It’s hard to believe that in 1993, Adobe first released Adobe Acrobat for the Mac. Within a few short years, this new “.pdf” format became the standard. Although there were many who provided free and always interesting ways to create Portable Document Format files, Adobe continued to improve the technology, adding capabilities along the way that still had businesses and freelancers alike purchasing the original application. And now, in 2008, Adobe has released Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro. Quite different than it’s humble origin, we’ve taken a close look at the new features and present our thoughts and findings for you.

Flash of Brilliance
While the feature list is extensive (check here for the full matrix), the one feature that really catches the eye is the new native Flash support. Now you can insert .flv or H.264 video for playback. Not just as attached files either. Part of the new portfolio feature includes the ability to use Flash as the welcome header. Personally, I can’t wait to see how this changes .pdf documents in the future (in both good and bad ways).

Thankfully, all the new functionality hasn’t caused a speed degradation. In fact, Adobe Acrobat Pro 9 is faster than ever.

Not Just For Reading
As you probably experience on a regular basis, the term Adobe Acrobat is quite relative. Most of your clients and customers, when speaking of Acrobat, will nod and smile, thinking that you are referring the ubiquitous Adobe Reader (or, as it was formally known, Acrobat Reader). A common misconception, and one that isn’t easily reversed. A side-by-side comparison is really needed, and once they’ve seen the real power, it’s difficult to resist, save only the price. That said, it’s time to train your clientele: Acrobat is not just for reading!

Want to collaborate live with your customer? You can still review and share commented and marked documents. But you can also go over documents in a real-time synchronized document view complete with chat. Send the file to the customer, connect and share without even stepping inside their office.

Another new feature of Adobe Acrobat Pro 9 is a comparison mode. Now you can take two documents and compare what changes were made from one version to the next. This could be quite useful when demonstrating minor detail modifications to clients.

Need to create a custom form for a customer? The Form Wizard has been further optimized for better field detection. And now, you can not only create said forms, but also distribute, manage, track, and compile the data entered. Want even more control? Create a dynamic .xml form using the included Adobe LiveCycle® Designer ES.

Those interested in security and data protection will be happy to see the new data protection features. 256-bit encryption is just the start. One can permanently remove (or redact) sensitive information, including images and text, and the application actually points out data that you might have missed: an errant Social Security or credit card number and document preview, for example.

Portfolio Magic
As freelancers, we focus heavily on portfolios to help present ourselves and our abilities to clients. Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro can now help. While you could attach files to a .pdf, why not present them in a new and interactive fashion, with the Portfolio tool. A handy wizard steps you through the process, adding files, determining layout, customizing the welcome screen along with the color scheme. The final step, Publish, gives you the default Save and Email plus Share on Acrobat.com. You can even take advantage of the new Flash capabilities, as mentioned above, to use a movie as the introduction. Options for the layout include a basic grid, on an image (as you would put files on your desktop, for example), Revolve and Sliding Row (think Apple’s Album flow here).

Worried about file sizes? With a random set of 5 individual files (a .jpg, an .ai, a couple .psd’s, and a .pdf) 22 megabytes were reduced down to 16 megabytes as part of the portfolio complete with a welcome page that contained another image. Careful optimization of the original images before inclusion into the portfolio could reach even more slim sizes. And if that wasn’t appealing enough, the file is still a .pdf that can be opened, viewed, and commented upon by users with Adobe Reader.

In The Shadows
There are a couple of shadows behind this bright new release. First, while the documentation states “Save PDF files as Microsoft Word documents, retaining the layout, fonts, formatting, and tables, to facilitate reuse of content”, it’s hardly a thing of beauty. In fact, in all of my tests, while the text formatting was generally (and that’s putting it lightly in some cases) maintained, the layout was almost always lost. I really didn’t notice much improvement from version 8 at all.

The OCR (Optical Character Recognition) left something to be desired too. It was okay. And the fact that one could modify and/or fix the text found was nice, but after OCR, it wouldn’t let me optimize the document. In some cases, it wouldn’t OCR the document at all, stating that it contained graphics other than images or text.

Small items indeed since they aren’t what I use Adobe Acrobat Pro for anyway (although I do have clients who do). But I would love to see further progress made in these realms.

The Lowdown
While it’s predecessors have been useful, Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro is the sleek, fast, and much more able sibling. The portfolio addition is quite welcome, and the native flash support presents many interesting opportunities for freelancers and corporations alike. Thankfully, the minor issues found aren’t enough to mar the fine exterior. Is the upgrade worth it? If you were just hoping for stunning OCR and enhanced .pdf conversions, then stick with the version you have. It’s just not there yet. But, if you send out a lot of client .pdfs and want to turn them into an impressive portfolio, then yes. And if you want closer collaboration with your customers, again yes. Overall, Adobe has produced another welcome addition to their family.

The Good

• Extremely fast
• Personalized portfolios
• Native Flash support
• Security tools

The Bad

• Conversion from a PDF is still lacking
• Average OCR results

Price
Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro is available here for $449 US (retail) or upgrade from $159 US. It also comes standard with CS4 Design and Web premium.

Dickie Adams

Click here to view a bio plus other posts