Adobe has released Acrobat X Pro, the company’s top-level PDF authoring utility. The software has gained several significant features, including compatibility with the latest revisions of PDF/X-4 and X-5, and an Action Wizard that automates tasks needing several steps. New customization tools for PDF Portfolios allow people to create layouts and themes that can be shared amongst groups.
Online services are a major emphasis of the update. The program is integrated with acrobat.com, where people have access to two new options. The first is SendNow, a sharing service that lets people send files to multiple recipients, get delivery receipts and track document status. CreatePDF is a browser-based means of converting documents such as Office, InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator files into PDFs. Several documents can be merged together.
Adobe has also made miscellaneous improvements to preflight and printing tools, and enabled a customizable Quick Tools area which should make it easier to access commonly-used commands. The Mac software is $449 new, and requires an Intel system running Mac OS X 10.5.8. People who have bought Acrobat 7, 8 or 9 are eligible for a $199 upgrade price. Creative Suite 5 owners, however, must wait for a future version of CS to get an upgrade. SendNow and CreatePDF are each $10 a month.
