Adobe Acrobat

Adobe Acrobat is a family of application software developed by Adobe Systems to view, create, manipulate, print and manage files in Portable Document Format (PDF). All members of the family, except Adobe Reader (formerly Acrobat Reader), are proprietary commercial software, while the latter is available as freeware and can be downloaded from Adobe's web site. Adobe Reader enables users to view and print PDF files but has negligible PDF creation capabilities.Acrobat and Reader are widely used as a way to present information with a fixed layout similar to a paper publication.


Version 1.0
Acrobat 1.0 was originally released on 15 June 1993 for Macintosh. It was later for DOS and Windows 3.1. This was not available in single copies and was not initially free, with Acrobat Reader originally priced at $50 per user. After a while, the Internal Revenue Service of the United States purchased a right to distribute Reader 1.0, effectively making it seem free to those who obtained it that way.
Adobe Acrobat 1.0 included:
Support for PDF version 1.0
Acrobat Exchange 1.0 (included PDFWriter printer driver and Acrobat Exchange application)[clarification needed What is Adobe Exchange?]
Acrobat Distiller 1.0, a software application that creates a PDF file from a PostScript source


Version 2.0
Acrobat 2.0 was first released in September 1994 for Windows and Macintosh. It included:
Support for PDF version 1.1
Acrobat Exchange 2.0[clarification needed What is Adobe Exchange?]
Acrobat Catalog, which creates searchable indexes for PDF files. Searching required a special version of Acrobat Reader or Acrobat Exchange.
Acrobat Professional 2.0 was also released, which included Acrobat Exchange plus Distiller.
Adobe also released the first Acrobat Plug-ins SDK; allowing third party developers to create plug-ins for the Acrobat Exchange application.


Version 3.0
Acrobat 3.0 was released in November 1996. It was the first release to support Windows 95, and the last to support Windows 3.1. It was also the first version to display PDF files inside web browsers, and the first to support form-filling. Later, an update to version 3.02 introduced extended forms capabilities and JavaScript. Adobe Acrobat 3.0 included:
Support for PDF version 1.2
A free Reader that allows searching (It was not part of the default download)
Acrobat Catalog
A Distiller printer driver.


Version 4.0
Acrobat 4.0 was released in April 1999. It included:
Support for PDF version 1.3
Support for Public key infrastructure (PKI) and digital signatures via plug-ins
Adobe also released Distiller Server 4.0, a version of Distiller for Windows, Linux and Solaris that is licensed to multiple users, as well as Acrobat Business Tools 4.0, a limited version of Acrobat.


Version 5.0
Acrobat 5.0 was released in May 2001. It included support for PDF version 1.4 and was the last version to support Windows 95. Acrobat 5.0.5 was the first to be able to run native in Mac OS X, but also ran in Mac OS 9.
This version did not include PDFWriter in Macintosh release.[8]
Acrobat Reader 5.1, the subsequent version of Acrobat reader supported the Adobe LiveCycle Reader Extensions for forms saving
Adobe also released Distiller Server 5.0 and Acrobat Approval 5.0, a limited version of Acrobat mainly sold to people who wanted to digitally sign PDF files or save fill-in forms.


Acrobat 6.0 was released in July 2003. This version introduced significant changes to the family of Adobe Acrobat:
Adobe Acrobat Standard 6.0 was released. It is a limited version of Acrobat Professional that includes Distiller but lacks Adobe Catalog, form design features and pre-press support.
Adobe Acrobat Elements 6.0 was introduced. It enabled PDF creation but was aimed at the corporate market and was only volume-licensed for a minimum of 1000 licenses. It was available for Microsoft Windows only.
Acrobat Elements Server 6.0, a server software version of Acrobat Elements, was introduced.
Adobe Acrobat Reader was renamed Adobe Reader.
Distiller printer driver was renamed Adobe PDF.
PDFWriter was discontinued. PDFWriter was a printer driver used to create PDF files. It was discontinued in favor of the Adobe PDF printer driver to Distiller.
A new version of Adobe Catalog was included, which was not compatible with earlier products for searching.
Support for many operating system was dropped. Mac OS 9 was no longer supported. No version of Adobe Acrobat for Linux or Unix was released. Adobe Acrobat Standard did not support Windows 95 and Windows 98, although it supported Windows 98 SE. Adobe Acrobat Professional ceased to support Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows Me.
This version included:
Support for PDF version 1.5
Support for PKI (without a plug-in) via Microsoft CryptoAPI
Support "Reader enabling", allowing Adobe Reader to save, sign or annotate PDF files if the PDF file allowed

Version 6 of the application was criticized for its performance. Adobe Acrobat 6 is slow to load and use. The Acrobat 6 plug-ins