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Adobe Acrobat Reader DC

By Adobe Systems Free Editors' Rating

Key Details of Adobe Acrobat Reader DC

  • View, sign, comment on, highlight, and share PDFs for free
  • Last updated on 11/04/20
  • There has been 1 update within the past 6 months
  • Also available on Android, iOS, and Mac
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Editors' Review

Download.com Staff Oct 12, 2012

Adobe developed the Portable Document Format to standardize electronic document handling. PDF, the file format that carries the business world on its back, is everywhere, from product manuals to legal documents. To open, view, and edit PDFs, you need a PDF reader -- for example, Adobe's free Reader. Despite competition from simpler tools, Reader remains the standard the others are judged against. We looked at the latest version of Reader, Adobe Reader X. With it you can view and annotate all PDF files, sign documents electronically, and access optional Adobe Online subscription services directly from inside its interface.

Reader X's familiar interface opens with a quick-start file manager from which we could open a recent file or log in to an existing Adobe Online account. We clicked Open and browsed to a folder full of PDFs we use for testing. Reader rendered each document with high detail and faithful color reproduction. Clicking the Sign icon on Reader's toolbar let us digitally sign documents by adding text or attaching a signature via a wizard. We could also Print our document or e-mail it as an attachment or via Adobe SendNow. We could highlight text, add Sticky Notes, take a Snapshot, and attach Comments.

Reader has some extras that stripped-down competitors can't match, such as its Read Out Loud tool, which can read documents to you if you have sound capability. A Tracker tool monitors updates to Reviews and Forms. Under the Edit menu, entries labeled Protection, Analysis, and Accessibility let us manage security settings, check document accessibility, and analyze data using the Object Data Tool and Geospatial Location Tool. Reader doesn't lack support, either, starting with the sort of extensive Help file you'd expect from an Adobe product. The optional online services include converting PDFs to Word or Excel documents and creating PDFs using Adobe CreatePDF online. Clicking Tools toggles open the online extras.

As we noted, Adobe Reader X is the standard for freeware PDF readers, none of which can match Reader's capabilities and extras. Lighter, simpler tools are available, but Adobe's free reader remains the one to beat.

Full Specifications

What's new in version 20.013.20064

This update provides new features, security mitigations, feature enhancements, and bug fixes.

General

Release November 4, 2020
Date Added November 4, 2020
Version 20.013.20064

Operating Systems

Operating Systems Windows, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10
Additional Requirements None

Popularity

Total Downloads 65,109,217
Downloads Last Week 1,379
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User Reviews

2.8/5
1,414 User Votes
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Developer's Description

Adobe Reader lets you read and print from any system any document created as an Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) file, with its original appearance preserved. PDF files are compact and can be shared, viewed, navigated, and printed exactly as the author intended by anyone with Adobe Reader.
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