Adobe Acrobat

Score8.8 out of 10

3,853 Reviews and Ratings

What is Adobe Acrobat?

Adobe Acrobat DC is the current version of the well-established document / PDF management solution, part of the Adobe Document Cloud (the other part being Adobe's eSign services based on technology acquired with EchoSign in 2011).

Categories & Use Cases

Media

Screenshot of where to create, edit, convert, and share PDF files all from within Microsoft Teams – as part of Acrobat integrations with Microsoft 365 apps.

Screenshot of Liquid Mode in Adobe Acrobat Reader mobile app, where users can read PDFs on phones and tablets without having to pinch and zoom. Navigate lengthy documents with intelligent outline and search tools, while maximizing readability and comfort with font size and line spacing that are adjustable.

Screenshot of where to fill and sign PDF forms from anywhere and on any device. Here, users can collect signatures, digitally track progress, and automatically archive the signed document.

Screenshot of the Adobe Scan mobile app, used to capture and convert documents into high-quality, interactive PDF documents that can be filled out, signed, and shared. This eliminates the hassle of finding a printer, filling a form by hand, and scanning it again.

1 / 4

Screenshot of where to create, edit, convert, and share PDF files all from within Microsoft Teams – as part of Acrobat integrations with Microsoft 365 apps.

#1 most frequent

Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services

17.8%

6,241 installations of 35,097

“Making basic edits to PDFs <br>Creating editable workbooks”
— Design Manager, Bluepoint (51-200 employees)

#2 most frequent

Manufacturing

12.6%

4,426 installations of 35,097

“Editing pdfs and making brochures”
— SDR, Phoenix Manufacturing (51-200 employees)

#3 most frequent

Educational Services

7.1%

2,477 installations of 35,097

“I use Adobe Acrobat in order to manipulate, sign and view PDF files or documents.”
— Multimedia Content Coordinator, Harris County Department of Education (501-1000 employees)

Kaleem Ahmed View profile

Senior Software Engineer in Information Technology at Astrea IT Services (51-200 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We landed on Acrobat kind of by default, honestly. The problem that we kept running into was receiving PDFs from external parties that needed edits or needed to be searchable, and nothing else that we had handled that cleanly. So now it sits in the workflow between receiving a document and doing anything useful with it. Scanned contracts go through OCR, multi-part documents get merged or reorganized, and occasionally, we use Acrobat Sign when something needs a signature before it moves forward. Scope-wise, it's not like we have heavy automation built around it. It's more of a daily utility that a few people on the team just open when they need it.

Pros

OCR on scanned documents actually works well for standard business docs; it makes old vendor contracts searchable without manual retyping.
Page organization is genuinely useful, helping with merging, reordering, and splitting PDFs in one place without needing a separate tool or script.
Editing PDFs you didn't create without breaking the original formatting works more reliably than anything else.

Cons

Gets sluggish with scanned multi-page documents noticeable enough to actually disrupt the flow.
Collaboration feature feel like an afterthought compared to the price.
Editing fonts in someone else's PDF is still hit-or-miss, depending on which fonts were embedded.

Return on Investment

Time spent on manual document prep dropped noticeably once OCR became part of the workflow, about roughly 3-4 hours a week across the team, just from not retyping scanned documents.
Fewer errors in documents going out to clients because edits happen in the original file rather than recreating things from scratch.
The pricing is a real negative ROI consideration. At this cost, you expect the performance to be consistently solid, but it isn't always, which makes it harder to fully recommend internally.

Usability

Alternatives Considered

DocuSign

Other Software Used

Salesforce Agentforce Sales, Atlassian Jira, Slack

Carl Grivakis View profile

Business Owner, Graphic Designer, Visual Design Mentor in Professional Services at Holy Carp Design (1-10 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Adobe Acrobat DC is an essential tool in the digital publishing and professional training industry for virtual and in-person instructor lead courses. In a world looking to reduce print costs, the 'fillable' form is a great tool for people to gather notes, annotate, and make learning their own interactive experience. We utilize everything from check boxes, fillable text, and image placement for prework, in-class, and post-class referencing.

Pros

Interactive digital publishing that is portable between platforms
Annotation the is both cued and un-cued for people looking to create their own notes
Creating a varied learning experience, allowing for placement of interactive elements, including external web pages, internal anchor indexing, and audio/video

Cons

As far as I'm aware, it's not able to make files that detect the viewing platform and adjust for that platform
Some users have trouble working with interactive text, which is somehow not intuitive to them
Files can be overly large, designers should be trained up on reducing file size

Most Important Features

Interactive PDFs for classroom use
Annotation / sticky notes for editing between client and designer
Clickable resources to link outside and within the document

Return on Investment

Net positive, as it gives me more deliverable options for my clients
Some clients require no use of print materials, limiting the number of learning resources they can have access to, an electronic PDF helps close the sale
Issues with protecting IP can come up, opening up problems with having content plagiarized

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Google Slides, Google Drive and Microsoft Powerpoint

Other Software Used

Adobe InDesign, Microsoft Powerpoint Online, Google Slides

Monica Guerrero

Associate Manager- Visual Communications Men's and Licensee at Michael Kors (10,001+ employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Adobe Acrobat to quickly edit PDFs and combine files. In order to meet deadlines with quick turnarounds we use Adobe Acrobat to edit files, link websites and combine files that would normally take a longer time to execute using Adobe InDesign.

Pros

Link hyperlinks
Combine files
Add comments for reviews

Cons

Compressing file size

Return on Investment

Helps with workflow effectiveness
Saves time with editing
Quickly input feedback

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Adobe InDesign, Adobe Illustrator CC, Adobe PhotoShop and Adobe Premiere Pro

Other Software Used

Adobe InDesign, Adobe PhotoShop, Adobe Premiere Pro

Alan Gilbertson View profile

Creative Director at G&G Creative (1-10 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Adobe Acrobat is how we export design work for client review/comment and for print production. We use ISO standard PDF/X for production, and screen-friendly PDF versions for clients to review and comment on. In both cases, this avoids releasing working design files and avoids licensing issues with fonts or stock imagery, which are increasingly important in commercial work.

Pros

ISO standard PDF creation is critical for print production, so that there are no surprises on press.
Adobe Acrobat's security features are simple to use, and effective.
Most clients have no difficulty with the commenting features in Adobe Acrobat, which makes review quick and simple.

Cons

The UI is awkward to navigate in professional workflows.
Major UI changes are much too frequent, which affects productivity adversely even when the changes are "improvements." Muscle memory is a thing.
The new AI features tend to be intrusive and distracting if you turn them on, and there are better alternatives for document summary and analysis.

Return on Investment

Adobe Acrobat is a core necessity in our creative workflow, for all the reasons mentioned. There is no other tool that fulfills all requirements. Every piece of artwork destined for print runs through Adobe Acrobat.
Encouraging use of Adobe Acrobat or the free Adobe Reader by clients has eliminated problems of third-party tools not rendering a professional PDF correctly.

Alternatives Considered

Foxit PDF Editor and Jotform PDF Editor

Other Software Used

Adobe InDesign, Adobe Illustrator CC, Adobe PhotoShop, Microsoft 365

Abhishek kumar

Recruitment Manager in Human Resources at Uplers (501-1000 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

The application helps to edit the policy pdf and signature as I am the part of HR team so this tool helps to save my time to edit my any pdf and or any documents easily and current they guys add AI you only add the commod and your work done very easily