Comments One frequent question I receive is:
What’s the difference between Acrobat 8, 9 and X?
When considering an upgrade, that likely is the first question you’ll ask.
Unfortunately, it isn’t very easy to find this information on the Adobe website. To save you some time, I’ve put together an Acrobat Feature History document (PDF of course!) that you may find helpful.
Acrobat 8-9-X New Feature History.pdf (137K PDF)
What’s the difference between Adobe Reader X, Acrobat X Standard and Acrobat X Pro?
Determining which version of Acrobat is right for you or your organization is a different question, but no less important.
Fortunately, Adobe has an excellent feature matrix available to help with this. It’s easy to find on the Adobe website, but I’ve included it below. One stop shopping!
Acrobat X Family Matrix long.pdf (250K)
Thank you, Rick. I have been trying to compare the versions and this info is exactly what I was after. Thanks! -ea
Is there a chart that shows/compares what the features are for Adobe Acrobat for Mac X? Sometimes it feels like Adobe is moving away from and not supporting their Mac OS X users. Almost all illustrations/charts, seminars and free trial demo are for PC users only. Adobe used to provide Mac and PC information. There is still no demo version of Acrobat X for Mac users. Also, while the seminar yesterday on PDF-A was excellent, it didn’t provide enough information for the Mac OS X platform. For instance, will MS Word for Mac 2011 interface with Acrobat for Mac X such that you can create and convert .docx files to PDFA-1a or b documents? Most paperless Mac law firms rely heavily on Acrobat and this information is important and timely for all computer users.
—— Rick’s Reply ——
I do not know of a feature comparison of Acrobat Pro Mac to Acrobat Pro Win. The biggest difference between the two platforms is that there are no PDF Makers on the Mac side. Microsoft does not make available a Software Developers Kit for Office Mac as they do on Windows. Without that, we can’t create PDF Makers. In fact, two versions of Office ago, there was a small SDK . . . now even that is gone. On the Mac, you’ll need to either print to the Adobe PDF print drive to create PDF/A files or conform later.
Rick, will you be updating your previous postings in light of Acrobat X? For example, it is not obvious how the feature you describe in http://blogs.adobe.com/acrolaw/2009/08/preventing_edits_to_bates_number/ works in X. For some folks that may be reason enough to stick with 9!
In Acrobat X, choose File>Save As>Optimized PDF, then follow the instructions.I’ll see if I can get to an update.
I have no idea what the difference between Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Reader is… I do have Adobe reader, and I think I need Adobe Acrobat, as it would be useful to me for pdf editing? Does it do that>? I just need some help and what to buy or download. and why id buy it.
Adobe Reader cannot save data in a form. You’ll need Acrobat Standard or better for that. If you know the form author, ask them to Reader-enable the file for you. That way, you can fill it in with just the Reader.
Hi Rick, I notice that comparison has changed significantly with Adobe X. Is there a way to produce a side-by-side comparison report (as per your article http://blogs.adobe.com/acrolaw/2007/03/comparing_two_p_1/) ? Thanks!
Compare is essentially the same as in Acrobat 9. Yes, you can still view it side by side. In the Comparison panel, click the Options button and choose “Show Documents Side by Side”
Hi Rick. Do you have any information as to the georeferencing features of Acrobat 9 and Acrobat X? It appears that you are able to assign geographic coordinates to pdf maps in Acrobat 9, but not in Acrobat X. Acrobat X only allows you to view latitude/longitude of pdf maps, but not to assign as Acrobat 9 allows you to do. Is this correct?
The GeoPDF functions were deprecated in Acrobat X. You can still use Geo PDFs created in earlier versions and they will display, but the authoring tools have been removed due to near zero usage of this feature.
Well done Rick. Thank you for sharing your research. One would however expect that this info would be native to the Adobe website. I am also chasing a comparison of system requirements as the version footprint grows fatter. Any advice on this one ? Cheers.
I need to redact documents that I’ve scanned and saved to pdf. I know its a bit different with Acrobat 9 Standard than with 9 Pro (standard doesn’t actually have the redact funcction). What about Acrobat X – is this a newer version of 9 Pro?
Acrobat X (Acrobat 10) is the current version of Acrobat and supersedes 9.
Thanks for this information. There’s a small correction to your chart needed. Acrobat 9 Standard has Portfolios, but only Acrobat X Pro in the next version (which is marked correctly).
Well, sort of. Acrobat Standard offered a very one Portfolio option, not the full complement of 9 types in Acrobat 9 Pro. For that reason, I never considered Acrobat 9 Standard as a tool for creating portfolios.