What is the difference between Acrobat DC and pro?

Answered by John Hunt

Acrobat DC is a powerful software developed by Adobe for working with PDF files. It comes in two versions: Acrobat Standard DC and Acrobat Pro DC. While both versions offer basic PDF viewing and editing capabilities, there are some key differences that might be important depending on your specific needs.

1. Text Editing Features:
– Acrobat Standard DC allows you to edit text within a PDF document, including changing font, size, and formatting. However, it does not have the ability to create searchable and editable text in scanned documents.
– Acrobat Pro DC, on the other hand, includes advanced optical character recognition (OCR) technology, which enables you to convert scanned paper documents or images into searchable and editable text. This can be particularly useful if you frequently work with scanned documents or need to extract information from non-editable files.

2. Document Security:
– Both Acrobat Standard DC and Acrobat Pro DC provide basic security features such as password protection and document encryption. However, Acrobat Pro DC offers additional security options, including redaction and digital signatures.
– Redaction allows you to permanently remove sensitive information from a PDF file, ensuring that it cannot be recovered or accessed by unauthorized individuals. This feature is especially important when dealing with confidential or personal data.
– Digital signatures enable you to electronically sign PDF documents, providing a secure and legally binding way to authenticate your identity and verify the integrity of the document.

3. Collaboration and Review:
– Acrobat Standard DC allows you to add comments, annotations, and markups to a PDF file, making it easy to collaborate with others and provide feedback. You can also track changes and compare different versions of a document.
– Acrobat Pro DC enhances collaboration by offering additional features such as the ability to create and distribute forms, collect responses, and analyze data. This can be useful for conducting surveys, gathering information, or creating interactive documents.

4. Additional Features:
– Acrobat Pro DC includes some advanced features that are not available in Acrobat Standard DC. For example, you can create interactive PDF portfolios, combine multiple files into a single PDF, and create PDFs from web pages or scanned documents.
– Pro DC also provides advanced document accessibility features, allowing you to create accessible PDFs that comply with accessibility standards and regulations. This is important for ensuring that individuals with disabilities can access and interact with the content of your PDF files.

While Acrobat Standard DC is suitable for most personal and business use cases, Acrobat Pro DC offers additional features that might be required in certain scenarios. The ability to create searchable and editable text in scanned documents, advanced security options, enhanced collaboration features, and additional tools for creating and managing PDF files make Acrobat Pro DC a more comprehensive solution for those with more specific needs.