It is the industry standard for a reason
December 14, 2025

It is the industry standard for a reason

Alan Gilbertson | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Adobe Acrobat

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.
  • 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.
  • Integration with Other Systems
No other tool is 100 percent reliable for editing, reviewing, or proofing PDFs destined for print. It is the industry standard, as well as being the original Portable Document Format that transformed how documents are shared. ISO PDF standards grew from Adobe Acrobat, and Adobe maintains its presence on the standards committee even after donating the specification to the public domain. Surprises in creative production are seldom a good thing, and Adobe Acrobat avoids surprises.
When working with clients who require a high level of security, Adobe's tools are effectively table stakes. Clients know and trust Adobe in this space, which means that we don't run into questions or objections when working out delivery details for creative. The Adobe brand, therefore, becomes an asset in our dealings with clients.
In terms of comparisons, the simple fact is that Adobe Acrobat is known and trusted by clients and print providers throughout industry. Third party PDF editors are often more lightweight but also don't have all the features of Adobe Acrobat, so there is the inevitable point where you need to do something in or with a PDF and the app you have open doesn't do that. Since the remedy is to switch to Adobe Acrobat, it's quicker overall to just stick with Adobe Acrobat.

Do you think Adobe Acrobat delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Adobe Acrobat's feature set?

Yes

Did Adobe Acrobat live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Adobe Acrobat go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Adobe Acrobat again?

Yes

When preparing artwork for print production from an application like Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, or InDesign, the best way to preview and preflight the work is to export to PDF and use Adobe Acrobat's output preview to check process colors, spot colors, dielines, and any special requirements, like foil stamping or varnish. Adobe Acrobat is also where you make any needed final adjustments to ensure correct reproduction on press. Documents intended for screen viewing must be exported to PDF and edited in Adobe Acrobat so as to add and edit needed accessibility features critical for legislative compliance.

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