Adobe Acrobat - Other PDF readers/editors need not apply
September 27, 2019
Adobe Acrobat - Other PDF readers/editors need not apply
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Adobe Acrobat Reader DC
Virtually every member of our organization uses Adobe Acrobat or Reader to view PDFs. Acrobat, in my opinion, is far superior to Reader just to do its versatility. There are about 20 individuals who use Acrobat to varying degrees across the company, but a good portion of us use it to its fullest potential, making small edits to copy (versus having to kick it back to designers), rearranging pages, removing or inserting pages into existing documents, auto-comparing versions. It creates efficiency and speed where there were roadblocks before.
- Acrobat allows you to easily rearrange, add, and remove pages in a particular PDF. The software also allows you to easily combine multiple PDFs into one.
- Acrobat allows you to easily make edits to a PDF, even if you weren't the one to create it. The degree to which you can do so depends on how the PDF was made and what the export settings were. With that said, most PDFs will be able to be manipulated from a copy and layout standpoint, among other things. This isn't a direct replacement for editing within InDesign, or the like, but it allows you to make quick edits on the fly.
- One of the best features, in my opinion, is comparing versions of PDFs. This is especially invaluable when you're viewing documents that have a lot of copy and you don't have time to re-review the entire document. This highlights the edits from one doc to the other and even gives you a report on the number of edits. Excellent feature.
- Personally, I don't see a lot of room for improvement. For my purposes, the software functions just as well as it should, no less. The only deficiency isn't in Acrobat, but rather the issue that arises when you are missing a font and need to update the copy. Acrobat will choose a default font, which, though it looks close, will change the formatting and cause it to stand out more than had the formatting not changed. This is a font issue, and nothing that Acrobat could effect, unless it preloaded every font known to man.
- Anecdotally, Acrobat increases our efficiency and decreases the need to take small edits back to designers, which would otherwise increase our burn rates, thus decreasing our margins. Taken at a glance, these savings don't appear to be much, but when viewed across the entire organization, I have to believe that the savings is significant as it relates to the cost of Acrobat - especially when you consider that our entire creative team needs Creative Cloud subscriptions to do their work. If you need access to design software, the cost for an Adobe CC subscription (which includes Acrobat DC) makes the case for Acrobat that much better.
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?
I wasn't involved with the implementation phase
Would you buy Adobe Acrobat again?
Yes