What's the difference between Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Reader?
Adobe® Acrobat® and Adobe Reader® software are separate products, though very complementary.
Adobe Acrobat 9 helps you communicate and collaborate more easily and securely using PDF, the standard for electronic document exchange. Create and reliably share PDF documents and forms, help protect and control sensitive information, safeguard your work, and communicate exactly as you intended.
Adobe Reader is the global standard for viewing PDF files. It is the only PDF viewer that can open and interact with all PDF documents. Use Adobe Reader to view, search, digitally sign, verify, print, and collaborate on PDF files.
| Adobe Reader 9 | Acrobat 9 | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Starts at US$299 |
| View, search, and print PDF files | Yes | Yes |
| Create PDF documents from any application that prints | No | Yes |
| Scan paper documents into PDF using optical character recognition (OCR) | No | Yes |
| Capture web pages as rich, dynamic PDF files for review and archiving | No | Yes |
| Compare and highlight the differences between two versions of a PDF document | No | Yes |
| Save PDF files as Microsoft Word documents to facilitate reuse of content | No | Yes |
| Assemble a wide range of content types into a polished, organized PDF Portfolio | No | Yes |
| Protect PDF documents with 256-bit encryption | No | Yes |
| Manage and track shared document reviews that allow review participants to see one another's comments | No | Yes |
| Create fillable PDF forms and track their status to collect information | No | Yes |
| Extend Acrobat functionality to users of Adobe Reader, so you can include virtually anyone in the PDF reviews and workflows you initiate. Extendable features include: | No | Yes |
| - Review documents using familiar commenting tools | * | Yes |
| - Fill and save PDF forms locally | * | Yes |
| - Digitally sign PDF documents | * | Yes |
* These features are available in Adobe Reader only if the functionality was enabled in the PDF file using Acrobat 9.
This chart is just a small sample of what Acrobat can do. For a more detailed overview, compare Acrobat 9 products
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