In this video we’ll discuss five differences and one similarity between Adobe Acrobat and Acrobat Reader.
[Typewriter sounds]
Hello, my name is Erin.
Today we’ll discuss five differences and one similarity between Adobe Acrobat and Acrobat Reader
to help you decide which program is best for your PDF projects.
At the end, we’ll also look at where to find many of the tools mentioned.
Please note that this isn’t an exhaustive list of differences and similarities.
Instead, this list is based on the features I believe are most important to a general audience.
Before we begin, let’s quickly talk about versions and cost.
Acrobat Reader is Adobe’s free PDF display software.
Adobe Acrobat is a PDF creation and management software
available as an annual subscription called Adobe Acrobat Pro DC.
DC stands for Document Cloud.
Adobe Acrobat Pro DC is periodically updated with new features and improvements.
Adobe Acrobat is also available in a non-subscription software currently called Adobe Acrobat 2020.
This version is a one-time purchase and is not continually updated.
In addition, Adobe offers a streamlined version of Adobe Acrobat Pro DC called Acrobat Standard DC,
which is currently only available for Windows.
The features discussed here are based on the desktop versions of Adobe Acrobat Pro DC and Acrobat Reader,
although many of the features are also available in the corresponding mobile applications.
The first difference is Adobe Acrobat’s Edit PDF tools, which let you change text and images,
such as adding, moving, deleting, and rewriting text boxes, as well as adding images, watermarks,
and headers and footers, which includes page numbers.
The Edit PDF tools also let you create external links and internal links.
These tools aren’t available in Acrobat Reader.
The second difference is Adobe Acrobat’s Prepare Form tools,
which let you create forms that other people can fill and sign with a digital signature.
Acrobat Reader doesn’t let you create forms.
However, Acrobat Reader does offer limited capacity to fill and sign existing forms.
The third difference is Adobe Acrobat’s Organize Pages tools,
which let you rearrange the pages within your PDF, as well as extract pages
and split your PDF into multiple PDFs.
The Organize Pages tools aren’t available in Acrobat Reader.
The fourth difference is Adobe Acrobat’s Create PDF tools,
which let you convert other types of files such as Microsoft Word files, PowerPoint slides,
web pages, and scanned images into PDFs.
You can also create blank PDFs and add blank pages to existing PDFs.
These options aren’t available in Acrobat Reader.
The fifth difference is the Export PDF tool in Adobe Acrobat,
which lets you convert PDFs to Microsoft Word files and PowerPoint slides, as well as a variety of other formats.
Acrobat Reader doesn’t include this functionality without purchasing an online service called Adobe Acrobat Export PDF.
The ability to export PDFs is an important difference between Adobe Acrobat and Acrobat Reader
particularly for writers and editors who need to convert PDFs to Word files in order to edit them with Track Changes.
Finally, let’s talk about an important similarity between Adobe Acrobat and Acrobat Reader.
What most of us think of as editing tools, such as comments, strikethroughs, insertions, and highlights,
Adobe calls Comment tools.
These tools are included in both Adobe Acrobat and Acrobat Reader.
However, only Adobe Acrobat lets you create and print comment and edit summaries
and export comments and edits to Microsoft Word.
Many of the tools discussed here are available in the Tools Center,
which you can access by selecting the Tools tab in both Adobe Acrobat and Acrobat Reader.
As you can see, the choice to use Adobe Acrobat or Acrobat Reader will depend on your needs.
If you are new to Adobe Acrobat or would like to finetune your skills,
please visit my Adobe Acrobat playlist for a variety of entry-level and advanced tutorials
such as “How to Use the Comment and Markup Tools in Adobe Acrobat”
and “How to Add Copyright Metadata to Adobe Acrobat.”
All the information we just discussed appears on erinwrightwriting.com,
along with all my other writing-related software tutorials to help you succeed at work and in the classroom.
Feel free to leave me a comment if there’s a specific topic that you would like me to talk about in the future.
And please subscribe to my channel so you don’t miss future tutorials.
And give this video a thumbs-up if you found it helpful.
Thank you so much for watching!
[Typewriter sounds]