac.[24]
Standard, which was previously only available
Acrobat Professional 6, 7 and 8 Internationalization and local-
• Support for real-time collaboration on PDF files with
synchronized document views and chat ization
• Improved Web Capture for capturing entire web
pages or just some parts into PDF Language availability
• Integration with Acrobat.com to enable storage and Adobe Acrobat is available in the following languages:
sharing of PDF files Arabic, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Czech,
• Support for comparing and highlighting the Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek,
differences between two versions of a PDF document Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegi-
• Support for playback of Flash Video or H.264 video in an, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish,
Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Reader Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian. Arabic, Hebrew and Greek
• Support for conversion of a variety of video formats versions available from WinSoft International,[25] Adobe
to Flash Video for playback inside PDF Systems’ internationalization and localization partner.
• Support for creating PDF maps by importing Adobe Reader is not available in catalan in current ver-
geospatial files that retain metadata and coordinates sions.
• Support for Optical character recognition (OCR) on
PDF files using ClearScan. Adobe ClearScan Specific features for Arabic and Hebrew
technology creates and embeds custom Type1-CID
fonts to match the visual appearance of a scanned
languages
document after optical character recognition. The Arabic and Hebrew versions are specifically devel-
ClearScan uses these newly created custom fonts oped for these specific languages, which are normally
instead of system fonts or Type1-MM. written right-to-left. These versions come with special
4
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Adobe Acrobat
TouchUp properties to handle digits, ligatures option and January 2010 Google/China incident
paragraph direction in right-to-left Middle Eastern
It was reported [32] on January 14, 2010 that an analyst
scripts such as Arabic, Hebrew, and Persian, as well as
identified a vulnerability in Internet Explorer as a tool
standard left-to-right Indian scripts such as Devanagari
used to spy on companies and individuals.
and Gujarati. The Web Capture feature can convert single
"...independent research conducted by security firm
web pages or entire web sites into PDF files, while pre-
McAfee, which has found evidence that a vulnerability in
serving the content’s original text encoding. Acrobat can
Internet Explorer—but not Acrobat Reader—was exploit-
also copy Arabic and Hebrew text to the system clipboard
ed in the attack. iDefense later retracted its claim about
in its original encoding; if the target application also sup-
PDFs, but stands behind the rest of its report."
ports the text encoding, then the text will appear in the
correct script.
Operating systems
Security • Symbian: Adobe Reader LE v2.5 developed by
QuickOffice lets the user view PDF (Adobe Portable
The latest security bulletins from Adobe are published on
Document Format) files on S60 3rd Edition mobile
their Security bulletins and advisories page[26]
devices.[33]
From Version 3.02 onwards, Acrobat Reader (now
• The name "Adobe Reader LE" is also used for
Adobe Reader) has included support for JavaScript. This
officially-supported versions of the reader on other
functionality allows the document creator to include
mobile platforms.[34]
code which executes when the document is read. While
JavaScript is designed without direct access to the file
system to make it "safe", vulnerabilities have been re- See also
ported for abuses such as distributing malicious code
• List of PDF software
through Acrobat.[27] McAfee predicts that Adobe soft-
ware, especially Reader and Flash, will be the primary
target for attacks in 2010.[28] Adobe applications had al- References
ready become the most popular client-software targets [1] "Adobe – Adobe Reader download – All versions".
for attackers during the last quarter of 2009.[29] adobe.com. Adobe Systems. http://get.adobe.com/
reader/. Retrieved 2010-11-27.
September 2006 warning [2] Acrobat X Pro. Adobe (2009-07-14). Retrieved on
On September 13, 2006, David Kierznowski provided sam- 2011-03-11.
ple PDF files illustrating these vulnerabilities. Since at [3] "Adobe Acrobat family". 2008.
least version 6, JavaScript can be disabled using the pref- http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/.
erences menu and embedded URLs that are launched are Retrieved 2008-01-19.
intercepted by a security warning dialog box to either al- [4] "Adobe Reader". 2008. http://www.adobe.com/
low or block the website from launching.[30] products/reader/. Retrieved 2008-01-19.
[5] Adobe Acrobat X Standard | FAQ. Adobe.com
February 2009 warning (2009-07-14). Retrieved on 2011-03-11.
On February 19, 2009, Adobe released a Security Bulletin [6] "Driving Adobe: Co-founder Charles Geschke on
announcing Javascript vulnerabilities. US-CERT recom- Challenges, Change and Values".
mended users change two default preferences in the pro- Knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu.
gram:[31] http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/
• Disable JavaScript in Adobe Reader and Acrobat. article.cfm?articleid=2038. Retrieved 2010-12-04.
Acrobat JavaScript can be disabled in the General [7] Adobe Systems Inc., Help file for Acrobat 5.0 wrote
preferences dialog (Edit, Preferences, JavaScript, and "Note: PDFWriter is a custom install option and is
un-check "Enable Acrobat JavaScript"). supported for Windows only".
• Disable the displaying of PDF documents in the web [8] Sherman, Chris (10 January 2005). "Speeding Up
browser. This can be disabled in the General Acrobat Reader". SearchEngineWatch.com. Incisive
preferences dialog (Edit, Preferences, Internet, and Interactive Marketing LLC.
un-check "Display PDF in browser"). http://searchenginewatch.com/3456481. Retrieved
For users of Internet Explorer, US-CERT recommended 11 February 2011.
changing an additional default behavior:[31] [9] "Press Room". Adobe Systems. January 2005.
• Prevent Internet Explorer from automatically http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/
opening PDF documents (by editing a registry key in pressreleases/200501/010505Acrobat.html.
Microsoft Windows). Retrieved 4 December 2010.
5
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Adobe Acrobat
[10] "Press Room". Adobe Systems. September 2006. [25] "Adobe Acrobat Professional software –
http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/ Communicate and collaborate with the essential
pressreleases/200609/091806Acrobat.html. PDF solution, enhanced features for Central and
Retrieved 4 December 2010. East European and Middle Eastern users". Winsoft-
[11] Adobe – Acrobat 7 Elements : FAQ international.com. http://www.winsoft-
[12] "View Document". Adobe Support. Adobe Systems. international.com/en/products/adobe-
14 July 2009. http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/ acrobat-9-pro.html. Retrieved 2010-12-04.
documentLink.do?externalID=kb401730. Retrieved [26] [2]
4 December 2010. [27] Brockmeier, Joe (2005-03-30). "Unexpected
[13] "Press Room". Adobe Systems. 14 July 2009. features in Acrobat 7". LWN.net. http://lwn.net/
http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/ Articles/129729/. Retrieved 2009-02-20.
pressreleases/200805/060208AdobeAcrobat9.html. [28] "2010 Threat Predictions". McAfee Labs. December
Retrieved 4 December 2010. 2009. p. 2. http://mcafee.com/us/local_content/
[14] "Acrobat family: Product comparison". Adobe reports/7985rpt_labs_threat-
Systems. 14 July 2009. http://www.adobe.com/ predict_0110_fnl_lores.pdf. Retrieved 2010-05-09.
products/acrobat/matrix.html. Retrieved 4 [29] "McAfee Threats Report: Fourth Quarter 2009".
December 2010. McAfee Avert Labs. February 2010. p. 16.
[15] Adobe LiveCycle Reader Extensions ES Update 1 http://mcafee.com/us/local_content/reports/
Upgrade Center, see ’Previous generations’ tab for threats_2009Q4_final.pdf. Retrieved 2010-05-09.
information on the missing support [1] [30] Naraine, Ryan (2006-09-15). "Hacker Discovers
[16] "MDI vs. SDI in Acrobat – Shredding The Adobe PDF Back Doors". eWeek. Ziff Davis
Document". Adobe Systems. 11 September 2008. Enterprise Holdings Inc. http://www.eweek.com/
http://blogs.adobe.com/acrobat/2008/09/ article2/0,1895,2016606,00.asp. Retrieved
mdi_vs_sdi_in_acrobat.html. Retrieved 16 June 2011-08-05. "David Kierznowski, a penetration
2010. testing expert specializing in Web application
[17] "Announcing Adobe Reader X". Adobe Reader Blog. testing, has released proof-of-concept code and
Adobe Systems. 18 October 2010. rigged PDF files to demonstrate how the Adobe
http://blogs.adobe.com/adobereader/2010/10/ Reader program could be used to launch attacks
announcing-adobe-reader-x.html. Retrieved 5 without any user action."
December 2010. [31] ^ "Vulnerability Note VU#905281". US-CERT.
[18] "Acrobat X and Adobe Reader X Release Notes". 2009-02-20. http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/
Adobe Support. Adobe Systems. 905281. Retrieved 2009-02-20.
http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/837/cpsid_83708/ [32] Paul, Ryan (2010-01-14). "Researchers identify
attachments/Acrobat_Reader_ReleaseNote_X.pdf. command servers behind Google attack".
Retrieved 17 November 2010. Arstechnica.com. http://arstechnica.com/
[19] "Adobe Reader Download - All Versions". Adobe. security/news/2010/01/researchers-identify-
http://get.adobe.com/reader/otherversions/. command-servers-behind-google-attack.ars.
Retrieved 30 April 2011. Retrieved 2010-12-04.
[20] "Now Available: Adobe Reader X for Android". [33] "Reader: Adobe Reader for Symbian OS". Adobe
Adobe. http://blogs.adobe.com/readermobile/ Systems. http://www.adobe.com/products/
2010/11/18/introducing-adobe-reader-x-for- acrobat/readerforsymbian.html. Retrieved
android/. Retrieved 30 April 2011. 2010-09-01.
[21] "Adobe Reader X Tech specs". Adobe. [34] "Reader LE". Adobe Systems. 2009-07-14.
http://www.adobe.com/products/reader/tech- http://www.adobe.com/products/readerle/.
specs.html. Retrieved 30 April 2011. Retrieved 2010-09-01.
[22] "Release Notes: Adobe Reader X for Android".
Adobe. http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/879/
cpsid_87932.html. Retrieved 30 April 2011.
External links
[23] "Post by Adobe employee Atanu Dhar on the Adobe • Official Adobe Acrobat website
Reader X UNIX forum". Adobe. • Official Adobe Reader website
http://forums.adobe.com/message/
3336241#3336241. Retrieved 10 Jun 2011.
[24] http://get.adobe.com/reader/otherversions
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Adobe_Acrobat&oldid=473644311"
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Adobe Acrobat
Categories:
• Adobe software
• Mac OS software
• Mac OS X software
• Symbian software
• Windows software
• Technical communication tools
• PDF software
• PDF readers
• Media readers
• Proprietary cross-platform software
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