Acrobat Blog

Insights, trends, news and highlights on all things Acrobat

In September, we announced EchoSign for Adobe Reader – a first step in the integration of Adobe EchoSign technology with Adobe’s document solutions and services. Today, we are proud to reveal another major milestone that will make it easier than ever for businesses to “seal the deal” and keep up with the demands of a growing mobile workforce.  Now, Adobe Reader users will be able to send PDF files to be signed from within the application as well as sign documents electronically themselves. The new update makes Adobe Reader a one-stop shop for electronic signatures.

With the new update, when you open a PDF document to be signed with Adobe Reader, you will have the option to place a scanned copy of your signature into the document. What if you don’t have the ability to scan an image of your signature? Don’t worry; we have that covered too. Using Adobe EchoSign, you can sign a document yourself by using the “Only I Sign” feature, which gives you the option to either draw in your own signature using a mouse or simply type it in.

When you need to get signatures on a PDF document, simply open it in the new version of Adobe Reader and use the “Send for Signature” button. Your document will automatically be uploaded to Adobe EchoSign, initiating the workflow to get a document signed using Adobe EchoSign. Through the EchoSign UI, you can drag and drop fields on the document for not only e-signatures, but also initials, contact information, company, title, or any other customized form field, before sending the document for signature. You also can get status updates and track the progress of your signature process through the EchoSign UI.

Documents signed using Adobe EchoSign are protected by the Federal E-SIGN Act, which makes online electronic signatures in a commercial transaction equivalent to a written signature so both you and your client can rest assured that signed document is 100 percent legal.

There are many use cases for electronic signatures. Tell us how Adobe EchoSign helps you get the job done faster.

By Jason Lemkin, vice president of Web business services at Adobe 

Today, we’re excited to announce an update of  Adobe Reader for Android. This update fixes some issues we discovered with Android 4, and adds a  few enhancements based upon the  great feedback we received from our users.

Here are the highlights:

·         Reflow
As promised, Reflow is back! This is a great feature for reading PDFs on your phone, since it strips the formatting and turns the document into resizable, reflowed text that you can easily scroll through. You can turn this mode on in the View Modes menu, shown here:

·         Remember Last Read Position
One of the frequent comments we’ve seen is that people really want to be able to switch between documents and applications, and be able to return to the exact spot they were reading. Now Adobe Reader remembers your last position in the document for all recently-read documents, so you don’t need to!

·         Opening PDF Portfolio Contents and Attachments
For PDF Portfolios,  Adobe Reader has always allowed opening contents if they were in PDF format. Now it will open any content type that you can view on your phone or tablet.  And since attachments are pretty similar to Portfolios, we’ve also extended this to work for attachments. When you open a document with attachments, Adobe Reader will show a paperclip in the lower right corner of your document, like this:

Just tap the paperclip, and you’ll see a list of the attachments.

·         Bug Fixes
We fixed issues that had been present since the Android Ice Cream Sandwich. 

We’re constantly working to improve Adobe Reader for Phones and Tablets, and we have some great enhancements already underway for 2012 that I’m sure you’ll be excited to see.  We appreciate your ongoing feedback and support!

Dennis Griffin, Principal Product Manager

When we announced our acquisition of Web-based electronic signature leader EchoSign in July, it was just the first step in what we said would be a relationship that would bring more and more powerful and productive document services to our customers. Today, we’re introducing EchoSign for Adobe Reader.

The beauty of the EchoSign signature service is that there’s nothing to download and install and with just one click, the entire signature process from the request for signature to the distribution and execution of the form or agreement is done. Now that you can get access to the service via the seemingly omnipresent Adobe Reader, it’s even simpler. All you need is the latest version of Adobe Reader X via the automatic update. Click on the EchoSign link in Reader and you’ll be taken straight to the EchoSign page where you can start signing, sending and tracking. For more on today’s update, 10.1.1 and direct download links, check out today’s Security bulletin, here. 

The EchoSign signature service provides a secure subscription-based service to individuals, SMBs and enterprise customers. It enables real-time visibility into the signature process and automatically storing and managing all signed documents. We expect it will make electronic signatures the common way for people to sign documents.

As I said, we’re just starting to integrate the EchoSign capability into our various document services, stay tuned for more to come. Our aim is to enable customers to significantly accelerate sales cycles, improve tracking and centralize the management of signed agreements through this simple to use cloud service.

Mangesh Bhandarkar, group product manager, EchoSign 

As stated in the Adobe Support Lifecycle Policy, Adobe provides five years of product support from the general availability date of Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Reader (Windows and Macintosh – Note: Adobe only supports the most recent major version of Adobe Reader for Linux Version 9.x). In line with that policy, support for Adobe Acrobat 8.x and Adobe Reader 8.x will end on November 3, 2011.

End of Support
End of Support means that Adobe will no longer provide technical support or distribute runtimes, including product and/or security updates, for all derivatives of a product or product version (e.g. localized versions, minor upgrades, operating systems, dot and double-dot releases, and connector products).

Recommendation to Customers/Users
Adobe strongly recommends that customers update to the latest versions of Adobe Reader at: http://get.adobe.com/reader. By updating installations to the latest versions, customers benefit from the latest functional enhancements and improved security measures.

Additional Resources
For more information on the Adobe Support Lifecycle Policy, visit: http://www.adobe.com/support/products/enterprise/eol. For a complete list of Adobe products and technical support periods covered under the policy, visit: http://www.adobe.com/support/products/enterprise/eol/eol_matrix.html.

Steve Gottwals, group product manager, Adobe Reader

For more information see Joel Geraci’s blog post, Today Marks the End of Support Adobe Reader 8 and Adobe Acrobat 8 on IT Matters.