Adobe Acrobat Reader DC

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Adobe Acrobat Reader DC

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Basic data

developer Adobe Inc.
Current  version 20.012.20043 Continuous Track, varies depending on the operating system  ( Windows , macOS)
August 21, 2020

2017.011.30171 Classic Track, varies depending on the operating system  ( Windows , macOS)
May 12, 2020

20.4.0.13615 Varies  depending on device  ( Android )
May 30, 2020

05/20/01 Varies  depending on the operating system version  ( iOS )
June 3, 2020

operating system Windows , macOS , Solaris , Palm OS , Symbian , Android , iOS , ( Windows Phone , Windows 10 Mobile )
programming language C ++
category File viewer
License Freeware
German speaking Yes
acrobat.adobe.com/de

Adobe Acrobat Reader DC (“DC” for “Document Cloud ”) (up to 2015 and version 11 Adobe Reader ) is a computer program from Adobe for displaying PDF documents, i.e. a file viewer . It is part of the Adobe Acrobat product family.

Availability

Adobe Acrobat Reader can be downloaded free of charge from the Internet as freeware and is often supplied by software manufacturers with the documentation for their programs.

Windows Server 2008 R2 , 2012 (and R2), Windows 7 , Windows 8 , Windows 10 and macOS have been officially supported since 10.9. Support for Linux / Unix has expired.

For use on smartphones and tablets , Adobe Acrobat Reader is available as an official app for the operating systems Android , iOS , Windows Phone and Windows 10 Mobile .

For Adobe Reader 9, which was especially available for Windows (from Windows 2000 ), macOS (from Mac OS X Tiger ), Linux and Solaris , official support ended on June 26, 2013. This and older versions can only be downloaded offered via an FTP server. However, Linux distributors such as OpenSUSE or Red Hat advise against further use due to the lack of security updates, even though it was the last version running on Linux / Unix . There are a number of alternatives .

use

From version 5.1 to version 6, the program was available in two versions, a compact basic version and an extended version which, in addition to displaying documents, also supports full-text searches (with the attached index, also of PDF document collections) and playback of embedded multimedia objects. From version 7, three-dimensional graphic objects can also be displayed. Certain functions are only available in documents that have been activated with the Adobe Reader Extension Server , which is subject to a fee .

In addition to the functions of displaying and printing documents, Adobe Reader also supports the filling out of forms. These can be printed out and, if the author of the document has enabled this, also saved or sent as an e-mail to a specified address. The annotation and commenting functions no longer have to be activated separately from Adobe Reader X onwards.

Adobe Reader cannot generate PDF documents. For background information on creating and editing PDF documents, see the article Portable Document Format , and suitable software for this in the article List of PDF software .

The PDF version is not the same as the version of Adobe Reader . For example, PDF 1.7 published as ISO 32000-1: 2008 requires Reader 8 or higher (Merkhilfe 1 + 7 = 8).

meaning

With the free availability of Adobe Reader, the portable document format became popular. Due to the disclosure of the portable document format, its detailed documentation and the standardization by the ISO, many other PDF viewers also exist today, so that the Adobe Reader is no longer absolutely necessary. Nevertheless, the popularity of Adobe Reader remains great, also because non-standardized PDF extensions such as 3D PDF introduced by Adobe are only supported by Adobe Reader.

criticism

Acrobat Reader has come under fire in recent years due to various security holes. Among other things, the support of JavaScript was buggy. The enormous resource requirements are also criticized, among other things due to the large number of plug-ins that are rarely used in practice.

Data theft

Unknown perpetrators stole the source code from Adobe Acrobat, Adobe ColdFusion and possibly other programs as well, according to a notification from Adobe on October 3, 2013. In addition, 2.9 million customers' credit card details were stolen.

history

With the introduction of the twelfth generation, Adobe deviated from the usual numbering scheme in order to highlight the introduction of the so-called “Document Cloud ” with the name “DC” and its marketing as part of the new name Adobe Acrobat Reader DC . As early as 2003, with the introduction of the sixth generation, there was a name change from Acrobat Reader to Adobe Reader . With the introduction of Adobe Acrobat Reader DC 2015 , two update paths, Continuous track and Classic track , were opened. In the continuous track , Adobe provides the current basis and the current update; in the classic track , several basic versions and current updates are available. As part of the Classic Track, Adobe Acrobat Reader DC (Version 2015), Adobe Acrobat Reader 2017 and Adobe Acrobat Reader 2020 have been published so far.

Alternatives to Adobe Reader

Alternatives to Adobe Reader are, for example, the also free programs Ghostscript / Ghostview, Foxit Reader , PDF-XChange Viewer , STDU Viewer, Xpdf and Sumatra PDF . Another alternative is Evince , a document viewer for the Linux workspace Gnome , which is also available for Windows from version 2.28. Under KDE , the universal file viewer Okular is used by default to display PDF files. Some alternative reader programs are not fully compatible with PDF. For example, Foxit cannot open nested files, i.e. a PDF file that is embedded in another PDF file. The Internet browser Google Chrome has an integrated PDF reader from version 8 and can therefore also be used to view PDF files. Firefox from version 19.0 also offers this option. The Microsoft Edge browser, introduced with Windows 10 , can also display PDF documents and is preset in the operating system as standard.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Acrobat DC and Acrobat Reader DC Continuous Track release notes. In: Adobe Inc. Retrieved August 15, 2020 .
  2. ↑ DC Release Notes - Continuous Track - Installers. In: Adobe Inc. Retrieved May 24, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Select a Windows or Mac operating system. In: Adobe Reader. Retrieved September 12, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Release Notes - Acrobat, Reader. In: Adobe Inc. Retrieved April 23, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Installation page for Android. In: Google Play . Retrieved November 22, 2019 .
  6. ↑ Choose an Android version. In: Adobe Reader. Retrieved February 5, 2019 .
  7. ↑ Preview page for iOS. In: App Store (iOS) . Retrieved October 16, 2019 .
  8. ↑ FAQ on Adobe Reader
  9. ↑ System requirements for Adobe Acrobat Reader DC from adobe.com , accessed on January 24, 2017.
  10. ↑ Adobe employee Atanu Dhar: Adobe Reader X UNIX from adobe.com , accessed on December 27, 2013 (English).
  11. ↑ Adobe Reader presented as an app for iOS , accessed October 18, 2011.
  12. ↑ Installation page for Windows 10 Mobile and Windows Phone 8 at Windows Store , accessed October 27, 2016.
  13. ↑ Adobe products and Enterprise Technical Support periods covered under the new Lifecycle Policy from adobe.com , accessed December 27, 2013.
  14. ↑ Only versions 10 and higher are available on Adobe Reader Download from adobe.com , but older versions are also available on ftp.adobe.com , also for Unix / Linux (accessed August 20, 2014)
  15. ↑ SUSE-SU-2013: 1967-1: important: Security update for acroread from opensuse.org , accessed on December 27, 2013 (English).
  16. ↑ Important: Adobe Reader - notification of end of updates. RHSA-2013: 1402-2 from redhat.com , accessed December 27, 2013.
  17. ↑ Adobe Reader X / Functions on the Adobe website
  18. ↑ Secunia Advisory SA33901. Secunia.com, last accessed September 30, 2010.
  19. ^ Update on Adobe Reader Issue. Adobe Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT) Blog, April 28, 2009, accessed September 25, 2010.
  20. ↑ Chris Sherman: Speeding Up Acrobat Reader. In: searchenginewatch.com. January 10, 2005, accessed May 6, 2018 .
  21. ↑ blogs.adobe.com: Important Customer Security Announcement
  22. ↑ heise.de: Break-in at Adobe: Millions of customer data and source code from ColdFusion and Acrobat stolen
  23. ↑ Document Cloud Product Tracks - Enterprise Administration Guide. In: Adobe.com. Retrieved August 16, 2017 .
  24. ↑ Release Notes - Acrobat, Reader. In: Adobe.com. Retrieved April 23, 2020 .