What is PDF? How is it related to Adobe Acrobat?
In our daily lives and business settings, there’s hardly a day when we don’t encounter PDF files. From email attachments and downloadable materials on websites to e-books, they’re used everywhere as a matter of course. While many associate PDF with Acrobat (PDF＝Acrobat?), what exactly is the relationship between them?
This time, we’ll explore the connection between PDF and Acrobat.
What is PDF in the first place?
PDF is short for “Portable Document Format,” an electronic document format developed by Adobe in the 1990s. True to the meaning of “Portable,” its greatest feature is that it “guarantees documents will display with their original design on any device.” This development was driven by frequent issues at the time: when exchanging documents between different computers (Mac, Windows, Unix, etc.) or different applications (Word, Excel, etc.), fonts would become garbled, or layouts would break.
In 2008, PDF was standardized internationally as ISO 32000-1, and it has since become a widely adopted standard format across all industries worldwide.
Adobe’s official guide “PDF Basics"
Features and Use Cases of PDF
The key characteristics of PDF can be summarized as follows:
Environment-independent: Viewable identically across Windows, Mac, smartphones, and other devices.
- Fixed layout: Text, images, fonts, line spacing, etc., remain locked in position, preserving the original appearance like printed material.
- High compression: Reduces file size while maintaining image quality, making it ideal for email attachments.
- Security capabilities: Resistant to tampering through locking/signing functions. Supports password protection, digital signatures, and other business-oriented features.
PDF is widely used in a variety of situations such as:
- Business documents (quotes, invoices, contracts, presentations)
- Government applications and official notices
- Educational materials (handouts, academic papers)
- E-books and manuals
While PDF may seem universally capable based on these points, its critical limitation is difficulty in editing. Unlike Word, freely modifying text or replacing images is challenging. Scanned PDFs (from paper documents) have particularly low reusability. Additionally, operations like merging multiple PDFs or extracting specific pages are often impossible with standard viewers, creating workflow inefficiencies.
This is where Adobe Acrobat comes into play.
What is Adobe Acrobat?
While PDF is often confused with Acrobat, Adobe Acrobat is the official software for creating, viewing, editing, and managing PDFs and is a centralized tool for all PDF-related operations.
Acrobat is available in three products: the free version Adobe Acrobat Reader, and the paid versions of Acrobat Standard and Acrobat Pro. The free version of Adobe Acrobat Reader is sufficient for viewing and printing, but Acrobat Standard and Acrobat Pro are required for full-scale editing and business use.
| Term | Identity | Primary Use | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| File format | Document storage / sharing | Free | |
| Acrobat Reader | Adobe Viewer | Opening / Printing PDFs | Free |
| Acrobat Standard DC & Acrobat Pro DC | Adobe Editor | Merging, form creation, encryption etc. | Paid |
Acrobat Use Cases
- Electronic Signatures on Contracts: Acrobat makes it easy to sign and date contracts with business partners. This greatly reduces the need for paper, printing, and mailing.
- PDF merging and page manipulation: Merge multiple PDFs into one PDF, rearrange pages, and easily edit the PDF itself with Acrobat.
- Distribute shared materials with passwords: Set passwords to prevent unauthorized access and tampering. You can also set a read-only setting, prohibit printing, etc.
Alternatives to Acrobat
Historically, Acrobat was essential for PDFs. After ISO 32000-1 standardization, third-party tools emerged, and PDFs can now be opened in web browsers and standard OS functions. Therefore, there are now many alternative software.
- Free PDF viewers: macOS Preview, Microsoft Edge (with PDF viewer function) for Windows 10/11, Foxit Reader, etc. Some of them have viewing functions similar to Acrobat Reader.
- Free/paid PDF editing software: Foxit PDF Editor (PhantomPDF), PDF-Xchange Editor, macOS Preview (simple editing), etc. There are products that offer basic editing and conversion functions at a lower cost than Acrobat Pro.
- Online PDF tools: Smallpdf, iLovePDF, Adobe Acrobat online tools, etc. Simple conversion, merging, splitting, compression, etc. are possible on the browser. (Please note that handling confidential documents may involve security risks.)
Conclusion
The PDF files we use daily represent a format-tool relationship with Adobe. The common misconception that “PDF＝Acrobat” likely stems from corporate environments where Acrobat Reader is often pre-installed on work PCs.
For enterprises and professionals, Acrobat is probably better than other alternatives in terms of functionality, stability, comprehensive support, security, and long-term operation and reliability.
If you have never used a paid version of Adobe products, we would recommend you try Adobe Acrobat online tools. (Please avoid confidential/personal data.)
For viewing and printing only, let’s use Chrom or Microsoft Edge’s built-in PDF viewer, no download needed!