Understanding the differences between Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Reader DC

- Before we jump into things, I wanted to take a moment to clarify the difference between Acrobat Reader and Adobe Acrobat. This course you're watching covers Acrobat Reader which is the free program available from the software company, Adobe, that anyone can download and use to view PDF or portable document format files. In addition to viewing PDFs, Reader also boasts a number of features that let you do things to PDFs including searching them, adding comments, completing form fields, and digitally signing them. What you can't do with Reader however is create PDFs at least not without signing up for Adobe's online PDF creation services.

If you need to create PDFs or if you want to edit or enhance them by adding things like multimedia elements, form fields, or interactivity, you need Adobe Acrobat. Adobe Acrobat is a paid program that comes in two versions Acrobat Standard and Acrobat Pro. You pay for them either with a monthly subscription fee or a one-time flat fee. Acrobat can do everything Reader can do but also a lot more. So basically Reader is free and it allows you to work with existing PDF documents. Acrobat costs money and allows you to both work with and create, edit and enhance PDF documents.

Now the official names of the current lineup of Acrobat products are Acrobat Reader DC, Acrobat Standard DC, and Acrobat Pro DC. The DC stands for Document Cloud. Document Cloud is an optional online service that can enhance the functionality of Acrobat Pro, Standard, and Reader. But for simplicity's sake, in this course, I will mostly be referring to Acrobat Reader DC as simply Reader and to the two versions of Acrobat as Standard and Pro or just Acrobat. All right, so with that established, let's move on.