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Adobe Reader 9 Hits the Streets
by , 8:10 AM EDT, July 3rd, 2008
Adobe completed its Acrobat 9 transition with the release of Adobe Reader 9 late on Wednesday. The free PDF viewer application includes the ability to view Flash content embedded in PDF documents, and offers substantial performance improvements compared to previous versions of Adobe Reader.
Version 9 also added new collaboration support, added PDF Portfolios support, improved PDF form support, updated the user interface, and more.
Adobe Reader 9 is available as a free download at the Adobe Web site.
Observer Comments
Thu Jul 03, 2008 10:04 am Subject: Re: Why use this instead of Preview?
QuoteAnonymous wrote:
Is there anything that really makes this worth downloading?
Not all applications display PDF the same, and Preview doesn't seem to handle transparency effects like drop shadows as well as Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Reader. Preview also has a tendency to show other artifacts like white lines around some regions with transparency effects.
Adobe's apps do an overall better job of accurately displaying PDF, and if you routinely work with PDF documents that require digital signatures or collaborative note features beyond what Preview offers, Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader are better choices.
That said, Preview is still a great application because it understands a wide range of file formats, handles image format conversion, and launches quickly. I use Preview when I want to see a PDF but don't care if there are rendering issues. I use Adobe Acrobat when accurate document rendering is critical.
Jeff
Thu Jul 03, 2008 12:24 pm Subject: As you may know
QuoteGuest wrote:
Since you can embed Flash into Acrobat 9 files, I suppose now I'll need to hit "Skip Intro" when I receive PDFs.*
Thanks Adobe!
*What did we ever do to you to deserve this kind of treatment?
As you may know I am no fan of Flash websites, but a Flash video in and of itself is not inherently evil so one in a document isn't too bad.
On the other hand I am a big fan of PDF files and use Acrobat Pro for a lot of my work. However, like Jeff I may use Preview when I just need to read a PDF file.
That being said Preview is much more powerful than most of us realize. I sometimes think that Apple is using it to keep Adobe on their toes, to keep them supporting OSX. Particularly now that PDF is a standard, what would it take for Apple to make an Acrobat Killer. To make an PhotoShop killer for that matter, play around with the image editing, Instant Alpha and Extract Shape tools to see what I mean.
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