read AND EDIT (i.e. highlight) PDFs on portable hardware

While not exhaustive look about, I can find nothing in Adobe's web space that would lead me to believe Acrobat Standard/Professional is available for mobile devices.

Some mobile devices support use of Adobe Reader.
For this to occur the mobile device's OS developer has to be willing to let Adobe workup the mobile device interation of the SDK for integration with the OS. So, not something "Adobe" controls.

For use on a mobile device some basics would have to be observed vis-a-vis the source PDF's creation and post-creation processing.
[b] --|[/b] well-formed tagged PDF; else no or poor reflow which will result in poor user experience.
Scanned stuff brought into PDF can be problematic - Adobe's guidance is run OCR "Formatted Text & Graphics" or "ClearScan", fix suspects, tag.
Ok when just a few PDFs (although still time intensive). Perhaps not practicable for *large* populations of such PDF.

Important to note:
"Tagged Adobe PDF".
A PDF that is not a well-formed tagged PDF will not behave well when reflow is required.
Reflow is rather important when viewing PDF on a portable devices (smart phone, pda, eBook reader (any flavor)).
Reflow is one of the facilities provided by Tagged PDF (Accessibility is another of facility).

[b] --|[/b] for comment/markup with Reader (e.g., [b]"highlight"[/b]) the source PDF must be Reader "Enabled"/"Extended" by Acrobat Pro 8 or 9.
(or by LiveCycle ES)

You may find that you will have invest some time in working over your PDF collection such that they can support (or be 'eligilble' as it were) use on a mobile device.

I've not done any look abouts to see if the mobile version of Adobe Reader can support "enabled/extended" PDF.
While the desktop release of Adobe Reader (back to, I think, release 7.0.5 (or 7.5 ??)) supports this it is not a given that the mobile release does.
After all they are different creatures.

The [url=http://www.adobe.com/devnet/readermobile/]Adobe Reader Mobile Developer Center[/url]
is a good information resource.

Visit the [url=http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2_mobile.php]Download Adobe Reader for mobile devices[/url] page to see which mobile device OS developers have given Adobe the "ok" to provide Reader to the device user base.

Adobe's "Mobile Matters" blog:
[url=http://blogs.adobe.com/mobile/2010/05/now_available_adobe_reader_for_android.php]for Android[/url].
Browse the blog's articles for more mobile related information.


Related information (Adobe/Mobile devices)

[url=http://www.adobe.com/acom/mobile/]Access Acrobat.com from your iPhone, BlackBerry, or Android[/url]

[url]http://blogs.adobe.com/rjacquez/2010/02/adobe_connect_pro_mobile_for_i.php]Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro Mobile for iPhone[/url]


Be well...

Hi daka630,
Thanks for your input. I should have mentioned that the collection of PDF's that I have are not ones that I created, but rather downloaded journal articles.

Also, are you suggesting that Adobe Reader allows highlighting and markup? (paragraph 5) - I didn't know this was possible with the Adobe Reader, but i learn something new everyday - please clarify!

The bottomline as I understand it is that there are several mobile devices that allow me to read PDF's, but PDF readers don't permit markup - thus back to my original questions


1. will the android 2.1 OS – such as on the HTC EVO phone - run Adobe Acrobat (i.e. not the reader because you can't highlight using the reader) or some slimed down version of Acrobat if such exists that permits markup.

2.Or is there another alternative to Adobe acrobat that will allow me to highlight text in a PDF and better yet make notes on a PDF using the Android OS. And please, if you have suggestions, please tell me what you know and not what you have heard or think is true because there is a lot of wrong info out there about what some of the purported software alternatives will do – I know because I have called several companies only to find that they don’t perform as generally believed

If I use Acrobat 8 Pro/3D to "Enable..." or Acrobat 9 Pro/Pro Extended to "Extend..." a PDF
then that PDF, when opened by Adobe Reader (9, 8, & 7 (at a specific dot release the eludes me just now),
'tells' Adobe Reader that Reader can engage in use of :
--| "Review and Comment" / "Comment & Markup" (labels vary with the Acrobat release).So, yes, an install of Adobe Reader (not to be confused with the mobile edition) could be used for comment/markup/review/digial id placement.
What can be done is a function of what options are selected during the "enable/extend" process.

Regarding a "mobile" version of Acrobat (Standard/Professional).
As I've mentioned, I have found nothing in Adobe's web space that would indicate such exists.

What's "for sure" is that Adobe does provide a Adobe Reader Mobile SDK and an application specific to
mobile devices. The question you'd need to get answered is "Does the mobile Adobe Reader" include
the comment/markup/review/etc facilities that the "full" Adobe Reader does when it comes to use of
PDFs that have been "enabled/extended" by Acrobat Pro?

For mobile devices, the developer activity I see discussed/described in Adobe's web space is associated
with using Adobe Air, Flash & the mobile Adobe Reader; I've come across nothing related to Acrobat Standard/Pro.As your PDF collection is mostly derivative output from the publishers of Journals,
I suspect that, more often than not, a PDF creation process other than Adobe's was used.
So, if not secured PDFs, any make overs with Acrobat Pro to establish well-formed tagged PDF
(to support proper reflow on a mobile device) may be problematic.
For the most part, such output PDF was never fully "PDF Reference" compliant.
For the most part, current PDF output from such processes are not ISO 32000-1 compliant.
Since PDF's becoming an ISO Standard, Adobe Readers/Acrobats (since mid-version 1.7(Acrobat 8.x)
have become less "forgiving" of malformed PDF.


Be well...

Correct, it does not; nor should you expect that to change anytime soon as the capabilities of mobile hardware aren't yet up to the task.

No, it does not. Adobe Reader Mobile (both the Symbian/WinMo version called variously "Adobe Reader 2.5" and "Adobe Reader LE", and the new Android client) can view a PDF, reflow it where that is supported by the document structure, and that is all. No forms, links, rich media, editing or commenting.

Hi Dave,
Actually, I was hoping you'd note this thread and reply .
I'd suspected what you've posted was the case but wanted to avoid an 'intuitive' reply.

Thanks for the clarification.

Be well...