Overview of Acrobat and Adobe PDF

by Ted Padova

The Portable Document Format (PDF) is a computer file format developed by Adobe Systems. The operative word is portable; Adobe developed PDF so any kind of document created on any kind of computer can be viewed exactly as it was designed — no need for the user to have the original authoring application.

What this means is that an electronic document — such as a Microsoft Word file, an Excel chart, a PowerPoint presentation or an AutoCAD drawing – will look the same on a user’s computer as it did on the original author’s computer. PDF enables a document author to include all fonts, images and other design elements in the file so users don’t need to have these elements on their computers in order to view the original design. These elements are embedded in the document so visual integrity can be maintained.

Furthermore, you can print an externally created PDF file to a local printer and the hard-copy version will look the same as when the author printed the file from the original application.

Why is PDF important?
It has relevance for almost everything we do with computers. If you need a government tax form from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) or from many other international government agencies, most forms are available as PDF files. If you want to distribute electronic copies of typical office documents – such as employee manuals, annual reports, engineering drawings, memos, letters, software manuals, flow charts, photo albums, legal briefs — they all can be converted to PDF.

PDF is so important that many other software companies — including vendors like Microsoft, Apple Computer, Quark and AutoCAD that compete with Adobe – include support for the file format in their respective products. Apple even includes native PDF-creation functionality in its Mac OS X operating system.

In addition, PDF has become a de facto standard – and in several cases, an approved international standard – file format in many industries and market segments.

Even if you don’t currently have a need to create PDF files, you will surely encounter PDF-based documents created and commonly distributed by others. When you understand more about what you can do with PDF, you may eventually want to begin creating your own.

What is an Acrobat viewer?

An Acrobat viewer is one of several different kinds of programs that permit you to view and print a PDF file. You can obtain a free viewer, in the form of Adobe Reader, from Adobe’s website.

Additionally, Adobe provides other commercial Acrobat viewers, such as Acrobat Standard, Acrobat Professional and Acrobat 3D. These programs are useful for more than just viewing PDF files, but for now, be aware you can use any one of these Adobe programs to open and print PDF files.

Why do people need an Acrobat viewer?
Many companies, governments and industries have standardized on and distribute documents in PDF, and an Acrobat viewer such as the free Adobe Reader is required to view and print them.

Some common uses include:

• IRS tax forms and documentation: The IRS provides a wealth of PDF-based forms and related documents online. At the IRS website, for example, you can download many of the most commonly requested forms and instructions.

• New car purchases: Many automobile manufacturers offer electronic brochures. At pdfPictures.com, Robert Connolly, a talented photographer and graphic designer, has created a number of interactive brochures – including audio and video — for various automobile companies including Volvo, Nissan Lincoln, Jaguar and General Motors, which distribute them to showcase their top-of-the line cars. Samples are available for download on the pdfPictures website.

• Software manuals: Canon is one of thousands of developers that host manuals and guides online in PDF. On the Canon website, you can find and download manuals and other documentation for scanners, digital cameras and so on.

• Legal documents: At Findlaw.com, there is a collection of links to federal and state courts-related forms, all in PDF.

As Adobe says: “PDF is everywhere.”

Who uses PDF?

PDF is a de facto standard for many different industries, which create electronic documents for use internally and for constituents. PDF-enabled industries include:

PDF and creative professionals
Many creative professionals design page layouts intended for delivery, along with all included graphics and fonts, to a vendor for printing. In the pre-PDF past, deadlines were often missed because some document assets were not included with the files submitted to the vendor. In addition, there wasn’t a good method for diagnosing potential printing problems.

PDF, with its inherent ability to embed fonts and graphics and attach related assets, came to the rescue. Acrobat Professional provides a rich set of preflighting tools to ensure perfect printing, and the use of PDF as a final format for file submission has alleviated many potential printing problems.

PDF for architects and engineers
Building designs, schematic drawings and 3D modeling are all assembled on high-end computer workstations using expensive software programs. In order to preview designs electronically, you typically would need to have the same programs and workstations as used by an architect or engineer. Lacking that, you’d need to print the documents, some of which are oversized drawings, creating a more challenging, static-document review process.

PDF has made possible the viewing of architectural designs and engineering drawings on your desktop computer — as long as you have the free Adobe Reader installed. Using tools in Reader, you can easily zoom in and out of large drawings, print sections of an oversized page, and review and comment on drawings that you can submit back to an architect or engineer… and it’s all available with the free Adobe Reader software program.

PDF and the legal profession
Managing the huge number of briefs, documents, torts and so on in the legal profession can be overwhelming for attorneys, clerks and others involved with the federal and state courts systems. The assorted legal documents, once converted to PDF from either electronic or paper originals, can be easily searched and shared. With the free Adobe Reader, you can search thousands of legal documents and quickly view the results.

PDF and the enterprise
Perhaps the broadest use of PDF is found among business workers. Whether you work in a small office with a few people or in a huge company with thousands of employees, PDF likely has a role in your corporate document workflow.

Think of PDF like you think of a copy machine. If you want to circulate documents, then PDF makes sense in your business because everyone can view and print your documents without purchasing any original authoring program software. All people in the workforce can use the free Adobe Reader program to view and print PDF files.

PDF and general office workers
Document exchanges are a normal function in almost every office and company. Employees review, analyze, critique and approve all kinds of documents for distribution among coworkers and constituents. When a document is in a proposal stage, many people may need to participate in a shared review-and-comment process.

You can use the free Adobe Reader to add comments and save your comments directly in a PDF document. Subsequently you can email your PDF along with your comments to a coworker who collects comments from members of your workgroup. The comments can be integrated in a single PDF document, distributed for final approval and ultimately the comments are used to finalize a document for distribution.

PDF and IT
Acrobat and PDF are a way of life at Adobe Systems, and the PDF-related products provide many businesses with some of the most creative methods for working with electronic files. Adobe’s server products provide solutions for adding special features to PDFs, new security standards have been added to protect sensitive data and PDF-oriented capabilities are integrated in Web-hosted systems.

PDF and HR
Employee manuals and forms, SOPs, directives, manuals and so on are all managed by human resources (HR) departments. Rather than using a scattered file cabinet where forms and documents are physically filed, businesses can use servers where all files are stored and accessible by authorized employees.

PDF and marketing
We live in a world today where consumers are expecting more than static content to review goods, products and services. For advertising and marketing people, the support for integrated video and sound in PDF files, as well as interactive buttons, take static messages to the realm of the dynamic, interactive electronic document.

Adobe Acrobat product family

You need a creation tool if you intend to create your own PDF documents and a viewing tool in order to see PDF files on your computer. To work with, view and print PDF documents, Adobe provides many different solutions.

Adobe Reader
You can acquire the free Adobe Reader from Adobe's website. Being a free software product, Reader is limited in the functionality it offers. It is not a PDF-creation tool and you cannot save from within the Reader program unless a PDF document has had certain special features added to it.

For users equipped with Adobe Reader 7.0 and above, one special feature that can be added by an Acrobat Professional 7.0 user is the ability to comment and markup documents. On a document-by-document basis, an Acrobat Pro user can add these features to PDFs so the Adobe Reader user can add comments and save comments using the free Reader software.

It’s good practice to upgrade the Adobe Reader program as new versions become available. Special new features added to PDFs that can be used in Reader may not be backward compatible. One example is the commenting capability added to Reader 7. Users of earlier versions can’t take advantage of this feature.

Adobe Acrobat Standard
Acrobat Standard is a PDF-authoring program. It has all the features found with Adobe Reader for viewing, printing and commenting on PDFs, as well as many different tools and commands used for creating PDF files, adding interactive links and bookmarks, editing PDF documents and more. For more information, see Adobe's website.

Adobe Acrobat Professional
Acrobat Professional is an advanced PDF-authoring tool offering all the features of Adobe Reader and Acrobat Standard, as well as additional options that include creating form fields, special tools for commercial printing, adding interactive video and sound, and adding special-usage rights for Adobe Reader users. For more information, see Adobe's website.

Adobe Acrobat 3D
For more information on Acrobat 3D, visit the Acrobat 3D Corner.

Adobe Acrobat Elements (Windows only)
Whereas Acrobat Standard and Acrobat Professional are acquired by individual or site-license purchases, Acrobat Elements is a volume, site-license-only purchase item. This product is an effort to add some PDF-creation options for business workers in large organizations working on Windows-only machines.

Elements provides options for creating, securing and distributing PDF files. For more information, see Adobe's website.

Adobe LiveCycle Designer (Windows only)
Shipped free with Adobe Acrobat Professional (Windows-only) is a separate application called Adobe LiveCycle Designer. Designer is a form-authoring tool of extraordinary power. You can easily design PDF forms that are XML-based, convert an MS Word form to a PDF form with a few mouse clicks, add dynamic interactivity to a form, add a bar code that dynamically changes as data is added to a form, and easily tie your form to a backend database or Web server.

To truly understand some of the dynamic features in Adobe Designer, download a sample form here. You can fill the form out in Adobe Reader. As you work with the form, add a description to the description field and an amount as you see below.

Now, click the button where you see Add a Detail Line. The form magically spawns new fields where you can add more data. Notice as you add a longer description to the description field, the field conforms to a size to accommodate your entry as you see in the figure below.

This kind of interactive dynamic form is but one example of the amazing forms you can create with LiveCycle Designer.

Designer is the next-generation form-authoring tool from Adobe. For more information, visit Adobe's website.

For more detail on each product check out the detailed product comparison matrix below:
Adobe Acrobat Product Comparison [PDF: 1.4 MB]